“Queen Bitterblue wielded the letter opener in one hand like a sword, a calm, ferocious expression on her face.”

"The ocean had shared a secret with her. A monster had reached out and delivered a miracle. This world kept wanting to be bigger than she was letting it. Why did she keep trapping herself inside small things?"

- Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

Rereading Winterkeep and remembering how hard I ship Mari-Lovisa-Nev as a polycule. 🥺

So do Nev and Lovisa become a couple or is this series going to disappoint me again?

"Lovisa wasn’t sure if she’d ever been someplace where she could breathe."

Winterkeep

WINTERKEEP SPOILERS

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I’m more than halfway done with the book and it’s been a fun read, but it somehow feels impossible to wrap up in what’s left of the book? It feels like I just got to Winterkeep and I need at least 1 more book of getting to know all the new characters before we can conclude the plot, lol.

I also have Feelings. Conflicting, confusing feelings I wasn’t even sure if I should put out there without finishing the book first. I don’t know if my feelings have any merit, but I wanted to see what others out in Tumblr were feeling, particularly POC and black readers. I am enjoying exploring Lovisa as a character. She is not likeable right off the bat and treats most everyone rotten. The way we empathize with her is mostly through her family - at least that’s how I empathize with her the most, but to be honest her interactions with Hava at the beginning really soured me to her.

I have to remind myself she’s 16, which, IS VERY YOUNG. And this happened to me with Bitterblue in the last book too, lol! And I adore Bitterblue now. I’m already warming up to her since she stopped being rotten with Nev, so I fully expect to keep enjoying her character development. And we can all agree she’s black, right?

It’s not explicitly mentioned in the book, but they talk about dark brown skin, darker than Bitterblue’s brown skin, and her hair in twists. So I think it’s pretty clear that Lovisa, and likely the rest of Winterkeep and Torla, is black and that’s how I’ve been interpreting her as I read. Okay.

It tickled me at first that Kristin (who is white) was being a lot more generous and explicit in her portrayals of sex in this book, as someone who is very pro-being-candid-about-sex. People are doing it, talking about it, thinking about it pretty much in every chapter Lovisa’s involved in. I don’t recall this much inclusion of sex in the prior Graceling Realm books tbh but maybe Kristin is just more comfortable writing about it now. I understand that Lovisa has issues as well and part of the way that is materialized is in how she will use sex as both a “weapon” and as a means to distract herself, but hardly for the sake of pleasure.

I don’t know how this will be addressed further down the line - she is self-aware about how she doesn’t feel “normal” when it comes to her behavior re: sex, but regardless of how Kristin chooses to develop Lovisa’s character, I have to wonder at a stereotype I’m seeing at play here (and perhaps more than one.) The fact that the first black woman (er, or teenager in this case, which doesn’t help the matter) protagonist we have in the Graceling books is also hypersexualized seems questionable to me. Like this is a pretty big one as far as stereotypes go, in case not everyone knows.

Am I in the wrong? I’d love some other perspectives. Again, I haven’t finished the book but I am very close to finishing. Also, I am not black (I am a white Puerto Rican.) I am very aware of how such a stereotype can be prevalent in media and I wonder if what I’m reading in this book is perpetuating this stereotype as well. I feel like maybe I’m having trouble coming at it objectively because I’m really a huge fan of this series.

Here’s more info on the stereotype and there are plenty of more resources out there that talk about this better than I ever could: https://www.blackburncenter.org/post/2019/02/20/the-historical-roots-of-the-sexualization-of-black-women-and-girls

I’m also not trying to start any drama, to be very clear, but I also know how things can go on Tumblr so just.... do your best, lol. I’d rather hear black voices on this issue because it’s their opinion that matters the most and should be centered.

ETA: I did in fact forget about Fire being black as well. That was my bad! And it does change things for me quite a bit, although I still have some conflicted feelings about how some things were left unresolved. More in my notes but I may write more about THAT later.

Coming Together

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/UtQbFax

by Mags_the_Magnificent

In the Grishaverse, a dark ritual messes with the making at the heart of the world, causing strange occurances to take place around the world. Groups from other universes start to appear out of nowhere. They must come together to figure out what happened and how they can make it back to their own worlds.

(aka a rather self-indulgent combo fic where I bring together some of my favorite worlds. I have no expectation that anyone else has read all of these, so I'll do my best to explain what's going on and to avoid huge spoilers)

Words: 689, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo, Nikolai Series - Leigh Bardugo, Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater, Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan, The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart, Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, Wylan Van Eck, Jesper Fahey, Nina Zenik, Hanne Brum | Ilya Grimjer, Nikolai Lantsov, Zoya Nazyalensky, Blue Sargent, Richard Gansey III, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish, Halt O'Carrick, Will Treaty, Horace Altman, Alyss Mainwaring, Gilan (Ranger's Apprentice), Constance Contraire, Sticky Washington, Reynie Muldoon, Kate Wetherall, Katsa (Graceling Realm), Po | Greening Grandemalion, Bitterblue (Graceling Realm), Hava (Graceling Realm), Giddon (Graceling Realm), Adventure Fox (Graceling Realm), Raffin (Graceling Realm), Bann (Graceling Realm), Lovisa Cavenda

Additional Tags: Crossover

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/UtQbFax

Let's talk series! One of my goals this year is to practice some patience and actually tackle some series. I usually tend to stay away from series because I never want to wait until the next book and my memory after reading a book is usually temporary. But part of the joy of reading are the feelings of anticipation and imagining new plots for myself. I also happen to think that series covers are absolutely beautiful. QOTD: What series has you anticipating the next beautiful cover? Thanks to @penguinteen @epicreads @tlcbooktours for the gifted copies of The Graceling Realm novels. The latest installment, Winterkeep released January 4. I love that each book can be read alone because they are written as companion books. The covers are absolutely stunning and I love the maps included in each one. Each book stars a bad ass female protagonist. 👑 SYNOPSIS 👑 For the past five years, Bitterblue has reigned as Queen of Monsea, heroically rebuilding her nation after her father’s horrific rule. After learning about the land of Torla in the east, she sends envoys to the closest nation there: Winterkeep—a place where telepathic foxes bond with humans, and people fly across the sky in wondrous airships. But when the envoys never return, having drowned under suspicious circumstances, Bitterblue sets off for Winterkeep herself, along with her spy Hava and her trusted colleague Giddon. On the way, tragedy strikes again—a tragedy with devastating political and personal ramifications. Meanwhile, in Winterkeep, Lovisa Cavenda waits and watches, a fire inside her that is always hungry. The teenage daughter of two powerful politicians, she is the key to unlocking everything—but only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life. #Winterkeep #KristinCashore #TBR #GracelingRealm #YAFantasy #books #bookstagram #bookphotos #series #bookish #reading #bibliophile #read #bookworm #booksbooksbooks #fire #bookstagrammer #fantasy #YAlit #Bitterblue #Graceling #booklover #readersofinstagram #explore #literature #bookfeature #newrelease #tlcbooktours #penguinteen #libros (at Bushwick) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYaGth7rmFw/?utm_medium=tumblr

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore [Spoiler Review]

**Note: This review is marked as a spoiler because this book is the fourth novel in the Graceling Realm series

Synopsis: For the past five years, Bitterblue has reigned as Queen of Monsea, heroically rebuilding her nation after her father's horrific rule. After learning about the land of Torla in the east, she sends envoys to the closest nation there: Winterkeep--a place where telepathic foxes bond with humans, and people fly across the sky in wondrous airships. But when the envoys never return, having drowned under suspicious circumstances, Bitterblue sets off for Winterkeep herself, along with her spy Hava and her trusted colleague Giddon. On the way, tragedy strikes again--a tragedy with devastating political and personal ramifications.

Meanwhile, in Winterkeep, Lovisa Cavenda waits and watches, a fire inside her that is always hungry. The teenage daughter of two powerful politicians, she is the key to unlocking everything--but only if she's willing to transcend the person she's been all her life.

Star Rating: 4/5

My Thoughts: While I was excited to pick this book up, I was also apprehensive about it. I always am whenever I pick up a book that is an expansion of a previously completed series. I’m always intrigued to see what the next book adds to the story and the world, but I’m also afraid of how it could affect the already established narrative.

I have to say that it was nice to see more of Bitterblue and to hear about a lot of the characters we have already met thus far. That being said, it would have been nice to either see or get more information about Katsa, Po, Fire, and the others just because I miss them. I always enjoyed that this book was multi-POV book instead of just a single one.

While this book was an enjoyable one to read, and while I know that I will pick up anything else Cashore writes in this world, I’m not exactly sure this book needed to exist. If Cashore had stopped writing after Bitterblue, I don’t think we would have missed out on anything. However, getting to explore and getting to meet Lovisa was really fun, and I really am excited to pick up anything else in this world!

Read 1/22-1/23

Five Stars

I don't know that I have the ability to actually write a review for this book. It was so good that thinking about it just makes my brain do this high pitched "squee" noise. Graceling has always been one of my favorite YA novels but I decided since I didn't remember Fire or Bitterblue as well to do a reread of them before I started Winterkeep. I'm really glad I spent the last week back in the Graceling Realm. I'm not sure if some scenes would have touched me quite the same way without the refresher.

Winterkeep is a bit unique from the previous three books in that there are five unique points of view. Two are characters from the previous books, Bitterblue and Giddon, and three are all new characters. I loved that we got to spend more with Giddon and Bitterblue. I loved their relationship and the trust they built between each other in Bitterblue's novel. I will admit there was an aspect of their relationship in that book that I was a little sad not to see realized and boy does it finally get realized here! Giddon is such a precious pining fool and I love him so much. I also loved his relationship with Hava. It's been five years since the end of Bitterblue and Hava has really come out of her shell and developed such a fun slightly mean bit of banter with Giddon. One of the other points of view is Lovisa Cavenda, a student in Winterkeep and daughter of the President of Winterkeep. She tries her best to be a dutiful daughter and follow in the steps of her political parents. Indeed she is a bit of a schemer and is seen sneaking around for much of the book. I wasn't sure of Lovisa at first but she really grew on me and by the end of the book I was in love with her. Another point of view is that of Adventure Fox, one of the blue telepathic foxes that populates Winterkeep. He is bonded to Lovisa's mother and is struggling with some of the rules of foxkind. I was not expecting to love his POV chapters so much when I first heard a fox was going to be one of the POVs. He was such an interesting character and I'm so happy with how his story concluded in this book. The final point of view is that of a mysterious many-eyed thirteen tentacled sea monster known as the Keeper. I loved the Keeper, every thought from it was just such a mood. All the Keeper wants is to collect treasures at the bottom of the ocean, be left alone, and occasionally sing badly. Truly an icon.

The world of Winterkeep was fascinating. It's the first country we're seeing in the Graceling Realm that's a democratic republic and politics actually play a large role in the book. The two political parties The Scholars and The Industrialists are in the middle of a large debate on whether or not to legalize Zilfium a useful fuel that could push the country into a modern age but it would be at the cost of the environment. I liked the emphasis on the importance of education in Winterkeep. I also loved the telepathic foxes and another telepathic creature known as silbercows that I imagined as a sort of manatee. My love for this series was really reignited and I hope we get more Graceling Realm novels. I'm not even sure who I'd want to follow next there are so many options for new storylines after this book.

WINTERKEEP

Graceling Realm #4

by Kristin Cashore

(Dial, 1/19/21)

9780803741508

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The highly anticipated next book in the New York Times bestselling, award-winning Graceling Realm series, which has sold 1.3 million copies. Four years after Bitterblue left off, a new land has been discovered to the east: Torla; and the closest nation to Monsea is Winterkeep. Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons. But when Bitterblue’s envoys to Winterkeep drown under suspicious circumstances, she and Giddon and her half sister, Hava, set off to discover the truth–putting both Bitterblue’s life and Giddon’s heart to the test when Bitterbue is kidnapped. Giddon believes she has drowned, leaving him and Hava to solve the mystery of what’s wrong in Winterkeep. Lovisa Cavenda is the teenage daughter of a powerful Scholar and Industrialist (the opposing governing parties) with a fire inside her that is always hungry, always just nearly about to make something happen. She is the key to everything, but only if she can figure out what’s going on before anyone else, and only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life.

The highly anticipated next book in the New York Times bestselling, award-winning Graceling Realm series, which has sold 1.7 million copies.

For the past five years, Bitterblue has reigned as Queen of Monsea, heroically rebuilding her nation after her father’s horrific rule. After learning about the land of Torla in the east, she sends envoys to the closest nation there: Winterkeep—a place where telepathic foxes bond with humans, and people fly across the sky in wondrous airships. But when the envoys never return, having drowned under suspicious circumstances, Bitterblue sets off for Winterkeep herself, along with her spy Hava and her trusted colleague Giddon. On the way, tragedy strikes again—a tragedy with devastating political and personal ramifications. Meanwhile, in Winterkeep, Lovisa Cavenda waits and watches, a fire inside her that is always hungry. The teenage daughter of two powerful politicians, she is the key to unlocking everything—but only if she’s willing to transcend the person she’s been all her life. The Graceling Realm books are a companion series, not direct sequels, so they can be enjoyed in any order.

Q: “Winterkeep features a person of color on the cover. What does this mean to you? What do you hope it will mean to readers?”

A: “Winterkeep is told in multiple perspectives, including those of characters from my previous books and some new characters, too. Arguably the most central character, the person at the heart of the book, is a young woman named Lovisa Cavenda, who’s a student at the Winterkeep Academy and the daughter of Keepish politicians. Like most people in Winterkeep, Lovisa has brown skin and dark hair and eyes. And since our conceit with these new covers is to show a main character on the cover, Lovisa was the obvious choice. It was important to me that the woman on the cover look and feel like Lovisa! It wouldn’t have made sense to represent her any other way. I hope readers agree.”

Winterkeep

Things I liked:

-         So excited that Bitterblue and Giddion got together.  Really made me so happy.  I love them both together.  Bitterblue is a little boring by herself, so she needs Giddion to make her more interesting. 

-     Ferla and Benni were very interesting to read about.  Especially from Adventure Fox’s point of view.  They were both crazy but crazy in different ways.  Benni was defiantly the more scary crazy of the two.  A villain who is really good at hiding who they really are is more frightening to me than a villain who lashes out a lot.  By the end I was happy to see Ferla die.  Especially when Adventure told us that her getting hit on the head made me even crazier.  

-     Adventure Fox was another character I liked a lot.  I thought he brought a nice change of pace form the rest of the book when we read from his POV.  His POV read very differently from the rest of the cast so it was a really nice touch.  

Things I didn't like:

-      This book was kind of boring for most of it.  It got good but that good part lasted for like 10 chapters then it was over.  I wish it had more going on during it.  It defiantly could have used with some cutting down.  

-     All the crying was really annoying.  Like I get it they thought Bitterblue was dead so they were sad.  But I didn't need to read about Giddion and Have crying every five seconds throughout the whole book.  Honestly, the book could have lost a lot of pages if there wasn't so much crying.  

Overall:

-    Again this book was not my favorite from the series.  It was better then Bitterblue but not quite as good as the first two.  It was way too long, and had so many unnecessary scenes.  And when it was good it was over in pages.  The action was way to concentrated in one section of the book.  I was happy that Giddion and Bitterblue got together.  Giddion has to be one of my favorite characters in this book.  I liked him a lot in Bitterblue too so it was nice to see more from him.  I do have to say that his character suffered from crying way to often.  The author describes him as a big strong man, so I understand she was trying to show that men do feel emotions.  But it was way to much, to the point where it didn't even seem like him anymore.  The villains in this book were amazing.  I love a good crazy person, so having two people who are crazy but crazy in different ways was really fun.  Ferla and Benni were the saving grace of this book.  They added the spice that the other bland characters lacked.  Adventure Fox also did this for the story.  Reading from his POV was a great way to break up the story and add a new dynamic.  I heard that another book will be coming out in this series, but I don't know if I’ll pick it up.  Ill wait to see how I feel when I read the previews.  

- Rating: 4/5