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A review by worldsunlikeourown
Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
4.0
Read more reviews on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
3.5 stars
Four Dead Queens follows accomplished street thief Keralie Corrington as on one of her robberies, she intercepts some information that leaves her mired in a conspiracy to kill Quadara's queens.
I've been seeing advance reviews for this all over the place for months now, but for me, it did not live up to the hype. For a standalone, there is way too much content in this. Not to mention the world-building is all over the place. There are some vaguely fantasy-esque elements and a lot of advanced technology all in the same breath before it eventually winds up being a mystery. And with six different perspectives, it gets confusing really quickly. Quadara itself, however, was really intriguing, with the four quadrants each responsible for different professions and aspects of life, and I would have liked to read more about it. I'm still wondering though, how exactly a system would run with such laws in place, that Queens cannot visit their quadrants once crowned and so on. It's very unrealistic.
As for the characters themselves, I was not very impressed with Keralie. With her personality (downright childish at times) and history, it's very hard to cheer for her as a heroine. No, the characters I liked the most were the four queens. Their POVs, though few compared to Keralie's, were really well written and it was especially nice to get a look at their thoughts and past. Once I figured out that the story wasn't being told in a linear fashion, everything fell into place and it became much easier to follow along.
Either way, Four Dead Queens was an engaging and fast-paced read, quite good for a debut novel. There is definitely no shortage of exciting plot twists and it keeps you guessing for quite some time!
3.5 stars
Four Dead Queens follows accomplished street thief Keralie Corrington as on one of her robberies, she intercepts some information that leaves her mired in a conspiracy to kill Quadara's queens.
I've been seeing advance reviews for this all over the place for months now, but for me, it did not live up to the hype. For a standalone, there is way too much content in this. Not to mention the world-building is all over the place. There are some vaguely fantasy-esque elements and a lot of advanced technology all in the same breath before it eventually winds up being a mystery. And with six different perspectives, it gets confusing really quickly. Quadara itself, however, was really intriguing, with the four quadrants each responsible for different professions and aspects of life, and I would have liked to read more about it. I'm still wondering though, how exactly a system would run with such laws in place, that Queens cannot visit their quadrants once crowned and so on. It's very unrealistic.
As for the characters themselves, I was not very impressed with Keralie. With her personality (downright childish at times) and history, it's very hard to cheer for her as a heroine. No, the characters I liked the most were the four queens. Their POVs, though few compared to Keralie's, were really well written and it was especially nice to get a look at their thoughts and past. Once I figured out that the story wasn't being told in a linear fashion, everything fell into place and it became much easier to follow along.
Either way, Four Dead Queens was an engaging and fast-paced read, quite good for a debut novel. There is definitely no shortage of exciting plot twists and it keeps you guessing for quite some time!