Three Dark Crowns (Guest Review)

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Series: Three Dark Crowns #1

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Format: UK Paperback

Page Length: 407 pages

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

About Three Dark Crowns (via Goodreads):

When kingdom come, there will be one.

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.

The last queen standing gets the crown.

So I’ve read Three Dark Crowns twice now, and both times I have just fallen head-over-heels with every aspect of it.  It’s a novel that constantly catches me by surprise and one that I can never forget. Filled with deeply relatable characters alongside three masterfully crafted heroines, Three Dark Crowns delivered on its unique yet familiar promises and concepts to create a beautiful world that I love going back to.

I will admit that the book took me a little bit to get into.  However, the first three chapters of the novel do a great job of introducing the three queens and their expansive world thanks to Kendare Blake’s exquisite, emotional, and illustrative writing style.  The construction and placement of these first three chapters is near-perfect as well; they sum up the world perfectly in a condensed length and give a great span of what lies ahead for the arcs of the characters and what to expect of the world ahead throughout the novel.  Katharine’s sweetness and naïveté in the poisoner-dominated capital helps to give a great, broad introduction of the world that is further expanded by the main cities of the other queens.  Arsinoe’s down-to-earth nature introduces her small naturalist city on Fennbirn in a casual way that suits her character perfectly.  And the storm cloud looming over them both is the super-powered sister Mirabella dictated by the island’s religion and tradition; Blake expands on her character in the third chapter with grace and style, revealing a troubled girl not ready to become a woman.

It is easy to fall in love with at least one of the queens and their storylines.  I latched on to Arsinoe and the Milone family almost immediately.  Arsinoe’s fatal flaws, casual nature, wit, and extreme loyalty made her deeply relatable.  Her bond with Jules is well-crafted, but admittedly Jules is not as well-written of a character as Arsinoe, and sometimes Blake’s overemphasis on Jules’ storylines and friendship with Arsinoe gets tedious.  It honestly seems like she’s setting up for a big twist in the series that a handful might start to see coming upon a second read.  In contrast, Arsinoe’s bond with Billy is an amazingly crafted relationship.  Usually male-female pairs would just be eviscerated by trying to jam in a romance, but Blake counters that trend through a pair of friends that truly understand where each other stands in each other’s lives.

Now that I’ve clearly shown how much I support Arsinoe being queen, let’s talk about her sisters. Katharine’s character arc throughout the novel is pretty inspiring and powerful, and her transformation is hypnotizing to read about.  The Arrons are incredibly intimidating, and Blake crafted an amazingly devious and dubious family from them.  Unravelling Mirabella was really fun, despite her tired story as the wedge between Jules and Joseph’s relationship.  It’s something we’ve seen it before, but Blake unpacks Mirabella in a way that feels refreshing and sympathetic.  Speaking of which, Jules and Joseph’s relationship is magical in that it feels incredibly forced yet incredibly integral to the narrative at the same time.

Overall, Three Dark Crowns is one of my favorite novels for these reasons and more.  It introduced three to four powerful heroines who took change and adversity and molded it to their advantage (I am counting Jules.  Jules is great).  It strived me to form better relationships with my friends and appreciate the family I had with me at home and while in college.  Flying through the 400+ pages only made me want to start at the beginning of the book, and I can’t wait to sail back through Fennbirn when One Dark Throne comes out in September.

My Rating: 4.9 stars