Fall From Grace: A Review of One Dark Throne

 “Who knows what happened to the queens who were thrown down into the dark? Into the heart of the island, where the Goddess’s eye is always open. Who knows how she kept those queens or what she turned them into.”

One Dark Throne fails to uphold the legacy of its predecessor, Three Dark Crowns. Poor world-building and a cluttered plot mark its fall from grace.

Following The Quickening, an event showcasing the unique powers of triplet queens destined to murder each other in a gauntlet for power, sisters Katherine, Arsinoe, and Mirabella prepare to fight. To complicate matters, the girls face politics in their courts as they vie for suitors and political advantage, and the overseeing Council demands action. When naturalist Arsinoe attempts enlisting poisoner Katherine and elemental Mirabella to challenge the harsh tradition of murder, she faces opposition both from her sisters, now opponents, and the Council.

I had such high expectations for this novel, especially after enjoying Three Dark Crowns. The slow-moving plot, however, made reading this book a hassle. Complicated by unnecessary romances, the storyline strays from adventures and suspense to instead highlight the three sisters’ love interests and their companions’ love interests. The love triangle between Nicolas and Pietyr, for instance, distracted from Katherine’s interesting character development.

“As Nicolas takes his oaths before the High Priestess, Katherine’s mind wanders. It is not that she is not excited to be marrying him…He is so handsome and a good match for her. But he is not Pietyr.”

In this fantasy world, the plot hinges on the queens’ battle to determine the true ruler of Fennbirn during an Ascension Year, yet most of One Dark Throne’s drama emerges from picking suitors and separated lovers rather than cultivating abilities for upcoming battles. This discrepancy with the first book in the series represents a plot inconsistency that detracted from a promising idea.

The battle scenes, in comparison, were underdeveloped. After prefacing the queens’ fights with the elaborate Quickening in Three Dark Crowns, the forest chases, in which one queen would announce herself and run into the woods, seeking another queen, felt rushed and unorganized.

The pages dedicated to romance might have been better spent on filling plot holes, questions left unanswered in the duology regarding the nature of the sisters’ abilities, and developing the setting and side characters. Because of the additional romantic interests in the three sisters’ lives, tracking each of the side characters’ motivations, aspirations, and identities became a difficult task. I often found myself confused as I entered new chapters, trying to reconcile which character’s decision was impacting what other character. And still, I lack a clear picture of what each sister’s court really does, aside from arguing about poisoning, naturalist abilities, and elemental powers, and trying to intimidate others, and how the world of Fennbirn came to be. (Who established all these random, arbitrary dueling rules?)

Strong female friendships and the bittersweet conclusion redeemed the story for me, somewhat. For avoiding spoilers’ sake, I will refrain from naming the girls, but I appreciated their camaraderie and the conversations that made them more human. And the conclusion, unpredictable, left me thinking when I flipped the last page.

A disappointing sequel, although fans of Three Dark Crowns might enjoy it.

- ★★ -