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A review by nickoliver
Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
adventurous
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
So, I actually had no plan to read this at all. I tried reading it before, back in 2016, but I had stopped it and apparently even removed it from my Goodreads, though I cannot remember why. I think it had to do with that one plot line that happened,Joseph's cheating on Jules, because it's the only thing I remember really hating, but honestly, it could just as well be that I had to bring the book back to the library and didn't like it enough to renew it. Who knows.
Anyhow, I recently went to the libraries again because I had An Urge™, and I spontaneously decided to try this book again because I was just really in the mood? Just generally speaking, I did like it a lot more than I anticipated, but the things that bothered me before still bothered me but even more so because they only got worse as the story unfolded.
I really liked the world of Fennbirn. I don't read much high fantasy because I often have trouble imagining the world, but that wasn't really the case here. It's made clear what part of Fennbirn consists of what people and what characterises them. And I also just really liked to see the way the elementals, the naturalists, and the poisoners all lived, because they were all a bit different.
I have to admit, though, that I feel like there's not enough explanations about the politics? Some of the lore was a bit confusing and either got explained way too late or not sufficiently, and that was pretty frustrating. At the end, I also still had some unanswered questions, and while I know that there are three more books and I might get answers there, somehow I doubt they'll get addressed.
Plus, while I loved that the book had a map at the front, it was a bit infuriating that it didn't feature all of the places that were heavily talked about in the story. I had no idea sometimes where I was supposed to place the characters, and if you already feature a map, why not also add all the most important names?
The story was overall extremely slow-paced. I'm generally not a fan of slow-paced stories because it takes me ages to finish them and they often push me into the next reading slump, but for some reason, I still managed to finish this book fairly quickly. It took almost 300 pages for the story to even get to a more action-packed part; before that, there were a few exciting parts sprinkled here and there, but overall, nothing much happened. I also felt that once the story did pick up pace, too much happened too fast? It was basically one thing after another, and it kept going at that pace for almost the entire rest of the book.
What I also found a bit confusing was that there were so many different perspectives to read from. It started out with just the three queens Arsinoe, Katharine, and Mirabella, but then at some point, their chapters started to have a page or two from a different perspective. Yes, they were important characters - Arsinoe's best friend Jules, the High Priestess Luca, Jules's childhood love Joseph -, but I didn't particularly enjoy their parts sometimes. EspeciallyJules and Joseph took away some of the excitement and were just there to add some relationship drama. I could've done without that, to be honest. Plus, sometimes their POVs weren't even starting after a chapter break but just in the middle of another character's POV, and that's just not something I like. It confuses me too much.
Some people have also said that there were too many characters, and I definitely agree with that sentiment. It was easy to remember the important characters, but there were also some that I kept forgetting the history of (for example, Aunt Caragh, who was only ever talked about and never showed up herself), so this book could have done with a few characters less.
I did enjoy the three queens, though! Granted, Mirabella was a bit grating at times and could've been developed better (she had such cool powers and her upbringing was intriguing, but there was just too much focus on her romance for my taste - though that might've been just that particular romance's fault, I don't know). Plus, her chapters seemed to be the shortest, despite the fact that hers sometimes offered the most insight into the action that was about to come later? I was a bit bummed about that.
Katharine and Arsinoe were interesting to read about, however, especially the way they dealt with the knowledge that Mirabella was the strongest of them. And I just really vibed with Arsinoe's personality. She dealt with a lot of things with humour, and while that certainly wasn't the healthiest coping mechanism, I liked that she didn't let Mirabella's power (and her own obvious lack of them) dictate her life. Plus, she was very defiant and headstrong.
However, I absolutely did not enjoy any of the romances. The most annoying one was the one between Mirabella andJoseph , because it involved cheating. And not just that, but the male character kept getting chance upon chance from his friends and girlfriend despite the fact that he did it again and again and wasn't completely honest about his feelings? I get that there might have been a reason for his attraction to Mirabella( the whole low magic love spell thing that Arsinoe refused) , but that wasn't addressed properly enough to excuse his behaviour. While I kinda liked his character at first, he just became so annoying. I stopped liking any scenes he was in, because almost all of them had to do with this love life and it just ... wasn't interesting? I would've preferred to see the plot advance instead of reading about that. Especially since his and Mirabella's attraction to each other seemed to be solely based on lust. They never even had a proper conversation. It was ridiculous .
Unfortunately, I also didn't particularly like the other romances. They were not as bad as this first one, but neither pairing had particularly a lot of chemistry. Katharine and Pietyr felt more like telling than showing - I felt like they were into each other before I even got the chance of getting to know Pietyr more -, and while Arsinoe and Billy had some amusing banter, they felt more like good friends than potential romantic partners (and to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure they were more than friends?). Why Blake felt like she needed to focus so much on the romances instead of the world-building, the politics, or the ceremony is beyond me. I get that finding suitors was a big part of the queens' lives at that moment in time, but that didn't mean the entire book had to revolve around that.
All the boys in the book also seemed a bit too possessive to me? They were mad when the girls were around other boys, even if it was harmless, andJoseph getting jealous over the prospect of Jules having been intimate with other guys while he was away is pretty ironic, considering what happened later. They could be kind of cute sometimes, but overall, they just felt like your mediocre straight dudes who felt like they had way too much control over their (potential) girlfriends.
My library has the sequels, and I'll definitely get to them soon. The book ended on a very intriguing plot twist (that I wasn't completely surprised by, though I didn't anticipate thatArsinoe was a poisoner. I thought she'd have the war gift, since neither of her sisters have that, so I'm interested to see where this goes!
Overall, I really enjoyed the world-building (although it was a bit underdeveloped at times) and at least two of the three queens. But the romances annoyed the crap out of me (especially one of them, ahem), the pace was a bit too slow for the most part, and there were one too many perspectives for me personally. It was still way better than I expected!
Anyhow, I recently went to the libraries again because I had An Urge™, and I spontaneously decided to try this book again because I was just really in the mood? Just generally speaking, I did like it a lot more than I anticipated, but the things that bothered me before still bothered me but even more so because they only got worse as the story unfolded.
I really liked the world of Fennbirn. I don't read much high fantasy because I often have trouble imagining the world, but that wasn't really the case here. It's made clear what part of Fennbirn consists of what people and what characterises them. And I also just really liked to see the way the elementals, the naturalists, and the poisoners all lived, because they were all a bit different.
I have to admit, though, that I feel like there's not enough explanations about the politics? Some of the lore was a bit confusing and either got explained way too late or not sufficiently, and that was pretty frustrating. At the end, I also still had some unanswered questions, and while I know that there are three more books and I might get answers there, somehow I doubt they'll get addressed.
Plus, while I loved that the book had a map at the front, it was a bit infuriating that it didn't feature all of the places that were heavily talked about in the story. I had no idea sometimes where I was supposed to place the characters, and if you already feature a map, why not also add all the most important names?
The story was overall extremely slow-paced. I'm generally not a fan of slow-paced stories because it takes me ages to finish them and they often push me into the next reading slump, but for some reason, I still managed to finish this book fairly quickly. It took almost 300 pages for the story to even get to a more action-packed part; before that, there were a few exciting parts sprinkled here and there, but overall, nothing much happened. I also felt that once the story did pick up pace, too much happened too fast? It was basically one thing after another, and it kept going at that pace for almost the entire rest of the book.
What I also found a bit confusing was that there were so many different perspectives to read from. It started out with just the three queens Arsinoe, Katharine, and Mirabella, but then at some point, their chapters started to have a page or two from a different perspective. Yes, they were important characters - Arsinoe's best friend Jules, the High Priestess Luca, Jules's childhood love Joseph -, but I didn't particularly enjoy their parts sometimes. Especially
Some people have also said that there were too many characters, and I definitely agree with that sentiment. It was easy to remember the important characters, but there were also some that I kept forgetting the history of (for example, Aunt Caragh, who was only ever talked about and never showed up herself), so this book could have done with a few characters less.
I did enjoy the three queens, though! Granted, Mirabella was a bit grating at times and could've been developed better (she had such cool powers and her upbringing was intriguing, but there was just too much focus on her romance for my taste - though that might've been just that particular romance's fault, I don't know). Plus, her chapters seemed to be the shortest, despite the fact that hers sometimes offered the most insight into the action that was about to come later? I was a bit bummed about that.
Katharine and Arsinoe were interesting to read about, however, especially the way they dealt with the knowledge that Mirabella was the strongest of them. And I just really vibed with Arsinoe's personality. She dealt with a lot of things with humour, and while that certainly wasn't the healthiest coping mechanism, I liked that she didn't let Mirabella's power (and her own obvious lack of them) dictate her life. Plus, she was very defiant and headstrong.
However, I absolutely did not enjoy any of the romances. The most annoying one was the one between Mirabella and
Unfortunately, I also didn't particularly like the other romances. They were not as bad as this first one, but neither pairing had particularly a lot of chemistry. Katharine and Pietyr felt more like telling than showing - I felt like they were into each other before I even got the chance of getting to know Pietyr more -, and while Arsinoe and Billy had some amusing banter, they felt more like good friends than potential romantic partners (and to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure they were more than friends?). Why Blake felt like she needed to focus so much on the romances instead of the world-building, the politics, or the ceremony is beyond me. I get that finding suitors was a big part of the queens' lives at that moment in time, but that didn't mean the entire book had to revolve around that.
All the boys in the book also seemed a bit too possessive to me? They were mad when the girls were around other boys, even if it was harmless, and
My library has the sequels, and I'll definitely get to them soon. The book ended on a very intriguing plot twist (that I wasn't completely surprised by, though I didn't anticipate that
Overall, I really enjoyed the world-building (although it was a bit underdeveloped at times) and at least two of the three queens. But the romances annoyed the crap out of me (especially one of them, ahem), the pace was a bit too slow for the most part, and there were one too many perspectives for me personally. It was still way better than I expected!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Physical abuse, and Violence
Minor: Animal death
Warning also for amputation --> a character gets their hand chopped off. It happens off-page, but it is talked about afterwards.