12. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore The Graceling realm is a medieval-type fantasy world that revolves around seven kingdoms--and as we discover in Fire , there's a couple more kingdoms beyond a so-thought unassailable mountain pass. But though the setting is fantastical, the characters that Cashore creates are achingly alive. Bitterblue, the royal daughter of the now-dead king whose evil spell still lingers over her realm, is the standout among all Cashore's complex creations. She's the reason I kept reading Graceling , and her eponymous novel achieves all the depths of lyricism and poignancy not quite realized in the former. In this sequel, Cashore transforms one girl's existential pain and journey of self-discovery into a meditation on the role of government in society, the power of art to transcend horror, and the power of literacy and knowledge to check corruption. At a crucial moment in her bildungsroman , influenced by a portrait (incidentally, of Fire, ...
Life, Books, and SFF