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melsshelves 's review for:
The Queen of the Tearling
by Erika Johansen
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was written well but entirely too long and you feel every page. It doesn’t help that it’s told in third person POV with only 14 chapters across ~450 pages.
The plot…was the same the whole way through and extremely circular. You have a woman who is hunted down to be assassinated while she’s trying to take her rightful place as Queen. There’s a magic system that is not fleshed out AT ALL in this book - things just happen and you’re sort of left to figure it out. And by the end you don’t feel like there’s been any movement in the plot besides some character development.
And aside from a 19 yo main character, every one surrounding her is around double her age and mostly male except for maybe two side characters and children that she doesn’t interact with.
Oh and TRIGGERS for an unorthodox amount of off-page mentions of child rape, abuse, trafficking, and pedophilia. Like a LOT. I don’t really pay attention to triggers so that’s saying something for it to stand out enough to me to put into a review. Like, the amount of child harm in here felt personal.
Needless to say I have no interest in reading the rest of the series and will be selling my set. There was no cliffhanger and things ended neatly enough that I have need to continue.
The plot…was the same the whole way through and extremely circular. You have a woman who is hunted down to be assassinated while she’s trying to take her rightful place as Queen. There’s a magic system that is not fleshed out AT ALL in this book - things just happen and you’re sort of left to figure it out. And by the end you don’t feel like there’s been any movement in the plot besides some character development.
And aside from a 19 yo main character, every one surrounding her is around double her age and mostly male except for maybe two side characters and children that she doesn’t interact with.
Oh and TRIGGERS for an unorthodox amount of off-page mentions of child rape, abuse, trafficking, and pedophilia. Like a LOT. I don’t really pay attention to triggers so that’s saying something for it to stand out enough to me to put into a review. Like, the amount of child harm in here felt personal.
Needless to say I have no interest in reading the rest of the series and will be selling my set. There was no cliffhanger and things ended neatly enough that I have need to continue.