Asian American Literature Fans

A Review of Kendare Blake’s Two Dark Reigns (HarperTeen, 2018)

By Stephen Hong Sohn

The third book in the Three Dark Crowns series has landed. Kendare Blake brings us the action-heavy, ominous Two Dark Reigns (HarperTeen, 2018), which continues the stories of Katharine, the poisoner; Arisonoe, the faux-naturalist, also a poisoner; and Mirabella, the talented elementalist. You may remember: every generation, a set of three daughters are born. Eventually, they must fight each other to the death, so that one may rule. This generation, though, has decided to go about things differently. At the end of book two, Katharine ended up “winning” the crown, but only after getting pushed down a well and “resurrected” in some form, and then having her sisters abdicate Fennbirn Island entirely. Katharine becomes the Queen of Fennbirn by default.

So now let’s let B&N do some work for us: “Queen Katharine has waited her entire life to wear the crown. But now that she finally has it, the murmurs of dissent grow louder by the day. There’s also the alarming issue of whether or not her sisters are actually dead—or if they’re waiting in the wings to usurp the throne. Mirabella and Arsinoe are alive, but in hiding on the mainland and dealing with a nightmare of their own: being visited repeatedly by a specter they think might be the fabled Blue Queen. Though she says nothing, her rotting, bony finger pointing out to sea is clear enough: return to Fennbirn. Jules, too, is in a strange place—in disguise. And her only confidants, a war-gifted girl named Emilia and her oracle friend Mathilde, are urging her to take on a role she can’t imagine filling: a legion-cursed queen who will lead a rebel army to Katharine’s doorstep. This is an uprising that the mysterious Blue Queen may have more to do with than anyone could have guessed—or expected.”

The weird thing about this book is that it begins with a flashback sequence in which we discover that once upon a time, there was actually something called a Blue Queen. Apparently, once, a fourth daughter was born. When this fourth child appears, then the first three are automatically put to the death; the fourth daughter ends up becoming the Queen of Fennbirn in this scenario. The importance of this flashback sequence is not apparent until well into this novel, as Arsinoe is receiving ghostly visitations by the Blue Queen, named Illiann; she’s also dreaming about another queen named Daphne, who has befriended the Blue Queen. The death of the Blue Queen ends up creating a mist, one that threatens Katharine’s contemporary reign on Fennbirn, but other problems are afoot in the contemporary world of Katharine, Arisinoe and Mirabella.

Jules Millone has risen up by virtue of her status as a potential Legion Queen, namely, she is a woman with more than one “gift”: she has something called the war gift, which enables her to command objects and weapons at will (a sort of telekinetic battle power), while she is also a naturalist (and boasts a large predatory cat named Camden as a familiar). There is a potential apocalyptic showdown emerging between Katharine and Jules. Meanwhile Arsinoe is trying to figure out what to do about the fact that the mist is becoming more malevolent. Mirabella faces a crucial decision: should she align herself with Jules, who she believes may destroy Fennbirn entirely, or should she align herself with Katharine, who is the rightful current Queen, but who may continue to try to exterminate her sisters?

There’s a lot going on in this book, but I thoroughly enjoyed the plotting. It was interesting to see Blake include the Blue Queen/ Daphne storyline, as I didn’t know what it’s importance would be, and you can see she is building up the “mist” to be a major power player in the final book. Also, another intriguing turn of events in the final pages continues to mark Katharine as a pivotal fulcrum for the action, but I can’t help but feel a little bit pity for her. She’s gone through so much, and there’s a sense that, at least for her, there is no way to go but down. Very much looking forward to what will no doubt prove to be a complicated and twisty final book. As I mentioned last time, this series has been far superior to the angsty-teenagers-reincarnated-as-Greek-gods series she put out previously. Warning: death count is very high.

 
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