Three Dark Crowns Book Review

Book title: Three Dark Crowns

Author: Kendare Blake

In my opinion, Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake was mainly hit-or-miss. As entertaining and as interesting as it may have been to others, it is a miss for me. I picked up this book because Kendare Blake is a magnificently creative author, and I am a huge fan of other books she's written. After a couple of my friends raved about this book, I decided to finally read it.

This plot is one of the most intriguing stories I've heard in a while. Every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets are born. One is an elementalist, one is a poisoner, one is a naturalist, but only one can be queen. In a series of trials, the heirs will battle each other until only one is left alive. A very interesting concept that I'd never heard of before. Unfortunately, it was not executed very well.

If I could describe the first half of this book, the first word that comes to mind is: messy. We are introduced to dozens of characters in the first three chapters, so you spend the rest of the book wondering who is who. The beginning is very slow, likely as a way to provide exposition about the complicated world, but it focuses on the unimportant details. You don't really know what exactly is going on for at least the first nine chapters. The character's motivations make little sense, and there is rarely any meaningful development. After introducing the concept you realize that there is no way this could be executed in the real world. The entire book would not take place if the government of Fennbirn was simply competent enough to create a system that did not rely on teenage girls murdering each other. Entertaining as it is, this book is overly complicated to the point where you begin to question why.

Another issue I had with Three Dark Crowns is, although it takes place in a medieval fantasy world, there is no world building involved. It feels like a series of ideas strung together in an attempt to create a complex universe. A world can be ridiculous but still work, look at Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. It doesn't work in Three Dark Crowns simply because the ideas don't blend. When you switch from one chapter to another, it often feels like you're switching from different worlds, which may have been Mrs. Blake's intention. It doesn't work though because it feels like three separate stories instead of one novel, which is difficult to follow and often made me lose interest in the book.

Verdict: I'm not an author, so I shouldn't be criticizing a book unless I could improve it. However, I thought this book was insanely creative with unique concepts, it just could've been executed better likely with more revision and thought toward elements of the story. Toward the end, it improved, with a shocking twist too! Overall, I'd rate this book 5 smiles out of ten. It had a lot of potential and Kendare Blake is definitely talented, but I couldn't overcome its problems. I might check out the future books in this series just to see if there's improvement. Although I didn't enjoy Three Dark Crowns as much as I could've, every person has their own opinion. Who knows? It may be a hit for you.

Reviewed by: Mai Ly Hagan'21