Three Dark Crowns takes place entirely on the island of Fennbirn, where female triplets kill each other to become Queen at the age of sixteen. The characters are amazing, and easily the best part of the book. All of the characters have excellent motivations and feel real, and it is impossible not to at least understand even the darkest of them.

Unfortunately, that is where Blake's mastery ends. The world building is atrocious. The whole plot centers around these three sisters fighting to be Queen, but their mother (the previous Queen) is dead and gone and has been most of their lives--so how much does the Queen even matter? The ham-handed attempt at classifying the mainlanders as "other" is exasperating when it should be a source of insight into what the outside world is like, and why these mainlanders even want to be married to the Queen of this fucked up little island. I have no idea how these people farm, govern, learn to read, or anything. And the little things fall apart too -- the poisoners' refuse to eat anything that isn't poisoned but it is never explained why. Arsinoe burns a love charm that has terrible consequences for her best friend, but none of her other charms work -- so either I have to swallow this pathetic insta-love betrayal as the one magic she can manage, or I have to believe that two otherwise loyal and smart characters would do something so out of character.

Overall it was a fun read, and I enjoyed Blake's style. I wouldn't recommend it to high fantasy and world building lovers, but I would definitely recommend it to character driven readers.