Two Twisted Crowns

I've said it before... and I'll say it again. Rachel Gillig does NOT pull punches with her characters. Maiden, monster, martyr - Elspeth has been through it all. And just when I thought One Dark Window couldn't hurt me anymore... man, was I wrong.

You don't see a lot of authors leaving their characters for dead at the end of the first book in a series. Most such fantasy books and shows end with this cliffhanger... only to have their dead characters come back to life a few minutes later. Thankfully, Two Twisted Crowns does not fall prey to this trope in what I'd describe as a solid conclusion to Elspeth and Ravyn's story.

Plot

Two Twisted Crowns is divided into three parts following our characters from Blunder as they try to sort out their messy, broken lives. The plot quickly spins off into a couple of different directions. Ravyn is off to find the Twin Alders card - the last and only missing card in the deck of twelve. Once he unites it, they can hopefully say goodbye to the mist infecting Blunder. There's just a small problem: they need to go through the said mist-soaked forest to find it. As if that wasn't bad enough, only the Nightmare - occupying dead Elspeth's body - knows where it is.

The Twin Alders is hidden in a place with no time. A place of great sorrow and bloodshed and crime. Betwixt ancient trees, where the mist cuts bone-deep, the last Card remains, waiting, asleep. The wood knows no road—no path through the snare. Only I can find the Twin Alders… For it was I who left it there.

There's a new addition to our narrators, previously just Elspeth and Ravyn - now we get Elm Rowan's perspective as well. I have to admit I wasn't a fan of him at the start of One Dark Window, but he quickly grew on me. Adding his perspective is a clever choice since Elm remains at court with the Yew family, tolerating the king's cruelty in the wake of Hauth's injuries in One Dark Window. We finally see Ione again as well, in a very interesting subplot I did not expect.

There were points in the book where I really thought all was lost. Ravyn kept struggling with the consequences of Elspeth's death, Ione remained in her cold Maiden form, and Elm was still miserable. Not a single person was truly happy (except the Nightmare, maybe) and it showed. This was a book that dragged its characters and readers through hell and wasn't afraid to do so. An emotional rollercoaster is what it is. However, I think I'm quite satisfied with the logical way things wrapped up without loose ends. That's a crime I usually can't forgive otherwise.

Characters

Ravyn and Elspeth are a bit in the background this time around. I wish I could have had more of them since there isn't a third book in the series. This one was more focused on Elm, and the reason it still worked was that Gillig established even her secondary characters so well that we don't mind reading a whole book (almost) about them. I love the way she writes romantic relationships - they aren't fully fuelled by sexual desire or uncontrolled lustful urges but by a deep desire to actually get to know one another. This leads to fantastic chemistry in some of the new relationships in this book.

Ravyn

Ravyn in this book is… to put it simply, heartbroken. He's not a man of many words or very extravagant with romantic gestures, but seeing him in his misery in Two Twisted Crowns made me realize just how deeply he loved Elspeth. Unfortunately, he's still a man with a mission to find the last card, so his determination is commendable… but it hurts to see him suffer.

"Please. Have I not paid? Have I not lost pieces of myself, following you into the wood? It was for her." He looked up into those ancient yellow eyes, tears threatening his own. "Tell me the truth. Is there a way Elspeth and I will meet again on this side of the veil?"

Elm

I took quite a liking to Elm through Gillig's masterful exposition of the different layers of his personality. The mistreated son. The attentive lover. The caring prince. The protective brother. Two Twisted Crowns spends a good chunk of time exploring his twisted relationship with Hauth, his father, and the rest of the court - which once again made it a good idea to add him as a narrator. I also enjoyed his slow-burn romance, which was a little cheesy at times but yeah, not bad at all.

Worldbuilding

This time, I really missed the small chapter openers from One Dark Window that gave us a deeper look into the lore of the world. In hindsight, I think they were a good setup in the previous book for what was to come this time. This installment goes a lot deeper into the history of Blunder, about how the Deck was created, what was the price that paid for it, and how it must be united. Moreover, there's a lot more exposition on who the Nightmare actually is. The magic system remains one of the strong points of the series given how well it all came together in the end.

"My aim is vast. There are many truths to unveil in the wood. Circles that began centuries ago will finally loop."

Writing Style

I did find some parts in the middle kind of annoying where some new characters got introduced just for the sake of it without moving the story significantly forward. I don't think they impacted the story in any meaningful way. Things meandered around for quite a bit in the middle, where I lost interest for a while and slowed down reading until it picked up the pace again. Also, the ending was fast. Very fast. Over-in-forty-pages fast. I think it could be paced a lot better.

However, the writing remains fluid, and gut-wrenchingly sad at times, paired with doom and gloom in Blunder. The writing shines in the little moments of solace and peace we get, and it's beautiful.

In Conclusion

Two Twisted Crowns is by no means a perfect book, but it is better written than most fantasy books I have read recently. I'm a little annoyed by the shift in focus from the main characters and some of the slow chapters, but I'm glad this wasn't needlessly long or stretched out into a trilogy.

Reaching the ending almost made me tear up. Blunder is a beautiful little kingdom, with nuanced relationships and flawed characters who care for each other and love each other, who hurt. I probably enjoyed it a lot since the found family aspect of it is very well done. It almost felt like curling up with a mug of hot chocolate in a cozy blanket. Overall, it is a solid fantasy read that I'd recommend to lovers of Gothic fantasy.