Reviews

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

Only show reviews with written explanations

ecolh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I actually like the concept of grown adult women in their mid 30s being the heros of the story. The book also got more interesting with addition of trans rights in covens came into play.

It fell short for me when the writing seemed disjointed, as though Dawson had a different style every time she went back and edited the book.

There are a couple of instances that made me uncomfortable when speaking about human rights, with the implication being that no one would choose to be transgender...which doesn't sit right with me as a catch all statement about trans people. I will say that this is never said by any of the trans characters in the book, but by the cis ones, so perhaps the following books will address it, but it's unlikely that I'll find out for myself.

mitziatratum's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense 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? No

4.75

annemoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

theimaginaryworldoffaith's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

cukrkandl's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Oh God, this was SO disappointing. This book sounded absolutely amazing--the exploration of gender and transphobia in a matriarchal witch society in modern England? Imagine my surprise when there was none of that. I mean, sure, it IS there, sort of, but this book was so painfully boring from the beginning, I genuinely thought I picked up the wrong book. You learn almost nothing about the witch society, it's all just boring normal-people stuff, and I have enough of that in real life. And then I got to the

50%

mark (!!!), and something finally happened. It didn't make the book better, though, it only just got worse. Be careful what you wish for, really.

There are four main characters but not really. They're all boring, completely flat, and it took me way too long to be able to distinguish between all of them. Leonie had the potential to be interesting, but she also gets the least amount of chapters, and they're all very stilted and don't seem very genuine. Elle is just boring. So is Niamh. Helena is such a pitiful, caricature-esque portrayal of a

villain

, it's laughable. Theo is by far the most interesting and compelling character, but we know absolutely nothing about

her

. NOTHING.

She

might as well have not even been there, seriously. This book would have been so much better if it was from

her

perspective.

I was under the impression that this book was mainly about gender and transphobia, and that was not it. I'm not really sure WHAT exactly the book was about, to be honest. When you finally get to the trans storyline, everything is just completely black and white, good vs. bad, no gray areas whatsoever, absolutely no nuance. What's worse, at times it felt like I was supposed to feel bad for

Helena

???

When Niamh is telling her, for the last time, that either she accepts Theo or it's over between them, it was randomly revealed that her dead husband had been abusive, and it's implied that THAT'S why she hates trans people? Or trans women. Or cis men, I don't even know what the message was there. And the same thing happened with Snow--when she tells her mother about Theo, she corrects her multiple time when she misgenders Theo, but then her mother is killed and she's obviously entitled to her grief, but the way it manifests is... transphobic slurs?

Like, okay... Interesting.

Anyway, this was really not what I was expecting, which sucks, because I was genuinely hoping this book would be amazing, especially since there are obvious parallels to one particular British person well-known for her transphobia. But nope. It was just disappointing.