I've never given five stars to a book that tore me apart so much but it still deserves it. It's so well written that even during the sad parts I wasn't ever bored. If haven't yet read the series in this order: Graceling, Fire, Bitterblue. They are amazing books! *spoilers* I feel like I've been through an emotional roller coaster that just kind of kicked me off at the end. I don't feel like I had enough of a resolution in this book. I have so many unanswered questions. Especially the unanswered questions about Saf and Bitterblue. I refuse to believe that they are just gonna be friends. No. They can't. I need to know what happens when he comes back. They need to be together. I understand that she needs an Heir but she doesn't have to marry does she? I feel like their relationship was too open ended. And maybe if she doesn't marry Saf, and she has to marry, she would probably marry Giddon. And that's nice and all but Giddon isn't Saf. This book has ruined me. I want answers that I know I can't get so I'm just gonna have to imagine my own happily ever after for the future. Also, wish I knew how Raffin and Bann's relationship plays out.... Anyway I loved seeing Katsa, Po, AND Fire in this book! That made me extremely happy.

I just finished this, and I must say that Kristin Cashore has a great way of writing trauma. It is visceral and believable. As someone who had a traumatic childhood because of the actions of their father, I can sympathize with Bitterblue a lot. My earliest memory is of my parents fighting, and that’s pretty much all I remember before some bits and pieces around 1st/2nd grade. But like Bitterblue, that is part of my story, just as much as who I am today is.

I’m getting a bit teary-eyed as I write this, but I think that just goes to prove how effective Cashore’s writing is. All three of the original Graceling Realm books deal with heavy topics, and they’re all very well done. I will say, there are times in this book where it felt like Cashore was juggling too many plotlines at once, and I do think the stories structure could be a little better in terms of not all the plot lines wrapping up in the last 100-150 pages. But I couldn’t imagine the book being as effective without every single one of the plotlines, so make of that what you will.

Over all, I think this original trilogy (I don’t know if Winter Keep is to be a stand alone or if there will be more coming to the Graceling Realm after it) is honestly a masterpiece of writing and Cashore has been very under appreciated for her novels. Katsa, Fire, and Bitterblue all are compelling, complex characters that I think have helped me learn more about myself by reading of them.

The first volume in this series, _Graceling_, flew as clear and straight as an arrow but this one is more of a roller coaster: long hard grind to start, sickening baffles in the middle, breathless ride to the finish. It should be noted that this is not at all a standalone novel, so if you didn't love _Graceling_ don't even try -- but there are arguments that you might want to read the author's second novel, the prequel _Fire_, after this one.

The story initially appears to be an example of the classic fantasy trope of the "teen monarch walking his/her own kingdom in disguise". I'm not gonna lie, the author takes her time with it too. All I can say is that nothing turns out to be extraneous, and while you're focusing on young love and episodes of sudden street violence the author is sowing clues rather thickly that will turn out to be relevant to the shatteringly adult revelations and choices in the last hundred pages or so. Potential readers should be aware that the gore and creepiness factors only go up from _Graceling_'s not-particularly-low baseline.

Cashore is subtly amazing at tying each character's physical state to their mental/spiritual issues, so her people spend a lot of time suffering from metaphor-rich ailments including sleep deprivation, peritonitis, concussion, broken bones, black eyes, and acrophobia. You actually start to feel woozy and enervated as you trail young Queen Bitterblue around her exhausting day and night schedules. I especially admired how the orphaned teenage monarch stealthily sought out physical contact from others, especially of the motherly variety that she missed so much.

The slipperiness of memory, both public and private, is not at all a common theme for children's literature and I can only commend Ms Cashore for going there in an ostensibly "teen" novel. This book actually rather shocked me into recalling something I had forgotten a bit, which is the great strength of science fiction and fantasy to "tell all the truth but tell it slant". You don't have to end up admiring the liars, thieves, grumpuses, and abusers in these pages -- although in many cases I did -- but to grasp the novel at all you will have to admit that almost all the characters qualify in at least one of those categories.

4.25⭐️!! I’m slowly getting more and more obsessed with this series

It's been a while since I read Fire or Graceling, so I couldn't remember a lot about some of the characters that reappear in this book. You don't have to have read the other books first, but it's nice to be able to put them together. This book gave only a few reminders as to who the other characters were, but enough to remind me of their roles in the other books.

This was a good story about a young queen trying to rule over, and rebuild her kingdom after her father's horrific rein. I thought her development and growth through the story was great and well told, and it had a great story line. But because her father was so horrible, a lot of the subject matter dealt with his cruelty, torture and violence towards countless numbers of people. It doesn't get overly descriptive, but enough for it to be troubling for immature readers.

Because of the subject matter and the writer's obvious liberal sexuality views (written more like a political statement than relevance to the story), I would only recommend it for teens 17+.

3.5/5
I think that this was a great read but compared to the other 2 books in the series, Graceling and Fire, there was just something missing in it that would have really gotten it to 4 stars. Also, the ending had a very open feeling which I didn’t like considering that for now it is the ending of the series as a whole.