A review by thebiasedbibliophile
Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston

slow-paced

3.5

When I saw that Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston was a fantasy novel based on Celtic folklore, I was intrigued! The novel follows Neve, a princess who is second in line for the throne, but no one sees her as worthy of ruling Eire. Fascinated with her land’s history and her fierce, and maybe slightly maniacal, ancestress known as the Scathach, Neve becomes enthralled with the idea of being a warrior. However, a chain of events leads her to being forced into considering the possibility that she will one day rule Eire. 

I felt really conflicted about this book for the majority of it. It starts off pretty slow, and doesn’t really pick up until about halfway through. I would have liked to see more interaction between the characters in the first half of the book, and definitely more actions scenes.

That being said, the second half of the novel was fantastic! There were a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming, and I was happy with how the story ended. The relationships between the characters were interesting, and I enjoyed seeing Neve grow as a person.

Neve’s love for her people and sense of justice added a lot to the story. Her motivations seemed sincere, and as a reader, I couldn’t help but to root for her. I was intrigued by the idea that she did not want to be a queen, but wanted to be a king instead. I get that the author was likely trying to suggest that women are just as worthy and capable of ruling as men, but I almost would have preferred Neve to change the perceptions and connotations around the word “queen” than to strive towards being a “king.” Perhaps this is the feminist in me, but Neve’s adoption of the latter term indicates that she must be like a man in order to rule, whereas embracing the title of queen maybe would have changed her peoples’ perspectives and shown that she didn’t need to change anything about herself.

Overall, I’m not sure if there will be a sequel to this book. The ending kind of leaves open that possibility. However, I don’t know if I would read it or not. On the one hand, I did find this book to be a little slow, and on the other, I was content with the ending of this novel. As a whole, it’s not necessarily one of my favorite books, but it was worth the read!