Maja (The Nocturnal Library)'s Reviews > Three Dark Crowns

Even before its release, Three Dark Crowns, the first in Kendare Blake’s new series, is proving to be a highly polarizing book, with readers either loving or hating it and very few (if any) falling somewhere in the middle. Three Dark Crowns offers all the things Kendare is known for: the dark moments, the vivid imagery, the shocking, almost grotesque violence, but it lacks her usual rich plotting and regrettably falls behind her other works.

Three Dark Crowns starts off promisingly, with poison flowing, dangerous elemental magic and cruelty wherever we turn. Readers have been describing it as dark, but it goes a bit beyond that. With Blake’s work, devil is always in the details, and she is known for the gruesome and memorable images she enjoys planting in our heads. Snakes, scorpions, tables full of poisoned food, islands shaking and human sacrifice, all promise us a read we won’t soon forget.

It quickly becomes evident, however, that images are all this book has to offer. With no plot to speak of and very little significant characterization, even blood and gore lose some of their entertainment value. The three sisters meant to kill each other for the throne all seem like weaklings in the hands of stronger political forces. There isn’t a true queen among them, not one a reader could choose to support and wish to see on the throne. They are, all three of them, best described as anti-heroines, and fairly unlikeable ones at that.

The plot, such as it is, is extremely slow to develop. We spend most of the time meeting the three queens, familiarizing ourselves with their friends and enemies and pondering their many challenges. Their respective love interests develop slowly and some are more interesting than others. I have to say I enjoyed Pietyr and Katherine more than any other couple and I found their honesty very refreshing. The lack of plot is made somewhat more tolerable by Kendare’s gorgeous writing, but after a while even that isn’t enough to keep us engaged.

It needs to be said that Kendare Blake’s writing is vivid and impeccable. Technically, she is unparalleled in her ability to paint elaborate scenes and then drown them in blood. As a reader and a fan, I will never give up on her work because she gives me something I so rarely find – elegance in horror and images that haunt me for a very long time. She is allowed one slip, especially one where I can still admire all those things I like most about her writing.