You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
evie_oliva 's review for:
Red Queen
by Christina Henry
First things first, there is a rhythm to Christina Henry's works, a pace that is set from the get go. It's what makes these books such a quick read, especially if you are interested in the story. When I read Alice last year, it took a few pages for me to catch on to the music of the writing but once I had it in my head, I zipped through the book fast. However, there was an element to the story that was a bit of a let down so I didn't love the book, I only really liked it.
This book suffered from the same kind of let down. There were certain plot points to hit, anyone who has read the first book and the summary to this one will know that there are certain key points to come. But this book really didn't expand on any of those points and it didn't develop the world either. After reading the first book, I was hoping for a little more information about the setting, about why magicians have been eradicated, about why the people live the way that they do, but all of that was abandoned for the sake of a quest story that got extremely side-tracked. If anything, this book had a lot more of the traditional fairy tale feel to it instead of the nitty-gritty re-imagined story of Alice in Wonderland that was a big driving point of the first book.
The quest was a large part of this book, the new characters and their struggles were interesting, but it put a new agenda on the board that felt a little like filler to the story. I was willing to go along with it, to see how Alice and Hatcher ended up, but then there was a TA-DA reveal just before the ending that left me thinking, "Really? That's how that plot thread is getting wrapped up?" For me, it was too much of "I want this to be a jaw-dropping reveal" but it felt like a convenient throw away. It didn't have enough impact, there wasn't enough feeling to make it work and there were too many plot holes to lead the reader to that reveal.
In the end, I hope there's a third book because I still have too many questions about this world. Also, where was the violence? Alice had so much struggle and pain, it made the story so different from other books using the same material as an influence, but it was definitely missed in this book. I want to read more of what was seen in Alice as opposed to what was seen in Red Queen.
This book suffered from the same kind of let down. There were certain plot points to hit, anyone who has read the first book and the summary to this one will know that there are certain key points to come. But this book really didn't expand on any of those points and it didn't develop the world either. After reading the first book, I was hoping for a little more information about the setting, about why magicians have been eradicated, about why the people live the way that they do, but all of that was abandoned for the sake of a quest story that got extremely side-tracked. If anything, this book had a lot more of the traditional fairy tale feel to it instead of the nitty-gritty re-imagined story of Alice in Wonderland that was a big driving point of the first book.
The quest was a large part of this book, the new characters and their struggles were interesting, but it put a new agenda on the board that felt a little like filler to the story. I was willing to go along with it, to see how Alice and Hatcher ended up, but then there was a TA-DA reveal just before the ending that left me thinking, "Really? That's how that plot thread is getting wrapped up?" For me, it was too much of "I want this to be a jaw-dropping reveal" but it felt like a convenient throw away. It didn't have enough impact, there wasn't enough feeling to make it work and there were too many plot holes to lead the reader to that reveal.
In the end, I hope there's a third book because I still have too many questions about this world. Also, where was the violence? Alice had so much struggle and pain, it made the story so different from other books using the same material as an influence, but it was definitely missed in this book. I want to read more of what was seen in Alice as opposed to what was seen in Red Queen.