Three Dark Crowns

Three Dark Crowns (2016) by Kendare Blake is the first novel in the five-part fantasy series by the same name. The novel follows 16-year-old royal triplet sisters from the island of Fennbirn—Arsinoe, who can control animals and plants; Katharine, who is immune to deadly poisons; and Mirabella, who can control the elements, like earth, fire, and water—as they compete against one another for the throne. As they come of age, they prepare to battle each other to death for the right to become Queen of Fennbirn. 

Kendare Blake writes works of horror, fantasy, and romance for a young adult audience. She is a New York Times bestselling author, and her 2011 novel about a ghost hunter, Anna Dressed in Blood, was named one of the Top 5 Novels of the Year by National Public Radio and one of the “Best Teen Books of the Year” by Kirkus. 

This guide refers to the HarperCollins 2018 first paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of animal cruelty, graphic violence, sexual content, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and death.

Plot Summary

Katharine is one of three triplet queens from the island of Fennbirn. The people believe that she is a poisoner—her special gift is that she is immune to poisons, though this gift hasn’t manifested. On her 16th birthday, the Arron family, who raised her, hosts a ritual poisoned feast meant to showcase the queen’s immunity. Natalia Arron, the head of the Arron family, reminds Katharine that this the Ascension Year—one of the triplet queens will kill her sisters and take the island’s throne, and it is necessary that their gifts are strong before the battle. Katharine, however, is weak and thin from ingesting poisons during training. As she begins to eat, she feels the poisons’ effects immediately and vomits, disappointing the public. Later, Pietyr, Natalia’s nephew, offers his services, promising to make Katharine desirable to suitors; Natalia agrees.

Katharine’s sisters—Arsinoe, who is supposedly a naturalist, and Mirabella, an elemental—are preparing for their own performances elsewhere on the island. Naturalists manipulate flora and fauna; elementals control the elements. Like Katharine, Arsinoe’s gift has not arrived, either. Raised by the Milone family in Wolf Spring, she is widely considered powerless. In contrast, her best friend Jules Milone is rumored to be the strongest naturalist in generations. 

Meanwhile, a crowd gathers to watch as Queen Mirabella works with lightning, wind, and earth at her party in Rolanth. She is the only one of the queens with a visible gift and is backed by the temple and its priestesses. However, she has recurring, troubling dreams about killing her sisters. The high priestess, Luca, says they are a test, but Mirabella resists the idea and longs to reconnect with her sisters. The priestess Rho suspects that Mirabella won’t be able to go through with the killings, so she secretly proposes declaring this a Sacrificial Year: a rare event in which the “weaker” queens are publicly executed to avoid bloodshed. Luca agrees to support this idea, though she knows the tradition is fabricated. She plans to assassinate Katharine and Arsinoe at the Beltane festival, which begins the Ascension year. 

As Beltane approaches, Jules’s mother Madrigal tries to teach Arsinoe low magic, believing it will empower the queen. Arsinoe thinks low magic is risky and silly, but she nevertheless experiments with it out of desperation. Meanwhile, she grows close to a suitor from the mainland named Billy Chatworth while Jules reconnects with her childhood love, Joseph. Arsinoe later tries to summon an animal familiar using low magic, and then encounters a wild bear in the woods. Believing it might be her familiar, Arsinoe tries to bond with it. However, the bear attacks both her and Billy, and while protecting Billy, Arsinoe is severely mauled. The attack leaves her face disfigured, though she does not care about her appearance. 

Katharine grows more confident through her training with Pietyr, and they fall in love with each other though she is to marry a suitor from the mainland. Natalia is pleased with Katharine’s progress, but she cautions Pietyr about getting too involved. Katharine hosts Billy for dinner, and Pietyr watches them jealously. She knows she can never love Billy as she loves Pietyr. 

Meanwhile, Mirabella also becomes involved in a complicated romantic situation. She has another bad dream where she sees her sisters dead by her hands, and, traumatized, she runs away from home. After walking for two days, she sees Joseph’s boat capsizing in a storm and uses her elemental powers to save him. The two are drawn to each other and have sex. Arsinoe, Jules, and Billy search for Joseph after the storm, and discover Joseph and Mirabella together. Though Mirabella is happy to see Arsinoe and tries to reach out to her, armed priestesses suddenly arrive to take Mirabella back home. The sisters are separated again, and Arsinoe hates her sister even more because she thinks Mirabella tried to ambush her. Joseph feels guilty about cheating on Jules, and Jules is hurt, but he cannot stop thinking about Mirabella.

Natalia meets with Billy’s father in private, and he tells her he has heard about the priestesses’ plan to assassinate Katharine and Arsinoe at Beltane. When Natalia tells Pietyr about this plan, he grows concerned. In Wolf Spring, Billy tries to sneak Arsinoe to the mainland to protect her from being assassinated—he heard of the priestesses’ plan from his father. However, the escape attempt fails, and they are discovered. At Beltane, Pietyr takes Katharine to the Breccia Domain, a chasm at the island’s heart. Dead queens’ bodies are thrown there when they fail to survive their Ascension Year. He tells her to meet him at this location if anything goes wrong during the Quickening ceremony, where the queens are supposed to show their gifts to the public. 

Natalia tells Katharine to eat freely at the ceremony as Natalia will ensure that her food will be poison-free. To make Arsinoe appear strong, Madrigal makes her use low magic to bond with a bear that will actually be under Jules’s control. On the day of the ceremony, Katharine is first. She takes small bites of the food but gradually grows more confident as she doesn’t get sick. Natalia’s plan works, fooling everyone into thinking the food is poisoned when it is not. Arsinoe is next. She takes the potion she made using low magic, walks to center stage, and calls for the bear; it comes to her. She knows Jules’s control of the beast may be tenuous, but the bear makes her laugh and seems to obey her. The crowd is impressed. Luca thinks that Arsinoe and Katharine both wield their gifts powerfully, and she shakes her head, admitting defeat and signaling to Rho that she wants to call of the planned assassinations. However, Rho seems determined to carry them out. 

When Mirabella takes the stage, she shows her elemental powers by performing with fire, amazing the crowd. When she sees Joseph watching her, she becomes distracted and reaches toward him. Jules notices the two of them gazing at each other, and she loses control over the bear, which tears through the crowd toward Mirabella. Joseph jumps onto stage to protect Mirabella, and the bear suddenly changes course and runs away. Mirabella now believes that Arsinoe sent the bear to attack her. She bitterly decides to steel her heart against her sisters—she believes they have no qualms about killing her. 

Amid the confusion at the Quickening ceremony, Katharine runs to the Breccia Domain to find Pietyr. She tells him the ceremony was awful, and he misunderstands this to mean that the priestesses are about to assassinate Katharine. To save her from this violent end, he pushes her into the chasm.

Afterward, Katharine is missing and presumed dead. Mirabella wonders if Arsinoe murdered her. After the Arrons return home, Katharine reappears at their manor, dirty and bloody. She says she did not fall into the chasm, and she is now determined to take revenge and the crown. In Wolf Spring, Arsinoe prefers to stay inside the Milones’ house. Billy visits, bringing her a box of candy from his father. When Jules eats a piece, she sickens immediately and takes days to recover. However, Arsinoe eats several pieces and never gets sick—this is how she discovers that she is a poisoner, not a naturalist.