Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

2 reviews

feidlemid's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing slow-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

3.5

The book has amazing writing! However it is very slow. It took me four months to read it... The characters though are so well fleshed out that I knew who was exactly even when I had to pick up the books for days!


Morimaros is AMAZING. I cannot believe that Elia said no to marriage when they are so cute together. He would offer everything for her and he would be the perfect match for an independent queen. Well it is an open end book so in my head they are together..
Gaela was a strong character that I did not like but her ending was out of character.
Regan is amazing, dark and a little crazy. I loved her ending so much and the way it was described.
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chalkletters's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Queens of Innis Lear is the second retelling of King Lear that I've read, and because I still haven't read the original play, I enjoyed trying to reverse engineer the plot from the similarities between this and A Thousand Acres. It's particularly interesting to see which of Lear's three daughters are treated most sympathetically. While Tessa Gratton really made me feel for Regan, The Queens of Innis Lear was definitely the story of Elia (our Cordelia stand-in).

Caroline warned us that The Queens of Innis Lear was long, but I was glad it was, because it allowed the political and emotional situation to spin out slowly, details piling up one after the other so that I always felt I understood what was at stake without long passages of exposition. The only place this didn't entirely work was in the relationship between Elia and Ban, which I felt quite impatient with at first — though I forgot that as soon as they could actually speak to one another rather than being in separate countries.

Given the tensions that mount up throughout the story, Tessa Gratton pulled off an impressive feat by making me feel for almost every character — with the notable exception of Ullo, whose perspective we are never given. I particularly loved Aefa, whose power to manipulate the plot is far more limited and who therefore has to think very differently from everyone else. Character motives were always understandable, without the reader being hit over the head with them. The one exception was Rory's realisation and return to Innis Lear, which seemed to come out of nowhere.

Elia's journey and philosophy were definitely the most absorbing, and I wanted to see her succeed. Without spoilers, I can say I was a little disappointed in the ending. From certain things Elia said, as well as Regan and Conley's relationship with Ban, I thought she was hinting at a way The Queens of Lear could end to (nearly) everyone's satisfaction. Maybe it was naive of me to think that would happen in a book based on a tragedy, but nonetheless, I felt as if the actual ending was one of relief rather than satisfaction.

Despite the ending, I want to read the rest of the Innis Lear series, and have added Tessa Gratton to my list of authors to follow.
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