Bitterblue

Following a thirty-five year reign of terror incited by her father, Leck, Bitterblue is a young queen who is facing the reality of her past and present. Her father was a ruthless murderer. Her country is in shambles. Her advisors are lying to her around every corner. Knowing that her advisors are hiding secrets, Bitterblue ventures out on her own at night disguised as a townsperson in order to become more familiar with the issues of her kingdom. Through these nighttime adventures, Bitterblue befriends a young thief and his friends. With this small group of misfit companions, she sets out to discover the harsh secrets of her kingdom and the truths behind her father’s psychotic tendencies.

To begin, Bitterblue is a sequel to Graceling and a companion to Fire by Kristin Cashore. Before I began my journey through this novel, I paged through several reviews online in order to get an idea of what to expect. The novel being about 560 pages, I wanted to know what I was getting myself into before I started, and I was met with mixed reviews. Several people loved it, but several people hated it for the same reasons, and after reading it, I can understand both viewpoints. The following will be my take on the book.

For the review, I’ll begin with the title. The title, Bitterblue, is a very safe choice: what could be more relevant than the first name of the main character? However, I was somewhat disappointed at the apparent lack of thought. We’ve already seen the main character’s name as the title with Fire, and I was hoping for a bit of a more thought-provoking title. But, like I mentioned, this is a safe choice of title, despite being somewhat bland.

The cover is very nice. The baby blues and soft purples give me a feeling of Bitterblue’s innocence (as do the flowers in her hair), just as the fierce red of the cover of Fire depicted Fire’s personality. The three keys hanging from the keychain around Bitterblue’s eye are very relevant to her story, and it makes the reader curious just what kind of keys they are, and how they relate to the story. This is just my guess, but the ring being around her eye is symbolic of her obsession over her father’s story, making the cover that much more enjoyable and relevant.

The writing style is one of the main reasons why I love Kristin Cashore’s novels: her writing style piques my interest. She’s very neat, with very few (if any) typos in the book and a strong sense of description. The way that Cashore describes scenes in the book allows a picture to be painted in the reader’s mind of what is occurring, and the scenery of the moment. Her wording is elegant as well, which is a huge bonus. Take this moment in the novel for example:

“By the time Bitterblue returned to her rooms, the light was fading. The sky
was purple like Saf’s eyes, and her sitting room glimmered with lamps Helda
had taken care to light.”

I flipped to a random page and pulled that out. Each and every word of the novel is thought out, and there are beautifully crafted sentences such as the one above on each and every page.

Next is the characterization. This was somewhat iffy. Bitterblue herself is somewhat of an enjoyable character, but I found myself disliking her as the novel went on. She is weak inside of her head, and strong in her actions. She allows herself to be controlled by her advisors, and is far too quick to forgive for actions that I would deem unforgivable. What she says and what she thinks never really match up, and by the end, I still feel like the exciting events of the novel and the progression of the kingdom still had very little to do with Bitterblue herself. It felt as if everyone around her was making a change, while she cringed and obsessed over her father’s mystery in her own little world.

Sapphire, or Saf, as he is usually referred to as throughout the book, is the thieving companion. He is an extremely amusing character, with a good-natured sarcastic air about him. However, as events of the novel unfold, we get to see the bitter side of Saf and his hatred of the world through Bitterblue’s eyes. These varying personality traits and a few quirks (such as his uncanny ability to get the crap beaten out of him, as well as the fact that he has absolutely no idea what his Graceling could be) make him a very three-dimensional character that the reader is able to get to know, love, and sometimes hate throughout the novel.

I’m not going to list every character, but I can’t just skip over my absolute favorite of the bunch: Death. This name is supposed to be pronounced as rhyming with “teeth” (as is explicitly mentioned upon his introduction), and he is the royal book keeper (the librarian). He’s old, he’s snide, and he is not afraid to put Bitterblue in her place. However, Death’s character is intriguing because he cares about nothing except for the pursuit of knowledge and digging for secrets. He always seems to be angry, but lightens up whenever a mystery can be unfolded in the castle. It makes him a very enjoyable character. Did I forget to say he loves cats?

There is just one thing that really disappointed me. Katsa and Po (the main characters of Graceling, if you didn’t know) are very minor characters in Bitterblue. This really upsets me, because I was hoping they would be so much more. Not only that, but they are so different from they were in Graceling that I’m not really sure what to think of them. Admittedly, this story takes place almost a decade after the first two novels, but I had come to deeply love and admire these two characters in Graceling, and seeing them so much more superficial and less cool is just a shocking and sad occurrence for me. I’m not sure why Cashore would make them so drastically different, but I don’t find it a very cunning and intelligent move on her part, seeing as most of her readers love Katsa and Po much more than Bitterblue.

Now I finally arrive at the biggest and arguably most important section of the review: the plot. This is where all of the controversy arises in the reviews. Bitterblue is a completely different type of novel than the first two that Cashore released. While Graceling and Fire both revolve around young women with incredible physical powers who embark on amazing journeys, Bitterblue is a much more political novel. While it still revolves around a strong young woman, it is not by any means concentrated on action like the first two. Bitterblue spends much of her time pondering her position in the kingdom, as well as her relationships with other people, making this book more targeted around strength of mind rather than strength of body. This seems to tick people off, because Cashore’s first two novels were adventurous and exciting, and while Bitterblue is still exciting, it isn’t quite the toe curling, heart racing, adrenaline pumping, and throw-your-book-across-the-room kind of exciting as Graceling and Fire. However, I still very much appreciate the intricacies of political intrigue that are laced into this book. It’s fascinating to watch the complex façade of the advisors and the kingdom unravel into reality. What I’m trying to say is that it is much more relatable than the first two. I wouldn’t go so far as to say realistic, though I’m tempted to for lack of a better word.

A huge controversial point about the novel is that a lot of people find it confusing. The entire book is laced with puzzles, mazes, conspiracies, keys, and ciphers (secret codes) that Bitterblue must tackle as she tries to fight for understanding. I’m in the middle on this. I always knew exactly what was happening in the novel, but there are several times where I was forced to completely disregard the explanations for the ciphers because I had absolutely no idea what it was talking about. It appeared to be just a page or two of mindless, confusing prattle about codes that was completely lost upon me (and apparently several other readers as well).

I really appreciated the strategic balance of mystery, intrigue, and romance in this novel, because it is very difficult to find a balance between them. Inside of her work, Bitterblue is always able to find time to go do something that interests her, as well as romantic conquests that seem doomed to fail from the start. The romance becomes bittersweet by the end, and I was left sad, but satisfied by the conclusion.

So is it worth the read? Absolutely yes! I thought that the overall reading experience of Bitterblue was wonderful. It took me only one afternoon to read, since I just didn’t seem to be able to put it down. I give the novel an 8.5/10, because I loved most things, but my dislike of Bitterblue’s personality and the jumbled ciphers were a bit iffy to me, and I’m extremely unhappy about the presentation and scarce appearances of Po and Katsa. The eloquent writing style, as well as the well-developed characters and the intricate plot drew me in, while those same reasons drove other people to hate it. In the end, you have to be careful when you think about reading this novel, because while it is still an amazing book (in my personal opinion), it is still very different from Graceling and Fire, and you will be sorely disappointed if you jump into this novel expecting it to be similar. I have just some short advice: give it a chance! I don’t think you’ll regret it!