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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
DNFed
Sorry, but the story just wasn't original. It was hard to remember which region did what. Also, the narration wasn't fluent enough. I found myself not caring about Keralie and about what would happen to her. It's understandable that a 17-year old can steal and lie, however, it would be nice if she was more proper and a better example.
Sorry, but the story just wasn't original. It was hard to remember which region did what. Also, the narration wasn't fluent enough. I found myself not caring about Keralie and about what would happen to her. It's understandable that a 17-year old can steal and lie, however, it would be nice if she was more proper and a better example.
Read more reviews on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
3.5 stars
Four Dead Queens follows accomplished street thief Keralie Corrington as on one of her robberies, she intercepts some information that leaves her mired in a conspiracy to kill Quadara's queens.
I've been seeing advance reviews for this all over the place for months now, but for me, it did not live up to the hype. For a standalone, there is way too much content in this. Not to mention the world-building is all over the place. There are some vaguely fantasy-esque elements and a lot of advanced technology all in the same breath before it eventually winds up being a mystery. And with six different perspectives, it gets confusing really quickly. Quadara itself, however, was really intriguing, with the four quadrants each responsible for different professions and aspects of life, and I would have liked to read more about it. I'm still wondering though, how exactly a system would run with such laws in place, that Queens cannot visit their quadrants once crowned and so on. It's very unrealistic.
As for the characters themselves, I was not very impressed with Keralie. With her personality (downright childish at times) and history, it's very hard to cheer for her as a heroine. No, the characters I liked the most were the four queens. Their POVs, though few compared to Keralie's, were really well written and it was especially nice to get a look at their thoughts and past. Once I figured out that the story wasn't being told in a linear fashion, everything fell into place and it became much easier to follow along.
Either way, Four Dead Queens was an engaging and fast-paced read, quite good for a debut novel. There is definitely no shortage of exciting plot twists and it keeps you guessing for quite some time!
3.5 stars
Four Dead Queens follows accomplished street thief Keralie Corrington as on one of her robberies, she intercepts some information that leaves her mired in a conspiracy to kill Quadara's queens.
I've been seeing advance reviews for this all over the place for months now, but for me, it did not live up to the hype. For a standalone, there is way too much content in this. Not to mention the world-building is all over the place. There are some vaguely fantasy-esque elements and a lot of advanced technology all in the same breath before it eventually winds up being a mystery. And with six different perspectives, it gets confusing really quickly. Quadara itself, however, was really intriguing, with the four quadrants each responsible for different professions and aspects of life, and I would have liked to read more about it. I'm still wondering though, how exactly a system would run with such laws in place, that Queens cannot visit their quadrants once crowned and so on. It's very unrealistic.
As for the characters themselves, I was not very impressed with Keralie. With her personality (downright childish at times) and history, it's very hard to cheer for her as a heroine. No, the characters I liked the most were the four queens. Their POVs, though few compared to Keralie's, were really well written and it was especially nice to get a look at their thoughts and past. Once I figured out that the story wasn't being told in a linear fashion, everything fell into place and it became much easier to follow along.
Either way, Four Dead Queens was an engaging and fast-paced read, quite good for a debut novel. There is definitely no shortage of exciting plot twists and it keeps you guessing for quite some time!
Es exelente, la evolución de los personajes, los plot twist que hay, como se te dan pistas que poco a poco se van juntando para armar el panorama completo es ✨exelente ✨ ame cada párrafo y aunque los primeros capítulos no me parecieron tan wow cada vez me fue atrapando más y más y más
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
[b:Four Dead Queens|34213319|Four Dead Queens|Astrid Scholte|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527875244s/34213319.jpg|55261617] was being given away when I attended the Penguin talk at Comic-Con back in July 2018. Before this, I knew nothing about it, but I was immediately drawn in by the promise of a murder mystery in a fantasy setting. I'm a sucker for murder mysteries in general, and adding this to a fantasy world seemed like a recipe for excellence.
It didn't really work for me, though. Part of the problem might be that this book - a standalone, it seems - tries to do too many things and stretches itself way too thin in the process. It contains six different perspectives in total; all third person except for Keralee's perspective. It also contains weak fantasy-esque politics, an investigation into a murder, vague sci-fi concepts like genetic alterations and comm chips, and a romance that is thrown in for no reason I can see.
The fantasy part and its worldbuilding felt lacking. Many of the explanations given for the land and political system of Quadara didn't quite make sense to me. When a history is painted in, there's a vague mention of the one king and a war before the founding four queens built walls to split the land into quarters, each one ruling over their own section. I had a hard time picturing how this took place and why this was an adequate solution. Likewise, the rules of the "Queenly Law" seem ill-conceived. I don't understand why the queens are not allowed to visit the land they rule over.
At the time of the novel, the four ruling queens are Iris of Archia, Corra of Eonia, Stessa of Ludia and Marguerite of Toria. As the title reveals, the queens start being murdered one by one, so an investigator is called in to find the killer. Alongside this runs the story of street thief Keralee, who ingests some comm chips and sees visions of the queens' deaths. Accompanied by the beautiful but stoic Varin - ooh, what could happen? - she travels to the palace to reveal what she has seen.
Now, I know some people can read mysteries and just let events unfold without attempting to work it out in their head. I often wish I was this type of reader, but I can’t. Just say the word “mystery” and I’m instantly suspicious of everything. And this is not a good book to be suspicious of everything. The author drops a very heavy-handed piece of information about a third of the way through that made me instantly figure out who must be behind the murders.
And yet, despite this, there is still a touch of deus ex machina about it, given that
Again, I have no idea why the romance was in here. There's no build-up or chemistry. You can spot the love interest in chapter one by the way Keralie starts describing his beautiful skin, which is apparently “delicate, but hardy”... whatever that means. This is then followed by Keralee saying or thinking dirty jokes at the most inappropriate of times. Like her comment about Varin wanting to undress her while she is literally drowning.
I felt very frustrated with Keralee. I get that she’s supposed to be a bit of an antiheroine, but she just came across as petty and childishly mean. We sympathise with antiheroines because they are complicated and, deep down, we can see the messed up reasons behind their actions. That wasn’t the case with Keralee. When we first meet her, she slaps away an old man’s cane so he falls over. That's not flawed and interesting; that's Peeves the poltergeist.
It was all a little too obvious, and a little too messy. Regular mystery readers will figure it out early, and everyone else probably won't be far behind. I liked that two of the queens were secretly lovers, but it's a shame that these two queer characters were both killed off (their romance all happens off-page because one of them is already dead when we find out). And this is a big spoiler but I’m surprised this is being called a “feminist” fantasy as
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It didn't really work for me, though. Part of the problem might be that this book - a standalone, it seems - tries to do too many things and stretches itself way too thin in the process. It contains six different perspectives in total; all third person except for Keralee's perspective. It also contains weak fantasy-esque politics, an investigation into a murder, vague sci-fi concepts like genetic alterations and comm chips, and a romance that is thrown in for no reason I can see.
The fantasy part and its worldbuilding felt lacking. Many of the explanations given for the land and political system of Quadara didn't quite make sense to me. When a history is painted in, there's a vague mention of the one king and a war before the founding four queens built walls to split the land into quarters, each one ruling over their own section. I had a hard time picturing how this took place and why this was an adequate solution. Likewise, the rules of the "Queenly Law" seem ill-conceived. I don't understand why the queens are not allowed to visit the land they rule over.
At the time of the novel, the four ruling queens are Iris of Archia, Corra of Eonia, Stessa of Ludia and Marguerite of Toria. As the title reveals, the queens start being murdered one by one, so an investigator is called in to find the killer. Alongside this runs the story of street thief Keralee, who ingests some comm chips and sees visions of the queens' deaths. Accompanied by the beautiful but stoic Varin - ooh, what could happen? - she travels to the palace to reveal what she has seen.
Now, I know some people can read mysteries and just let events unfold without attempting to work it out in their head. I often wish I was this type of reader, but I can’t. Just say the word “mystery” and I’m instantly suspicious of everything. And this is not a good book to be suspicious of everything. The author drops a very heavy-handed piece of information about a third of the way through that made me instantly figure out who must be behind the murders.
And yet, despite this, there is still a touch of deus ex machina about it, given that
Spoiler
we don’t even meet the culprit until close to the end of the book.Again, I have no idea why the romance was in here. There's no build-up or chemistry. You can spot the love interest in chapter one by the way Keralie starts describing his beautiful skin, which is apparently “delicate, but hardy”... whatever that means. This is then followed by Keralee saying or thinking dirty jokes at the most inappropriate of times. Like her comment about Varin wanting to undress her while she is literally drowning.
I felt very frustrated with Keralee. I get that she’s supposed to be a bit of an antiheroine, but she just came across as petty and childishly mean. We sympathise with antiheroines because they are complicated and, deep down, we can see the messed up reasons behind their actions. That wasn’t the case with Keralee. When we first meet her, she slaps away an old man’s cane so he falls over. That's not flawed and interesting; that's Peeves the poltergeist.
It was all a little too obvious, and a little too messy. Regular mystery readers will figure it out early, and everyone else probably won't be far behind. I liked that two of the queens were secretly lovers, but it's a shame that these two queer characters were both killed off (their romance all happens off-page because one of them is already dead when we find out). And this is a big spoiler but I’m surprised this is being called a “feminist” fantasy as
Spoiler
pretty much everything is orchestrated by a man. He not only has three women murdered, including two queer women, but he is also the mastermind behind the female villain’s plans. She only does it because she’s hot for him and allows him to manipulate her.Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube
dark
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dnf....just dont care about the characters. Maybe I'll get back into it at a later time.
This was such an exciting book!
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and only really came to some plot conclusions a few chapters before they were revealed, so that was great! I love having a feel for where a story will end up while enjoying (and trusting) where the author takes the journey to get there.
There were a number of POV characters in this, but it didn't bog down the book or make it difficult to follow the story. The writing style was simple and clear, but each character's personality definitely came through.
I really enjoyed every character, and I mourned the losses of some of them (not a spoiler, I mean...the see that title?? lol) and celebrated the joy of others. An awesome read that I'm glad I randomly chose (thanks available now ebook filters!). An easy five star from me! There was nothing wrong with the plot or writing, everything seemed to fit together perfectly and I just wanted to keep reading once I got started!
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and only really came to some plot conclusions a few chapters before they were revealed, so that was great! I love having a feel for where a story will end up while enjoying (and trusting) where the author takes the journey to get there.
There were a number of POV characters in this, but it didn't bog down the book or make it difficult to follow the story. The writing style was simple and clear, but each character's personality definitely came through.
I really enjoyed every character, and I mourned the losses of some of them (not a spoiler, I mean...the see that title?? lol) and celebrated the joy of others. An awesome read that I'm glad I randomly chose (thanks available now ebook filters!). An easy five star from me! There was nothing wrong with the plot or writing, everything seemed to fit together perfectly and I just wanted to keep reading once I got started!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I honestly could not get enough of this book, and once I was hooked, I couldn't stop reading. the plot twists were so well thought out, and I was on the edge of my seat, and each plot twist was so unexpected I am definitely going to be buying this book and reading it again