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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
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:
Yes
it was such a conplex world that i loved, the story kept shocking me and i loved the main love story
This is the Owlcrate pick for March. I'm also rounding again-- 2.5 stars rounded down to 2 for reasons to be explained.
I usually like to keep my reviews spoiler-free, but since people know going in that the queens will die, I feel it's fair to warn that their deaths are described in detail multiple times. And I will give away a slight spoiler by warning that the "bury your gays" trope is in place and the only POC queens also die. What sucks more about this is that these are interesting characters. I would've liked to know more about then. Hell, you could write entire novellas about these queens and I would've gladly read them.
A lot of this book is padded out with repetition. Something will be stated in the narrative in one chapter and then repeated with slightly different words in another. And as I said, the details of the queens' death are repeated a total of three times. True we know going in they're going to die, but the narrative gives away the method of each death super early, so it really deflates the suspense. We're also repeatedly told about Keralie's family problems, repeatedly told about Mackiel's darkness and how he used to be more innocent/kind, basically spoon-fed everything over and over again.
Yet even with all that repeating, there are things that come right the hell out of nowhere. Like a plot-important character who doesn't even get introduced until the last third. Props to the author for going in an unexpected direction with that plot point but even so, some clues or mentions of this character before would've been nice. There's technology introduced that until the moment, was given no mention. There's also a point where a character whiplashes in their attitude toward another character with absolutely no prompting-- nothing had changed, but they suddenly decided one way versus another. There are also some deus ex machina moments that make things a little too neat and easy.
That was the problem for me as far as the mystery goes: a lot of the twists weren't really twists but rather the narrative giving the reader incomplete information, or setting the timeline up in a non-linear way. I would have to re-read to be sure, but I don't think there were any clues to what was going on. We don't get to follow the investigator as he gathers clues or interrogates witnesses and staff. The way one of the deaths is described doesn't seem to match up with who the killer turns out to be. When it's all put together, I was just confused and the investigator basically goes "Of course!" and claims that the pieces came together, when the reader was never given any of those pieces.
The romance was unnecessary, added nothing, was under-developed, and came out of nowhere. Of course anyone familiar with YA will know who the love interest is the moment he's mentioned, but even so, their relationship felt like it was developing more toward friendship when all of a sudden they were making out. I was actually more invested in the F/F relationship.
There are a lot of things about the world that don't make sense or aren't written consistently. For example, if Eonia is so technologically advanced, how have they not come up with a way to grow crops in other regions? Why is there only this one magical cure-all? If one quadrant only emphasizes the arts, what do they do when they need a doctor? I would need to read the Queenly Laws again, but I feel like there were some loopholes in how each one was worded. At first I was interested in Eonia since it reminded me of Vulcan and their emphasis on logic and reason over emotion, but it was reduced to a tightly-controlled dystopia that could've taken up a whole book on its own.
As for the positives, it is a quick read. Even when the method of murder was ruined for me I still wanted to keep reading to see who the culprit was and go through clue-finding. I liked some of the characters and wished it would have all been told in third-person to maintain narrative consistency. Having Keralie be the only POV narrator was really distracting. While the world-building could've used some work, it had intriguing potential.
Not the strongest story, but I think the author has enough potential I would read something else of hers.
I usually like to keep my reviews spoiler-free, but since people know going in that the queens will die, I feel it's fair to warn that their deaths are described in detail multiple times. And I will give away a slight spoiler by warning that the "bury your gays" trope is in place and the only POC queens also die. What sucks more about this is that these are interesting characters. I would've liked to know more about then. Hell, you could write entire novellas about these queens and I would've gladly read them.
A lot of this book is padded out with repetition. Something will be stated in the narrative in one chapter and then repeated with slightly different words in another. And as I said, the details of the queens' death are repeated a total of three times. True we know going in they're going to die, but the narrative gives away the method of each death super early, so it really deflates the suspense. We're also repeatedly told about Keralie's family problems, repeatedly told about Mackiel's darkness and how he used to be more innocent/kind, basically spoon-fed everything over and over again.
Yet even with all that repeating, there are things that come right the hell out of nowhere. Like a plot-important character who doesn't even get introduced until the last third. Props to the author for going in an unexpected direction with that plot point but even so, some clues or mentions of this character before would've been nice. There's technology introduced that until the moment, was given no mention. There's also a point where a character whiplashes in their attitude toward another character with absolutely no prompting-- nothing had changed, but they suddenly decided one way versus another. There are also some deus ex machina moments that make things a little too neat and easy.
That was the problem for me as far as the mystery goes: a lot of the twists weren't really twists but rather the narrative giving the reader incomplete information, or setting the timeline up in a non-linear way. I would have to re-read to be sure, but I don't think there were any clues to what was going on. We don't get to follow the investigator as he gathers clues or interrogates witnesses and staff. The way one of the deaths is described doesn't seem to match up with who the killer turns out to be. When it's all put together, I was just confused and the investigator basically goes "Of course!" and claims that the pieces came together, when the reader was never given any of those pieces.
The romance was unnecessary, added nothing, was under-developed, and came out of nowhere. Of course anyone familiar with YA will know who the love interest is the moment he's mentioned, but even so, their relationship felt like it was developing more toward friendship when all of a sudden they were making out. I was actually more invested in the F/F relationship.
There are a lot of things about the world that don't make sense or aren't written consistently. For example, if Eonia is so technologically advanced, how have they not come up with a way to grow crops in other regions? Why is there only this one magical cure-all? If one quadrant only emphasizes the arts, what do they do when they need a doctor? I would need to read the Queenly Laws again, but I feel like there were some loopholes in how each one was worded. At first I was interested in Eonia since it reminded me of Vulcan and their emphasis on logic and reason over emotion, but it was reduced to a tightly-controlled dystopia that could've taken up a whole book on its own.
As for the positives, it is a quick read. Even when the method of murder was ruined for me I still wanted to keep reading to see who the culprit was and go through clue-finding. I liked some of the characters and wished it would have all been told in third-person to maintain narrative consistency. Having Keralie be the only POV narrator was really distracting. While the world-building could've used some work, it had intriguing potential.
Not the strongest story, but I think the author has enough potential I would read something else of hers.
This one started out strong, so I was a bit disappointed by the lack of character development (especially the development of the relationship between Varin and Keralie) toward the end. While the characters were bland, the plot itself was interesting. I was pretty invested in the story of the four dead queens and who killed them.
Typical YA plots. I did enjoy this read and it kept me interested throughout.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
It was the epitome of mid
Not bad but not all that
I liked the concept but the plot twists just didn’t shock me. I guessed them all long before they were revealed which sucked. A major thing for me is being blindsided during plot twists and I guess all if them so 🤷♀️actually I guess I didn’t guess the whole mind control chip thingy. But I was a little unimpressed with that one I was like “oh…..okay sure” like I feel like it could’ve been a good plot twist but it wasn’t written in a good enough way to be even mildly shocking
Also romance wasn’t all that. I was excited for it but it was mid so I was pretty disappointed
I liked what she did with the switching povs and the timeline tho. The queens pov were really boring at first but then when they started dropping info and tea I got a little intrigued
Not bad but not all that
I liked the concept but the plot twists just didn’t shock me. I guessed them all long before they were revealed which sucked. A major thing for me is being blindsided during plot twists and I guess all if them so 🤷♀️
Also romance wasn’t all that. I was excited for it but it was mid so I was pretty disappointed
I liked what she did with the switching povs and the timeline tho. The queens pov were really boring at first but then when they started dropping info and tea I got a little intrigued
One of those popular, well-reviewed books where I feel like I must be missing something. An interesting story let down by the writing.