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A review by katbotdiaries
Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston
1.0
The author obviously loves Celtic fantasy, and the world building in this pictured an idyllic, lush Ireland of the past. Literally every other choice was confusing. The book is written mainly from the perspective of Neve, the descendant of the colonizers of Ireland, who are obviously written to be Egyptian. The choice to write from the perspective of the colonizer and make them a sympathetic character, kind of a White Savior story with only white characters, felt very dated to me.
The pacing of this book was incredibly off, the first half of the book it is completely slice of life for Neve and Ronan, the other main character who is an ex druid. There are no motivations or goals for either main character beyond Neve wanting to prove she's Not Like Other Girls. She wields an ax and sneaks out of the castle and she totally doesn't have unresolved trauma from her mother abandoning her.
In the second half of the book, we have action thrown at us in a never ending cycle, all the way up to the end, where with 20 pages to go, we have not resolved any part of the conflicts. Falling action and resolution take place over four pages. The conflict was also super confusing. Neve is getting help from the Scathach, but also the Scathach is evil. She also resolves all her emotional trauma over the revelation that her father is not the king but actually a type of being she has called MONSTER multiple times in about two paragraphs. And she is an extreme Mary Sue, being excellent at literally everything she tries out in the book, including war strategy. Everything just falls into her lap once the plot gets rolling.
Overall, this is an avoid. If you want Celtic or British inspired fantasy, I'd stick with books like The Once and Future King by T.H. White, Legendborn by Tracey Deonn, or The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd Jones.
The pacing of this book was incredibly off, the first half of the book it is completely slice of life for Neve and Ronan, the other main character who is an ex druid. There are no motivations or goals for either main character beyond Neve wanting to prove she's Not Like Other Girls. She wields an ax and sneaks out of the castle and she totally doesn't have unresolved trauma from her mother abandoning her.
In the second half of the book, we have action thrown at us in a never ending cycle, all the way up to the end, where with 20 pages to go, we have not resolved any part of the conflicts. Falling action and resolution take place over four pages.
Overall, this is an avoid. If you want Celtic or British inspired fantasy, I'd stick with books like The Once and Future King by T.H. White, Legendborn by Tracey Deonn, or The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd Jones.