Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Das begabte Kind

Juno Dawson never disappoints, this book is the perfect potion of feminism, witches, and transphobia. (Weird to say I love a book so much that has transphobia, but trust me it's worth it)
I went into this book not sure what to expect, I've only ever read Dawson's nonfiction works before, so I wasn't sure how that would translate to a fantasy story. I did kind of expect (or hope!) for there to be elements of queerness, identity, and transness explored. To say I was blown away would be an understatement! Her Majesty's Royal Coven explores transphobia, feminism, race, the corruption of power, and fear.
People always seem to forget that hate doesn't just appear out of nowhere one day. People don't just turn around and decide to be evil and hateful. It is more like a slow shift, people fall down different pipelines, or don't deal with their past trauma. Maybe they are around unhealthy environments that unintentionally (or intentionally) push an agenda of power and fear. The characters in this are all still reeling from the Witch civil war, and grieving in their own ways. Whether that leads them to insulate in their own communities, push people away, or become power hungry tyrants all depends on the individual and their support system.
I feel like I am making this sound like some dark and emotional book that is going to lead you traumatized, and that couldn't be further from the truth. While there are a lot of difficult topics and themes, at its heart is such a thread of hope and found family. Proving that no matter what happens, as long as you allow yourself to trust and be loved everything might just turn out to be okay.
This is a book that I want to bring out of my pocket when there are conversations around representation and intersectionality. (Look kids it's possible for a white author to write good representation!)
I am a self professed cliff-hanger hater, this is the only exception where I can say it was done well and I enjoyed it. (Though I am lucky to be in possession of the second book, so there was definitely a cushion there)
I would 100000000000000000000000% recommend this, perfect for anytime of the year be it spooky season, or just something to really fall into, I can't wait to read the second book.

Content Warnings

escsmith's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

Content Warnings

corvinscorner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

l4urenf13's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

queergoth_reads's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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katndrsn's review against another edition

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The way the women’s sexuality with other women/men was just.. weird. The characters weren’t believable and it dragged

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bookforthought's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm always up for a witchy read, and even more so if it's a queer one! In this respect, Her Majesty's Royal Coven completely met and surpassed my expectations. Honestly, if I'd written this review immediately upon finishing it, I had been so caught up in it, it probably would have been 5 stars. Yet, as I gave myself some time to reflect a little bit more on it, I realised there were quite a few things that didn't quite work well for me.

The book is centred around Niamh, Helena, Elle and Leonie, a group of friends who have known each other since they were children and, at one point, were all inducted into Her Majesty's Royal Coven, a secret coven of witches protecting the UK from magical threats. Yet, a long war and painful events have left their scars, none of the women is left unscathed, and their friendship is more fragile than ever. The arrival of a mysterious child, Theo, is linked to a prophecy that may destroy the coven itself: dormant tensions will rise to the surface and lines will be drawn in what promises to be a war to eclipse all others.

The story is told in alternating POVs and right from the start I immediately warmed up to Niamh. When we meet her, she has retired from HMRC to conduct a simple life as a vet, at least until trouble comes knocking on her door. Niamh was by far my favourite character and she felt like the best-developed one too. She is well-rounded and complex, fiercely loyal and ready to use her considerable powers to defend those who need help and fight for what she feels is right. I enjoyed every moment spent with her!

In contrast, none of the other characters felt quite as well-developed. I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers, but one of the witches has quite a dramatic personality shift at one point which, while it certainly serves the plot, felt just a bit too radical in a way that was unexplained. I was also sorry not to spend more time with Leonie and her new coven, which she founded as a more inclusive coven after breaking away from HMRC. The book is steeped in political and social issues, especially those of representation, so to devote so little time to the more inclusive coven and its founder felt a little... off. This is only the first book in the series though, so this may be developed further in future books, but I would have liked to see some of that here.

With only a few exceptions, the secondary characters are also quite thin and mostly interchangeable. This is always a risk when there's a big cast of main characters, but I felt it a lot towards the end of the book when I realised I actually kept mixing some people up and could barely remember their names, let alone any other distinctive traits. This is especially true of the male characters, who are virtually non-existent except as causes of the suffering of the main characters. Now, I'm the first to champion female-centred books and to recognise the harmful role of the patriarchy in society, but the way relations between people of different genders were handled here seemed a bit too simplistic and reductive.

I don't think it's a big spoiler, but one of the characters identifies as trans. I loved this (and this character!), and having this kind of representation is so, so important. However, a lot of the conversations between different characters end up being centred on whether trans women are women, but we barely ever hear directly from this character about her experience and feelings. One POV character is also a TERF and a fair bit of time is spent with her, which is very uncomfortable and might be triggering for some.

Still, the story is extremely engaging and kept me wanting to come back until the ending (that ending!), even despite the multiple UK-centred pop culture references which were cute at first but grew old pretty quickly. I also partly listened to the audiobook for this and that was amazing! Nicola Coughlan is a brilliant narrator and SO good with accents, I could have kept listening to her for many, many more hours.

So, while this wasn't exactly the super-empowering queer feminist witchy urban fantasy of my dreams, Her Majesty's Royal Coven is a highly engaging, page-turning book with some memorable characters and a good start to a series. I'll be looking forward to reading the next book!

I received an advanced review copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Content Warnings

lacyparrish's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.5

So nearly a five-star for me … if I had been a little less able to put it down in the evenings, it would have been. I had to pace myself because so much was happening and I needed to process before reading on. This is equal parts political thriller, modern-day witches, and everyday lives of 30/40-something women with all the messiness you can imagine. I’ve pre-ordered the fancy Waterstones edition of the sequel because I need to know what happens next.

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