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A review by mbenzz
The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin
2.0
This book reads like an episode of The Gilmore Girls.
I HATE the Gilmore Girls.
The banter back and forth between these kids (especially Cleves and Henry and Cleves and Parker), is constantly trying WAY too hard to be witty, snappy and clever, and it's just EXHAUSTING. Teenagers do NOT talk like this (though if I'm pointing that out, then I must also point out that normal teenagers don't ACT the way they do in this entire book, either...but I I'll leave that alone for Fiction's sake).
This book could easily have been 150-200 pages lighter if the author or editor had whittled down the pages and pages of unnecessary 'oh-so-witty-Rory-and-Lorelai-esq' banter.
I love Henry VIII and all his crazy wives. Have for yeeeeears. SO when I heard about this book, I did kind of roll my eyes a bit, but I figured if done right, this could actually be pretty good. Alas, I was disappointed.
We all know after Henry's accident (real life jousting, Dead Queens falling off a slide while trying to ride a bike down it) he changed. He became paranoid and mean. Well, that works when your the King of 16th Century Britain and can get away with all the things....not so much when you're a high school student in small town Indiana. It all just seemed silly and ridiculous.
Maybe I'm too old for this type of book, but I kept wondering...WHY didn't Katie just break up with Henry?? She clearly loved Tom, and she knew she had been caught out, so why run after him all psycho? Just leave him and be with who you WANT! But it's all about images here, I guess.
Also, it was really annoying how Cleves had never even MET some of the people that she was so definitively characterizing. Lina? Jane? Anna? She didn't know squat about these woman, yet she was so smug in how she thought she knew exactly who the were and what they would do.
And the ending? The 90's Spice Girls 'Girl Power!' ending? Nope.
Again...ridiculous and silly. But that's not what irritated me most. What infuriated me was I had just spent 400+ pages sifting through the not-so-funny comedy hour of Anna of Cleveland, and I don't even find out what happens in the end?! No epilogue? No, BTW, here's what happened to Henry after his girl-gang exposed him for the crazy weirdo that he is. Oh, and this is what Cleves ending up doing with her life since she spent a good chunk of the book lamenting about how she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grows up. YOU'RE WELCOME!
Nope. The girls get their overly dramatic 'justice', and the book fades to black.
In my opinion, I say skip this one. However, if you love Henry and his women, then curiosity will most likely get the better of you. In that case I say...you were warned.
I HATE the Gilmore Girls.
The banter back and forth between these kids (especially Cleves and Henry and Cleves and Parker), is constantly trying WAY too hard to be witty, snappy and clever, and it's just EXHAUSTING. Teenagers do NOT talk like this (though if I'm pointing that out, then I must also point out that normal teenagers don't ACT the way they do in this entire book, either...but I I'll leave that alone for Fiction's sake).
This book could easily have been 150-200 pages lighter if the author or editor had whittled down the pages and pages of unnecessary 'oh-so-witty-Rory-and-Lorelai-esq' banter.
I love Henry VIII and all his crazy wives. Have for yeeeeears. SO when I heard about this book, I did kind of roll my eyes a bit, but I figured if done right, this could actually be pretty good. Alas, I was disappointed.
We all know after Henry's accident (real life jousting, Dead Queens falling off a slide while trying to ride a bike down it) he changed. He became paranoid and mean. Well, that works when your the King of 16th Century Britain and can get away with all the things....not so much when you're a high school student in small town Indiana. It all just seemed silly and ridiculous.
Maybe I'm too old for this type of book, but I kept wondering...WHY didn't Katie just break up with Henry?? She clearly loved Tom, and she knew she had been caught out, so why run after him all psycho? Just leave him and be with who you WANT! But it's all about images here, I guess.
Also, it was really annoying how Cleves had never even MET some of the people that she was so definitively characterizing. Lina? Jane? Anna? She didn't know squat about these woman, yet she was so smug in how she thought she knew exactly who the were and what they would do.
And the ending? The 90's Spice Girls 'Girl Power!' ending? Nope.
Again...ridiculous and silly. But that's not what irritated me most. What infuriated me was I had just spent 400+ pages sifting through the not-so-funny comedy hour of Anna of Cleveland, and I don't even find out what happens in the end?! No epilogue? No, BTW, here's what happened to Henry after his girl-gang exposed him for the crazy weirdo that he is. Oh, and this is what Cleves ending up doing with her life since she spent a good chunk of the book lamenting about how she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grows up. YOU'RE WELCOME!
Nope. The girls get their overly dramatic 'justice', and the book fades to black.
In my opinion, I say skip this one. However, if you love Henry and his women, then curiosity will most likely get the better of you. In that case I say...you were warned.