Shelley Chappell
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Shelley
  • Shelley's Stories
  • Audiobooks
  • Contact

Shelley Chappell

Writer. Reader. Thinker. Dreamer
What are we but stories?

Haunted Kingdoms: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore and Melina Marchetta's Lumatere Series

1/23/2014

0 Comments

 
It was impossible for me to read Bitterblue (2012), Kristin Cashore's latest contribution to her Graceling series, without recognising its remarkable thematic resonance with Melina Marchetta's Lumatere series.  If you enjoyed one, be sure to try out the other.  Both feature haunted kingdoms.
Picture
Cashore's novel is narrated by the eponymous heroine, Bitterblue, who featured as a child character in Graceling but now reappears eight years later as a young woman struggling to rule a kingdom which has been traumatised by decades of monarchical abuse.  Bitterblue's father was King Leck, the villain of Graceling (and its prequel, set 35 years before, Fire).  Leck's Grace (his magical gift or power) was an ability to convince others to believe everything he said, even at the second or third degree; his disgrace was an obsession with manipulation and the infliction of physical and emotional pain. 

Bitterblue, whose memories of her father and her childhood are piecemeal due to the fog-like effect of Leck's Grace, spends the novel trying to discover (and uncover) what actually happened during his reign.  She believes that only by understanding the past can she help her people to recover their wits and remake the kingdom.  What did Leck actually do to people?  What were his crimes?  And how can those abused by him recover and move on with their lives? 

The story is metafictive in many ways, with a strong focus on the creation and passage of knowledge through conversations, letters, diaries, oral storytelling, reading and books.  This is a novel that concedes the power of language, a novel that features both ciphers and printing presses.  But the significance of knowledge goes beyond mere language:  fabrications and truths are also weighed against each other in symbol, in art, and in behaviour.  The final revelations are harrowing, but the sympathetic characterisation allows for hope and healing.

Bitterblue, unlike its predecessor, Graceling, demanded a comparison with the work of Melina Marchetta, because Marchetta's fascinating Lumatere series also features a haunted kingdom.

Picture
In the first novel of Marchetta's trilogy, Finnikin of the Rock (2008), the people of the kingdom of Lumatere are divided into two:  those who were trapped by a magical barrier inside the kingdom when it was annexed ten years before (and have not been heard from since), and those who escaped the annexation of the city only to be trapped outside its magical barrier and forced to live in exile as refugees, forming diasporas where they could, and suffering wherever they could not.  The novel is about attempts to break down the magical barrier and bring the exiles home.  

Its conclusion and the next two novels, Froi of the Exiles (2011) and Quintana of Charyn (2012) deal with the consequences of re-unification.  Those who had been trapped both inside and outside the kingdom endured tragic abuses and now they must try to find some way to heal as individuals and as a community.  Such healing doesn't come instantly or easily.  And their kingdom is not the only one to be so haunted.

Although both Cashore and Marchetta's series reveal traumatic details of abuse and suffering, neither are voyeuristic; both approach this theme with sensitivity and a genuine attempt to explore the issue of how large groups of people can rebuild lives which have been broken and battered by widespread abuse.  Given the world we live in, with its many haunted individuals and communities, their attempts seem, to me, incredibly worthwhile reading.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Appearances
    Audiobooks
    Awards
    Children's Stories
    Fairy Tales
    Fantasy
    Free Stories
    Great Reads
    Interviews
    Poetry
    Reviews
    Science Fiction
    Shelley's Stories
    Thoughts On Writing
    Wish Upon A Southern Star
    Writing Community
    Young Adult

    Archives

    November 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

Make a connection with Shelley.

​Please get in touch with me if you'd like to talk fairy tales, fantasy or writing.

If you've enjoyed one of my stories, please leave me a review on Goodreads, Amazon,   Smashwords, or another site of your choice.​


Picture
My anthologies are available in paperback and hardback forms at Amazon.com. If you've read one of my stories, please leave me a rating and/or a review.
Picture
Smashwords is where you can find my free-to-read stories. For more details on my stories, see Shelley's Stories above.
Picture

Come and find me on Goodreads! If you've read one of my stories, please leave me a rating and/or a review. Follow me as an Author to be kept up-to-date with my latest blog posts and releases.

Picture

Check out my Facebook page! Follow my page for posts about fairy tales, books, and whatever else catches my eye.

Picture
Like looking at pretty pictures?
Follow me on Pinterest to see my boards of fairy tale illustrations and fantasy art.

Email Me

Picture
You can email me at shelley.chappell
​@gmail.com.
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Shelley
  • Shelley's Stories
  • Audiobooks
  • Contact