The Bitter Kingdom: Girl of Fire and Thorns, #3 -- Rae Carson

As I've already raved about the wondrousness that is The Girl of Fire and Thorns and The Crown of Embers, I'll keep my gushing to a minimum in talking about The Bitter Kingdom.

It's a fabulous conclusion to a fabulous trilogy, and if you haven't read them yet, I'm super jealous, because now you can sit down and read all three of them in a row WITHOUT HAVING TO WAIT A WHOLE YEAR BETWEEN EACH INSTALLMENT.

If you're a fan of epic fantasy a la Robin McKinley's Damar books and Kristin Cashore's Seven Kingdoms books—stories that have fabulous world-building complete with fully-realized cultures, religious traditions, and political systems; strong heroines who see more than their fair share of combat, are forced to brave the elements and travel long distances over deadly terrain, who have to learn to look past their own insecurities and see themselves as others do: as leaders—then you absolutely should not miss Rae Carson's books.

If you haven't read them, go! Read! Enjoy!

Vague spoilers about the first two will follow. 

The Bitter Kingdom begins shortly after the brutal Empire Strikes Back ending of Crown of Embers. As she promised, Elisa is on her way to rescue Hector from his captors. Her team is comprised of, as she describes them, "an assassin, a lady-in-waiting, and a failed sorcerer". Don't let her fool you, though: her companions are infinitely capable, and while they don't necessarily all trust EACH OTHER, they all trust HER, and she trusts all of THEM.

The book has all of the same strengths as its predecessors: the character development, the plotting, the action, the romance, the complex politics and personal motivations of each character, the strength that Elisa derives from her own faith as well as her ability to accept and appreciate the various religious beliefs of other people. We've seen Elisa mature from a self-loathing, insecure, seemingly useless princess into a capable, canny, tough queen. She's got a leader's ability to see the Big Picture in any given situation, but she's also retained her empathy and sense of ethics. She's sacrificed a lot to keep her country together, to protect her people—not just the ones she knows and loves personally, but ALL of her subjects—and she's perfectly willing to sacrifice more.

It's easy to see why and how she inspires those who follow her.

Generally, I have a hard time with the idea of Fate. On one hand, it's a satisfying concept—especially if one is fated to do heroic things and have a happy ending—but on the other, it makes me want to shake my tiny fist at the sky and yell, YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, BUSTER! Carson, though, deals with it so outstandingly well throughout the series that I just wished all of my dumb philosophical issues off into the cornfield and fully immersed myself in her world: As the bearer of a Living Godstone, Elisa is Fated to perform a specific service to God. She doesn't know what that service is—and there certainly have been bearers in the past who have failed—and without giving it all away, I just want to say that I LOVED how it all played out.

LOVED. Hopefully, some of you will have already read it, so we can do some spoilery gushing in the comments, because OH MY GOD, THE LOVE I HAVE FOR THAT ASPECT OF THE BOOK.

I loved that, as in Buffy, the existence of a support network—of friends—makes all the difference, and I loved Storm's arc, and I loved that amidst the drama and the politics and the action and the seriousness, that there was a healthy dose of humor, too. I loved seeing, over the course of the series, how Elisa's body image issues morphed from her desire for skinny thighs to her appreciation for her own strength. And, of course, I loved her descriptions of food.

And also, HECTOR, HECTOR, HECTOR, YOU DREAMBOAT.

Ahem.

Right, I forgot. I wasn't going to do any gushing here.

BUT I'M MAKING NO PROMISES ABOUT THE COMMENTS SECTION.

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Book source: Review copy from a friend.

Comments

[marjorie]

I had some issues with the body-image stuff in the first book (Elisa's stress-eating as sign of her weakness and powerlessness, her fat definitely portrayed as a moral flaw to GROW UP from, despite the author's attempts to show how the noble characters saw through her fat and the lamer characters did not), though I found the world-building really impressive. I unabashedly ADORED the second book. Wholly and completely. (And yes OMG HECTOR HUBBA HUBBA.) I liked but did not love the third book, because I didn't feel there was anywhere for Elisa and Hector's relationship to go -- there were lots of external challenges, but I felt their feelings for each other had developed thoughtfully and completely -- AND SWOONILY -- in the first two books. (Though of course the relationship coming to its natural fruition was SWOON CENTRAL.) And I felt the physical challenges, one after another, were just too cinematic (which may make little sense, I dunno) -- again, the external stuff was played bigger and more fleshed out than any internal development. And the quiet moments were so few. It all felt kinda old-skool movie serial to me, even though it WAS super-exciting and the conclusion was certainly satisfying.

[Leila]

This is what I loved about her service to God: IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CIVIL WAR, WITH BRINGING ABOUT PEACE WITH THE INVERNIOS, WITH ANY OF THE POLITICAL STUFF. SHE DID THAT ALL ON HER OWN.

The trilogy ended up being BOTH a celebration of Elisa's faith as well as a celebration of her own capability. Which isn't to say that those things are remotely mutually exclusive, but if it'd turned out that all of Elisa's work to keep her country together, etc., etc., had been all in God's plan, it would have diminished her achievements somehow. In my eyes, anyway. Instead, it was ALL HER. (And her team.)

[beth]

OMG YES THE WAY THE FATE PLAYED OUT. It was perfect. I loved that it was something small and random, and that there's a chance she could have done it without having gone through all the stuff she THOUGHT was her fate. And that she survived it because of her friends!

[Leila]

@Marjorie: You're definitely not alone in having issues with the body image stuff.

My take is this: She did stress-eat, yes. But she also really clearly appreciated and enjoyed food in general. Like, she ate a lot when she was happy as well. So there was that. But also, after all of the adventures and the physical exertion resulted in her losing weight in the first book, the second she got back to the castle, she was all, YAY FOOD GOOD and she put some of that weight back on. But she ended up having that weight and being strong and active (physically as well as politically), rather than sedentary and waiting for her Fate to come to her. Or something.

To me, it felt more like that one Elizabeth Peters book that subverts the Adventure-Love-and-Weight-Loss-Leads-Formerly-Chubby-Girl-to-Happy-Ending trope wherein the heroine goes through all of the adventurous stuff and finds love and loses weight, but then at the end of the book, she's all, AWWW YEAH, CLOTTED CREAM. I always forget which one that is.

[Leila]

@beth: YESSSSSS. I CHEERED. OUT LOUD. And, of course, immediately thought of the alternate Buffy with no friends and of what happened to her.

[Jenne]

I didn't mind at all that Hector and Elisa's romance was so developed before this final book even started because it meant we got to see Elisa accepting his love and learning how to revel in it, which doesn't usually get explored. It was nice to see after happily ever after for them, especially since they still had so many obstacles to fight side-by-side.

Also, those cave scorpions are basically my worst nightmare.

[Leila]

@Jenne: Yes! I also loved the chapters where we got Hector's perspective while he was still a captive: I loved watching him work against his captors, and I loved how he had absolutely no doubts about whether or not Elisa would come for him.

THIS: "It was nice to see after happily ever after for them, especially since they still had so many obstacles to fight side-by-side." I loved that their happily-ever-after started before they'd even Saved The Day. So, so unusual.

And OH MY GOD, agreed about the cave scorpions. If there's ever a movie, I'll totally be hiding under my seat for that part.

[L. E. Carmichael]

OMG HECTOR HECTOR HECTOR!!!

I am incoherent with love for these books.