review: Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore

pub date: May 1, 2012
publisher: Dial
pages: 545
source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers
appeals: it's a continuation of Cashore's Graceling.
content: violence, innuendo, a lot of boring parts

thoughts:
I loved the book Graceling when I read it years ago. Fire, meh. I was intrigued with Bitterblue because I wanted to read about the little princess from Graceling. I was happy when I received the copy from LibraryThing, until I saw how big it was. Did you see the page count? Five-hundred-forty-five pages! A very Looooong five-hundred-forty-five pages.

I would like to say the reason I didn't enjoy the book much was because it was all so political. Bitterblue is queen of Monsea, trying to navigate a kingdom that has been deeply scarred by her father's rule. There is so much politic that I found the story Tedious to read. Yet one of my all time favorite books is The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner and that book is full of politics. I've read it at least five times, and I've never been bored with Gen's story. But Bitterblue's? A snooze fest. Maybe not the politics so much?

Maybe the fact that I didn't care for Bitterblue? I didn't dislike her, but I didn't love her either. Maybe her impossible romance with a romantic interest that I wasn't too thrilled with, either? Maybe the mystery that wasn't even a mystery until half way through and when it was apparent, kept going in circles, round and round, but never actually went anywhere? Maybe the nonexistent plot? Whatever it was, this book wasn't all that interesting to me.

Add to all of that how much I got sick of Leck and his history and Bitterblue's determination to learn more about how wicked Leck was. There were times Leck seemed like the main character of this story, not Bitterblue.

I must say that I thought the actual writing stellar, like always. Cashore is an amazing storyteller, even when the story she's telling isn't all that interesting. And she did a great job giving reminders for what happened in Graceling for those readers who read it years ago (like me), without going overboard. (Except for all of that about Leck, of course).

When I keep reading books that I should really just give up on, I have to wonder why I keep reading them. Sometimes, like in this case, I just feel like I have to complete it so I can check it off my list. And, when I get a copy for review like I did Bitterblue, it makes me that much more compelled to keep going. I really need to learn how to stop. Especially when the book is five-hundred-forty-five-freakin pages (too) long.

summary:
Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart

reviews by Jaye: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Because I've been such a horrible blogger the past few months, I convinced my good friend Jaye to write some reviews for me to post on my blog. Which is awesome because I get to be a horrible blogger and still post reviews. Yay! Here is the first of Jaye's reviews, hopefully more will follow. I'm crossing my fingers for one a week.

pub date: January 10, 2012

publisher: Razerbill

pages: 386

Jaye's Thoughts:

Book two of a trilogy, Suns suffers from that horrible middle-book symptom, filleritis. I really enjoyed book 1, Across the Universe. In this second book, though, Amy seems designed to annoy. She goes back and forth, saying she can’t have feelings for Elder because they’re the only teens on the ship, then flipping back to, “Wait, Elder’s mine!” and not having a problem with it. Plus, she acts incredibly selfish the entire book.

In fact, there are several things like that in the book. On one page, a certain thing will be said, or explained, or whatever. Then, maybe two paragraphs later, maybe two pages later, the real truth comes out, which is the complete opposite of the earlier bit. I got more and more frustrated.

As for plot structure, it was illogical to me. It turns out that Orion (a main player in the first book) has planted clues around the ship for Amy to follow, because she is the only one who can make The Choice. But he never tells her what The Choice is. Also, because of other things going on (like people fighting against Elder because he shut off the phydus machine to let them think for themselves, and the murders that have started up—more on that later) time is kinda of the essence. Orion knew other things, too, but they would be spoilers, so I won’t say them here. Suffice it to say, it makes no sense to send Amy on a scavenger hunt for clues when he knows there’s no time for it. If it’s so important—and it is—just tell her straight up! He can still send her off to see these things, but don’t make her hunt—what if she can’t find one of them? It’s still a choice that needs to be made, but because of the scavenger hunt, she could easily miss out on an important part. It all seemed designed to take up a few hundred pages before the third book.


Okay, the murders. This is a later development, but I’ll try to avoid spoilers. People start getting killed. Gasp! Anyway, there’s always a message with the body. The same message every time. I guess the murderer felt the point wasn’t getting across. The thing is, when we find out who the murderer is, and why they were killing people, it still doesn’t make sense. It was about a secret very few people knew, and leaving the cryptic message was never going to resolve anything.


Overall, it was a second book that struck me as a 386 page tour to get us to the start of the concluding volume. I’ll still pick up the last one, but it’s going to be a skimmer.

summary:
Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. It’s been three months. In that time, Amy has learned to hide who she is. Elder is trying to be the leader he’s always wanted to be. But as the ship gets more and more out of control, only one thing is certain: They have to get off the ship.