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kara_bianca_reads 's review for:
Four Dead Queens
by Astrid Scholte
Summary:
Four Dead Queens follows Keralie, a young thief from the quadrant of Toria. This land is divided into four quadrants, each ruled by one queen. But the queens are being murdered, one by one, and Keralie is drawn into the assassination plot in unexpected ways.
Characters 3/5:
I thought the characters of the queens were all interesting, but perhaps didn't get enough screentype to be properly developed. I also enjoyed the love interest, Varin, but I felt like Keralie's development wasn't quite there for me, and her motivations didn't always seem to align with her past. I thought the queens were all a lot of more interesting, but needed a lot more time to really explore some of the themes their characters would have brought up.
Plot 4/5:
Probably my favorite component of this novel was the plot. I found the mystery engaging, and I was entertained by the twists and turns. It was fast paced and easy to fly through, and I felt like it did a good job overall.
Setting and atmosphere 2.5/5:
I think the world building was probably what suffered the most. I think perhaps this could have benefited from being a series rather than a standalone novel because I felt like a lot of the world building was infodumped early on, and even then, only developed on a surface level when it was necessary to the plot. Although I found the names of places cheesy and they caught on my tongue, I was intrigued by them, but I felt like the book didn't really deliver on that front.
Writing style 3/5:
I had things I liked and also didn't like about the writing. It was fast paced and easy to fly through, the pages literally seemed to just disappear. But I'm not the BIGGEST fan of 1st person narration, and I think sometimes it was a little limiting. I also felt like a lot of world building elements were repeated whenever they might be relevant to the plot, so what little world building we got was dumped in and then repeatedly thrown in your face, but not in a natural way, so I really didn't enjoy that.
I think this story had the potential to be really interesting and amazing, but didn't quite deliver on a few aspects. I think it maybe needed a little bit more work, or word count, to really expand and develop some of those key areas. I had a fun time reading it, but there were quite a few things that drew me out of the story, so they limited my enjoyment overall.
Four Dead Queens follows Keralie, a young thief from the quadrant of Toria. This land is divided into four quadrants, each ruled by one queen. But the queens are being murdered, one by one, and Keralie is drawn into the assassination plot in unexpected ways.
Characters 3/5:
I thought the characters of the queens were all interesting, but perhaps didn't get enough screentype to be properly developed. I also enjoyed the love interest, Varin, but I felt like Keralie's development wasn't quite there for me, and her motivations didn't always seem to align with her past. I thought the queens were all a lot of more interesting, but needed a lot more time to really explore some of the themes their characters would have brought up.
Plot 4/5:
Probably my favorite component of this novel was the plot. I found the mystery engaging, and I was entertained by the twists and turns. It was fast paced and easy to fly through, and I felt like it did a good job overall.
Setting and atmosphere 2.5/5:
I think the world building was probably what suffered the most. I think perhaps this could have benefited from being a series rather than a standalone novel because I felt like a lot of the world building was infodumped early on, and even then, only developed on a surface level when it was necessary to the plot. Although I found the names of places cheesy and they caught on my tongue, I was intrigued by them, but I felt like the book didn't really deliver on that front.
Writing style 3/5:
I had things I liked and also didn't like about the writing. It was fast paced and easy to fly through, the pages literally seemed to just disappear. But I'm not the BIGGEST fan of 1st person narration, and I think sometimes it was a little limiting. I also felt like a lot of world building elements were repeated whenever they might be relevant to the plot, so what little world building we got was dumped in and then repeatedly thrown in your face, but not in a natural way, so I really didn't enjoy that.
I think this story had the potential to be really interesting and amazing, but didn't quite deliver on a few aspects. I think it maybe needed a little bit more work, or word count, to really expand and develop some of those key areas. I had a fun time reading it, but there were quite a few things that drew me out of the story, so they limited my enjoyment overall.