A Review of Kendare Blake’s Five Dark Fates (HarperTeen, 2019)

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A Review of Kendare Blake’s Five Dark Fates (HarperTeen, 2019)
By Stephen Hong Sohn

In this review, I’m covering Kendare Blake’s Five Dark Fates (HarperTeen, 2019). Let’s let the official site give us some details right off the bat: “In the final book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns series, an all-out war is brewing—one that will pit sister against sister and dead against undead. After the grim confrontation with Queen Katharine, the rebellion lies in tatters. Jules’s legion curse has been unbound, and it is up to Arsinoe to find a cure, even as the responsibility of stopping the ravaging mist lies heavy on her shoulders, and her shoulders alone. Mirabella has disappeared. Katharine’s reign remains intact—for now. When Mirabella arrives, seemingly under a banner of truce, Katharine begins to yearn for the closeness that Mirabella and Arsinoe share. But as the two circle each other, the dead queens hiss caution—Mirabella is not to be trusted. In this conclusion to the Three Dark Crowns series, three sisters will rise to fight as the secrets of Fennbirn’s history are laid bare. Allegiances will shift. Bonds will be tested. But the fate of the island lies in the hands of its queens. It always has.”

So, as soon as I got this book, I basically just gave up on the rest of my obligations and started reading it. Frankly, I wanted to know if Blake was somehow going to go against the tradition of the fact that there would only be “one queen” basically “to rule” over all. I won’t spoil that ending but I will say that I was pretty shocked at how it all turned out. There *is* a casualty count, as can be expected about any book related to warfare. I think the most interesting thing that Blake has been developing over the course of these books is the arrival of former queens and possible queens. At this point, Katharine is called the “undead” queen because the former “possible” queens—the ones who didn’t defeat the others—have returned to inhabit her body and give her strength. Apparently, these ghosts are also able to transfer to other bodies and momentarily grant that new body some powers. But the arrival of these vanquished queens also brings with them a malevolent mist. What we eventually discover is that this mist holds the power of true queens who defeated their rivals, and the mist is after Katharine and her ghostly inhabitants.

I read this novel basically in one sitting. It’s been a fantastic ride and a serious upgrade from what I thought was a disappointing previous outing (The Goddess War trilogy). The strength of this series has been that you find yourself rooting for so many different characters; even the Poisoners, who I generally find to be snobbish and aloof, have their own charms. And Blake is quite patient in providing us with a sense of each queen’s motivations, thus allowing any ending—catastrophic or not—to be quite emotionally impactful. If there is a critique I’d pose for this particular narrative, it’s the binary that appears between the ghosts inhabiting Katharine and the Mist. I was hoping for a little bit of a more murky line between these two entities, but Blake leaves the concept of revolution and revenge a little bit more neat than I would have preferred.

Nevertheless, fans will be mourning the end of the series. And you can’t help but wonder, based on who actually survived, will there be another generation of sisters who will be born or has this tradition now been broken? Only time and Kendare Blake’s decision to return to Fennbirn one day will tell. Sources tell me that Blake has a stand-alone novel that will be her next outing and that it will be a thriller. It’s not yet listed!

Buy the Book Here!

Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Gnei Soraya Zarook

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Gnei Soraya Zarook, PhD Student in English, at gzaro001@ucr.edu