I’d been really anticipating the release of One Dark Throne since I finished the first book in the series, Three Dark Crowns, last year, and I was not disappointed. **Obvious Spoilers for Three Dark Crowns Ahead!** The story jumps back into the three-sisters-competing-for-the-crown-by-trying-to-murder-each-other action immediately, no building back up steam or filler fluff. I liked how Blake was able to slip in reminders about certain plot points of Crowns to jog my memory, without it feeling like I was reading a Wiki summary of the book.
We start right back up with Arsinoe, who is exploring her true gift of Poison secretly so she won’t be shunned by the Naturalists and claimed by the Poisoners; Mirabella, who is heartbroken that her sisters do not remember and love her as she does them, and still reeling from Arsinoe attacking her with a bear (a misunderstanding that is fairly quickly cleared up); and Katherine, who crawled out of the Breccia Domain after being thrown down the hole by Pietyr (in a horribly misguided attempt to save her), and has returned very much changed.
The rest of the book moves quickly, hits all the right emotional beats, truly cements your relationships with the characters, and introduces new characters we had only previously heard about.
This is where I’ll leave the remainder of the story to the author and share the Good and the Bad of One Dark Throne.
The Good:
-The foster family relationships:
Rather than go the Harry Potter route and give one or all of the queens a horrible home life to escape from, they are all not only treated well by their foster families, but truly loved. Jules has pledged her life to protecting Arsinoe, Luca favors Mirabella and clearly loves her as a daughter, even though she’s meant to be objective, and perhaps the greatest (albeit most complicated) love is that of Natalia’s for Katherine. In Crowns, you hate her for subjecting Kat to these horrible trials her whole life, but in this book you see how she truly and fiercely loves her.
-The “Darkest Timeline” Katherine:
I have to admit, I freaking loved Kat in this book. Sure, she’s basically possessed by angry spirits of murdered queens, but she is a lot of fun. Obviously I wasn’t rooting for her against the other two because…evil and all…but I looked forward to hearing her inner dialogue and motives for her brazen actions throughout. Which brings us to…
-The multiple narrators :
I really enjoy books with a variety of POVs because it allows you to connect with them all on a higher level, and to get an inside peek at what they’re really thinking—even if their actions don’t reflect their feelings. I especially liked Kat’s because it’s so rare to be inside the head of the “villain” and understand what motivates them.
-The resolution of the love triangle:
I won’t say much on this to avoid spoilers, but this took up so much of Crownsthat I was happy to see it come to an end, and really admired the way Blake handled a situation that pretty much all fans were unhappy with.
The Bad:
-Some awkward writing:
While I did find some truly arresting bits of dialogue, like, “You cannot kill what is already dead," and, “Arsinoe grew up believing that she would die. She just didn’t count on having so much to live for,” a lot of the writing felt clunky and awkward. Some sentences were only a few words; maybe it was for emphasis, but it just messed with the flow for me.
-Madrigal:
I genuinely don’t know what the point of this woman is beyond teaching Arsinoe low magic (which has basically always blown up in her face). She’s not evil enough to be considered a villain, she’s just annoying, selfish, and rarely makes any situation better. I was hoping to see the last of her in this book, but her plot was so unresolved I’m sure she’ll have a big role to play in the next.
TL;DR: If you enjoyed the characters and world-building of Three Dark Crowns, you will love One Dark Throne’s action-packed follow-up and impatiently await the next installment. If you haven’t read Three Dark Crowns yet, what are you waiting for??!!
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