sassmistress's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Alcohol, Confinement, Kidnapping, Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Slavery, Suicide, War, Murder, and Sexual harassment
nijo's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book was disappointing. I didn’t like the characters, the political intrigue didn’t hit the spot
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Violence
emtees's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I’ve read The Thief a couple of times, but I finally picked up the sequel, The Queen of Attolia. It’s a very different book but I really loved it.
The book picks up not long after the previous one, with Eugenides, official Thief to the Queen of Eddis, returning to the enemy nation of Attolia to spy on its Queen. While there, he is captured and Attolia has his hand cut off. This kicks off a deep period of darkness for Eugenides, as he has to contend with his new disability, his despair at the thought of losing some of his thief’s skills, and the trauma of his capture and mutilation. But while Eugenides might prefer to hide away from the world, he doesn’t have a choice: the events of his capture have set off a war between Eddis, Attolia and Sounis, and the only chance Eddis, the smallest and weakest of the nations, has of surviving is if her Thief can pull off a few of his old tricks.
This is a very different book from The Thief. While the first book was a pretty straightforward quest adventure, made complicated only because of its tricky and unreliable narrator with his hidden agendas, The Queen of Attolia has a lot going on. There is Eugenides’ personal journey of recovery; there is the war between the three nations, which has a million twists and turns; there is the complex plot that Eugenides and his allies put together to save their nation from being crushed between powerful enemies, one which comes with layers of deceit, most of which are hidden from the audience; and there is the introduction of a new POV character in Eugenides’ enemy, the Queen of Attolia.
This book has all the cleverness of the previous one. Eugenides continues to be a fascinating unreliable narrator, hiding as much as he reveals, and the plot is full of the kinds of surprises that you only afterwards realize were hinted at all along (with one exception, which I’ll get to.). But it also feels much deeper and more emotional than The Thief. Eugenides goes on a dark and complicated journey in this book, one which matures him drastically. While the author didn’t hesitate to put Eugenides through it in the previous book either, here he faces real loss, pain and fear that he can’t just bounce back from, and that is really well handled. The presence of Attolia (the Queen, not her country) also adds to the feeling that this book is more serious. There is an interesting contrast in the way Eugenides, his Queen, and their allies are presented to the way Attolia is. Eddis is a bit of a fantasy of a kingdom, with a noble queen, decent advisors, and generally all around good people. By contrast, Attolia lives in a pit of vipers, and while she does her share of morally grey things, her POV sections really lay out why she is the way she is and manage to find a lot of sympathy for her. Of course, it helps that she is nearly as clever and tricky as Eugenides, and manages to hide just as much from the audience.
Eugenides is the heart of the book and I love him even more in this one than in the last one. He’s the kind of character who could become grating - he’s just so smart, so clever, so loved and everyone is so amazed at his skills - but Megan Whalen Turner is careful in the way she portrays him. Eugenides is far from perfect - even with all his talents, he is allowed to make major mistakes, to be afraid or embarrassed - and this makes him very endearing. Even more importantly, despite his genius and the fun he has pulling one over on everyone around him, he is a genuinely good and sweet person who wants the best for his Queen, his country and his friends, and he never tries to hide that side of himself the way so many fantasy rogues do. I especially loved his relationship with his father and with Eddis in this one, as well as the return of his friendship with the Magus of Sounis, who is low key one of the best characters in this series. And I continue to be intrigued by Eugenides’ complex relationship with the odd religion of his world, with its occasionally responsive gods.
The one thing that kept me from thinking this was a pretty perfect book is the change in the POVs. The Thief was written in first person, and while that’s not something I always love, in this case it really helped with selling the unreliability of Eugenides’ POV. You don’t think a character is hiding things from you when they’re speaking in first person. With The Queen of Attolia, the series shifts to third-person narration, and while I get it - with more than one POV, it would be confusing to switch back and forth - it made the trick a little more obvious. I found myself constantly looking for the things Eugenides (and Attolia) were hiding rather than being caught off-guard by the reveals. And this was especially the case when it came to one of the big twists: the reveal that Eugenides had been in love with Attolia for years, and that what had previously seemed like moves he made to mock her were in fact his very awkward attempts at flirting. . I didn’t hate the twist - I was actually surprised by how much I liked it - but unlike most of the other twists in both books, it didn’t feel like it had been set up and the clues had been there if only you saw them. Instead, it was a little too obvious that the author had just kept Eugenides from ever thinking directly about it. I’m not sure there was any way to avoid that, but it did just slightly bring the book down for me.
The book picks up not long after the previous one, with Eugenides, official Thief to the Queen of Eddis, returning to the enemy nation of Attolia to spy on its Queen. While there, he is captured and Attolia has his hand cut off. This kicks off a deep period of darkness for Eugenides, as he has to contend with his new disability, his despair at the thought of losing some of his thief’s skills, and the trauma of his capture and mutilation. But while Eugenides might prefer to hide away from the world, he doesn’t have a choice: the events of his capture have set off a war between Eddis, Attolia and Sounis, and the only chance Eddis, the smallest and weakest of the nations, has of surviving is if her Thief can pull off a few of his old tricks.
This is a very different book from The Thief. While the first book was a pretty straightforward quest adventure, made complicated only because of its tricky and unreliable narrator with his hidden agendas, The Queen of Attolia has a lot going on. There is Eugenides’ personal journey of recovery; there is the war between the three nations, which has a million twists and turns; there is the complex plot that Eugenides and his allies put together to save their nation from being crushed between powerful enemies, one which comes with layers of deceit, most of which are hidden from the audience; and there is the introduction of a new POV character in Eugenides’ enemy, the Queen of Attolia.
This book has all the cleverness of the previous one. Eugenides continues to be a fascinating unreliable narrator, hiding as much as he reveals, and the plot is full of the kinds of surprises that you only afterwards realize were hinted at all along (with one exception, which I’ll get to.). But it also feels much deeper and more emotional than The Thief. Eugenides goes on a dark and complicated journey in this book, one which matures him drastically. While the author didn’t hesitate to put Eugenides through it in the previous book either, here he faces real loss, pain and fear that he can’t just bounce back from, and that is really well handled. The presence of Attolia (the Queen, not her country) also adds to the feeling that this book is more serious. There is an interesting contrast in the way Eugenides, his Queen, and their allies are presented to the way Attolia is. Eddis is a bit of a fantasy of a kingdom, with a noble queen, decent advisors, and generally all around good people. By contrast, Attolia lives in a pit of vipers, and while she does her share of morally grey things, her POV sections really lay out why she is the way she is and manage to find a lot of sympathy for her. Of course, it helps that she is nearly as clever and tricky as Eugenides, and manages to hide just as much from the audience.
Eugenides is the heart of the book and I love him even more in this one than in the last one. He’s the kind of character who could become grating - he’s just so smart, so clever, so loved and everyone is so amazed at his skills - but Megan Whalen Turner is careful in the way she portrays him. Eugenides is far from perfect - even with all his talents, he is allowed to make major mistakes, to be afraid or embarrassed - and this makes him very endearing. Even more importantly, despite his genius and the fun he has pulling one over on everyone around him, he is a genuinely good and sweet person who wants the best for his Queen, his country and his friends, and he never tries to hide that side of himself the way so many fantasy rogues do. I especially loved his relationship with his father and with Eddis in this one, as well as the return of his friendship with the Magus of Sounis, who is low key one of the best characters in this series. And I continue to be intrigued by Eugenides’ complex relationship with the odd religion of his world, with its occasionally responsive gods.
The one thing that kept me from thinking this was a pretty perfect book is the change in the POVs. The Thief was written in first person, and while that’s not something I always love, in this case it really helped with selling the unreliability of Eugenides’ POV. You don’t think a character is hiding things from you when they’re speaking in first person. With The Queen of Attolia, the series shifts to third-person narration, and while I get it - with more than one POV, it would be confusing to switch back and forth - it made the trick a little more obvious. I found myself constantly looking for the things Eugenides (and Attolia) were hiding rather than being caught off-guard by the reveals. And this was especially the case when it came to one of the big twists:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Toxic relationship
A major character becomes disabled due to a traumatic event and struggles with PTSD and internalized ableism. I’m also tagging for toxic relationship, but major spoilers:szuum's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Stalking and War
mimeflower's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Misogyny, War, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
nyssbomb's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Violence, and Sexism
Moderate: Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Blood
Minor: Ableism
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