The Bitter Kingdom serves as a satisfying ending to the gripping and unique Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy.
Rae Carson’s Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy was recently completed with the third installment, The Bitter Kingdom. The Bitter Kingdom returns readers to the vivid, Spanish-inspired world of a young queen named Elisa, who a bears a jewel in her navel called a Godstone – the sign of one chosen by God for an unknown purpose.
The Bitter Kingdom picks up shortly after the previous book, The Crown of Embers, left off, as Elisa and her friends dog the steps of a band of enemies and traitors who have taken her Captain of the Guard – and love – Hector. In less skilled hands, this opening might stumble into the woes of the lovelorn; instead, Elisa’s first thrust of motivation is emblematic of Rae Carson’s skill as a writer. As she did in the previous books of the trilogy, Carson weaves together the personal and the political so tautly that Elisa’s decisions are driven not only by her own desires, but the needs of her nation and even the world.
These motives are only as powerful as the character they compel, and fortunately the Elisa readers love from the first two books of the Girl of Fire and Thorns series returns at full strength in The Bitter Kingdom. Driven and complex, fiercely loyal and equally shrewd, God’s chosen champion is one of the most relatable heroines in YA fantasy fiction. Elisa is a young woman who knows her strengths and her weaknesses, both of which burden her terribly at times. Though her confidence and poise grow throughout the trilogy, it’s clear that Elisa – like so many teens and adults in the real world – still struggles to take ownership of her worth and her power.
Power – magical, political, and personal – is something that Elisa comes into fully in this book, though not without struggle. Success is rarely unvarnished in The Bitter Kingdom; Elisa alienates loved ones with her political decisions, and her magic cannot heal every wound. The reality of the consequences Elisa faces is a constant theme throughout the novel, and the uncertainty of victory helps The Bitter Kingdom culminate in a conclusion which readers will be hard-pressed to put down.
Though not as well-paced as the preceding novels in the series, The Bitter Kingdom still provides a gripping and profoundly thoughtful ending to the story of Elisa and her eclectic companions.
For more on The Girl of Fire and Thorns, check out our interview with Rae Carson!
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