Reviews with content warning for Cursing - The Queen of the Tearling

Actual rating is a 3.6.

This book had been on my TBR list for a long time now. I knew I was in for something unpredictable when read "Kelsea had never seen a Black man before". Although I enjoyed the voice and the politics, there wasn't much else that thrilled me. The worldbuilding actually threw me off a bit, since this is clearly meant to take place in a future version of our world, but the entire make up of society has regressed to medieval Europe. It was a bit jarring to read about corsets and nobles and thrones and heroin. Lamps and torches and then vague mentions of computers and technology.

I'm also not sure what the appeal is in regressing gender equality so violently backwards that women are referred to as whores more often than not. The progress that had been made by feminists in America/England/France (assuming that's what Mortmesne is meant to be) was dashed away in favor of putting countless women in different positions of submission and sexual violence. It was never ending. I don't think there was any mention of a woman in a sexual situation where she wasn't either being shamed for it or getting raped. The Queen of the Tearling I'd say is very traditionally misogynistic, based both on when it was published and how Johanssen follows the pattern of fantasy authors believing you cannot possibly have a fantasy world that doesn't absolutely despise women.

Kelsea is a young woman/teenage girl surrounded by big, burly, murder-capable men--a fact that she doesn't let us forget for about the first half of the book. She spends time accurately guessing these men's ages and judging their handsomeness, as well as developing some sort of crush on a roughly mid-twenties man who threatened to kill her on one occasion. I understand that Kelsea was cloistered and so unused to seeing men in general, but it was starting to become overkill.

For the most part, women exist either to be in a position of power (Kelsea, her mom) or at the whims of someone else's sexual fantasies (the sheer number of female characters who are "whores"/concubines/prostitutes) if they're not a helpless wife and mother (every other female character). Even Kelsea was victim to a sexualized violence when she was nearly assassinated in the bath, and the author spent a lot of time focusing on Kelsea's nudity (thankfully without graphic details) while her life was in danger and blood was dripping over her breasts (unfortunately something the author makes us aware of multiple times). When this isn't happening, Johanssen is diving away from the events at hand to describe a female character's nipples--in a scene that I thought only stereotypical male writers could produce, the behavior of a female character's nipples are used to explain her current emotional state.

That's just on the Tearling side. On the Mort side, the sexual violence is even worse--slavery abounds, rape is the common sense action of the day, and both Mort and the Tearling have a rampant pedophile problem. The book became tiring because of this. When this isn't happening, paragraphs are dedicated to describing childhood/memories of the point of view character, regardless of if it really adds to the characterization of if it's even relevant to the situation at hand.

Perhaps if Johanssen had written more about politics than prostitutes, pedophiles, and nipples, I'd have enjoyed this more. Unfortunately, The Queen of the Tearling ends up being nothing special.

Content Warnings

annevivliohomme's review against another edition

Go to review page

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

I'm pretty sure this was written by a man. It's sexist, unnecessary violent, and mentions nipples at moments that don't need them to be mentioned. The way the main character instantly falls in love with a pretty guy makes her seem very shallow. Considering her 'bravery', it's very much tell don't show, because she doesn't make the impactful decisions herself. Her power solely lies in accidentally befriending the right man, putting on a pretty necklace, and having a unknown but powerful father. Her parentage is one of the biggest mysteries in the book, because her intellect has to come from her father right? It couldn't be because of the woman who raised her, or because of her own insightfullness. Why does her one good quality have to originate from yet another man? Furthermore, additional male characters are introduced who play a crucial part to the plot, but they are too single-minded and underdeveloped to deserve all the words dedicated to them. And the attitude towards women?? It sucks. In the midst of a war, a central worry of the main character that she eats too much... The constant self deprivation was really bugging me. I personally believe that every person has beauty to them, and the constant tearing down of women (they're stupid, they're old, they're ugly, they're vain) irritated me to no end. Where is the woman hyping up other women? Why, when a queen rescues other women, are the pages full of jealousy and fear, and comparing yourself? I wish the author would realise that weight does not determine your beauty, and that women can be strong while still supporting those around them, and that a man does not determine your value.

Content Warnings

rebecca_dt's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Great character, bad world building

Content Warnings

More...