Review: Bitterblue

*3rd book in the Graceling series*

Eight years after Katsa and Po rescued Bitterblue, she's now ruling her kingdom. However, she begins to think her advisers aren't always telling her the truth. She's so lost, she begins wandering her city at night in an attempt to escape her troubled mind.

Bitterblue meets two boys who challenge her knowledge of her own city. Teddy and Saf share their knowledge with her, without knowing her true identity. In time the three become fast friends. Bitterblue uses their information to try to combat her advisers into making the city a better place.

She's fighting a losing battle most days, still trying to recover from her father's reign. Still, Bitterblue isn't giving up the fight. She wants her kingdom to heal and with the help of her friends, she's going to make sure it happens. To heal the kingdom, she'll have to fight the horrors from the past. Not everyone wants those secrets to resurface, especially the people trying to silence those who ask questions, even Bitterblue.

My Thoughts: I've been waiting for this book ever since I finished Graceling. It took me a little while to get into the book and I think that's because I didn't re-read Graceling and Fire. I wish I had because there were pieces that I know I didn't fully appreciated without that extra knowledge.  


There were several illustrations in the back of the book, which were great. However, it would have been nice to see those either at the front of the book or interspersed within the chapters themselves. Most of the illustrations were maps of complicated rooms/areas, which were hard to picture while reading.


I loved Bitterblue's midnight walks. I liked how she saw the real city and not the city everyone tried to make her see. I loved her relationships with Teddy and Saf. I liked the game of truths she shared with Saf. They had a great way of bantering back and forth. I enjoyed seeing Katsa and Po again. 


While this book dealt with a lot of pain, most of the pain came from the past. It's still hard to relive it, but it made it easier as a reader to not read about the horrific things as they were happening. 


Bitterblue is a massive book filled with adventure, friendship, political issues, and a touch of romance. Cashore write amazingly detailed descriptions with intertwining characters from the previous books.  I really hope this isn't the end of this series.


Cover Thoughts: Interesting, but not my favorite cover.


Source: My Library

Pride and Prejudice voting

Kristin Cashore (0f Graceling fame) has an awesome voting post in the blog asking which character in Pride and Prejudice would you LEAST enjoying having with you on a desert island? I voted...did you? and who did you vote for?

Fire

Sequel to Graceling: which comes out in the Fall!

Graceling

Graceling has been so highly praised, that I needed to read it. I finally scored a copy and settled in, not really knowing what to expect.

Katsa is graced with the ability to fight. She can kill a man with her bare hands. Because of her skills, her uncle King Randa, uses her to frighten people into obeying his command. Katsa hates working for her uncle. When she rescues a king from the dungeons as part of the council's work, she has no idea that her life will change forever. When a relative of the man she rescued appears at court, she feels drawn to him. He's the first person to challenge her in a fight. Although she can pummel him, he makes her work. As their friendship grows, Katsa knows Po is leaving to search for answers. She can't bear the thought him him going without her. Katsa travels with him. Their path is as dangerous as their enemies. Can they survive the journey and face the the truth about the threat of the seven kingdoms.

I adored this book and never wanted the adventure to end. I'm anxious to read the rest of the books in the series.



Also check out the flair from facebook:

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The following is taken from Cashore's webpage, she also has a blog.

Fire, Graceling's prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

Fire comes out in October 2009 from Dial Books for Young Readers.

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Book 3, tentatively titled Bitterblue and currently in progress, is a companion book to both Graceling and Fire and takes place in the seven kingdoms six years after Graceling. As you may have gathered, the protagonist is Bitterblue. Yes, Katsa, Po, & Co. appear in the book. :o) Writing it is killing me softly, except for when it's killing me with loud death agonies. The less said about it for now, the better.