894 reviews for:

Queen's Peril

E.K. Johnston

3.95 AVERAGE

contodoelamor's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

lesserjoke's review

2.0

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This Star Wars novel has a few neat moments -- like handmaiden Sabé's brief female love interest -- but is overall far too disjointed to be effective. It's a prelude to the first prequel movie followed by a retelling of that film's events from the perspective of different characters, generally but not exclusively centered around Queen Amidala and her cohort. But instead of presenting a cohesive independent storyline for readers, the narrative is full of isolated scenes that don't connect back to anything else in the book, with e.g. a random interior monologue from Jar Jar Binks serving no clear purpose whatsoever.

This is, technically, also a spinoff of author E. K. Johnston's earlier tie-in work Queen's Shadow, which was set in between Episodes I and II. So that makes it the prequel to a prequel of a prequel, which may speak to its difficulty in staking out the distinctive space to situate a plot of its own. Still, The Phantom Menace is one of the weaker entries in the Skywalker saga, and it seems like this title could have offered a fresh take to help shore up its many flaws. Yet without a disciplined approach to keep the focus on one or two key protagonists, it only squanders that era of the franchise further.

[Content warning for menstruation.]

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ari21's review

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

justkrissy's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kagemiyas's review

4.0

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i would trust e.k. johnson with my life, it feels so good to have someone care and respect padme as much as she does

tiedyedude's review

4.0

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One of the biggest issues with the Phantom Menace is too many storylines and a lack of focus. Queen's Peril attempts to fill in the blanks of Padme's tale, while also serving as a prequel to Queen's Shadow and the origin of her handmaiden squad. Definitely requires knowledge of The Phantom Menace, but a strong examination of a great character. Some period talk too, which I've heard is rare in YA books.

jwhite8's review

4.0

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I was going to give this 3 stars and then I rethought it. I am a huge Star Wars fan and Anakin/Vader is my favorite character and Padme is such an important character in his orbit that I really wanted to read the Padme Trilogy and I discovered though this is the second book, it is chronologically the 1st so I decided to listen to it first. This book is definitely a YA book, but I still really enjoyed the background and insight into Padme's character and look forward to reading the rest of the series.

defekel017's review

4.5

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

cassielovesbooks's review

5.0

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the rest of the book was absolutely wonderful but THE ENDING. tears were flowing.

macau21's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No