A review by toffishay
Queen of Myth and Monsters by Scarlett St. Clair

dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I was disappointed by this sequel. I think that this book cranks up a lot of the messy and problematic pieces that were in the first book with less of the fun and intrigue. The pacing was also pretty crazy! Things were happening all over the place and major events were just being thrown in at the end of a chapter and then we all move on from it right away. It made it hard to care about anything that was happening. <SPOILER> I really don't know how I feel about Adrian and Isolde's characters after this book either. The pull and push and lack of trust maybe makes a lot of sense, but it was giving me whiplash to be constantly going back and forth with them fighting and fucking. I also found myself more uncomfortable with the presentation of Isolde's body and experience in this book. It was beginning to feel a bit fetishistic the way that her body and sexuality was being treated. Her backstory as coming from other dark-skinned people who are currently enslaved and the white man that she is with being unable or unwilling to understand her desire to free them felt gross. And the depictions of sexual assault in this book felt unnecessary to me. The magic stuff really came out of nowhere too and felt like a very surface level show of "women are destined for magic" "women are all witches deep down" online discourse. <END SPOILER> The smut it fun, but I just with that the rest of the book was as fun.
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