I remembered that this was my least favorite of the series, but I couldn’t remember why until I reread it. It’s not a bad book, and I think dealing with the emotional ramifications of a world with such an evil suddenly purged makes sense. I just didn’t really like the main characters in this one (Bitterblue grown up, Saf, and Giddon are all just meh to me and sometimes even frustrating). Characters are the most important part of a story to me, and as much as I liked the glimpses of Katsa, Po, and Fire (I wonder Cashore intended to make Bitterblue seem at least half in love with Katsa?), it wasn’t enough to fully get me through the scenes of characters I didn’t like. However, I see that it is a necessary part of the story in this world and liked the insight given.