Scan barcode
A review by napkins
The True Queen by Zen Cho
3.0
3.5 but I'm rounding down for once.
Mostly for that while the main characters are all great and I enjoyed getting to see more of some of the side characters in Sorcerer to the Crown, the plot is...lacking. This isn't a huge problem when you've got a good cast and when the plot very well could just be "on route to England through the Fairy realms, Muna's sister Sakti goes missing, during rescuing hijinks happen", but the book also keeps trying to make the mystery of their curse a larger deal than it should be when it is telegraphed incredibly blatantly. Either telegraph it blatantly and let the true character struggles and determination be the point of the book and the journey, or let it be an actual mystery. You can't have it both ways. And it really does try to have it both ways, to the point that Muna is almost obtusely dense about all the clues in front of her, of which there are many.
There are also plotlines and character lines that feel like they should have had more time dedicated to them to have the impact the book seems to want them to have, but instead we get large dumps of exposition and a lot of telling instead of showing, which is a shame because Cho is incredibly good at showing when she wants to. There's a rich world with great characters, and honestly I'd be perfectly happy if the plot were a bit more general, but I think it just got bogged down in trying to be of service to a plotline and "twists" that were clear from about 16% of the book in.
Though we do get to see a lot more of Rollo and Damerell, and there is endgame f/f, but both are given Cho's usual weight on relationship plots, which is to say minimal, so it's more fun to just see inclusion.
Mostly for that while the main characters are all great and I enjoyed getting to see more of some of the side characters in Sorcerer to the Crown, the plot is...lacking. This isn't a huge problem when you've got a good cast and when the plot very well could just be "on route to England through the Fairy realms, Muna's sister Sakti goes missing, during rescuing hijinks happen", but the book also keeps trying to make the mystery of their curse a larger deal than it should be when it is telegraphed incredibly blatantly. Either telegraph it blatantly and let the true character struggles and determination be the point of the book and the journey, or let it be an actual mystery. You can't have it both ways. And it really does try to have it both ways, to the point that Muna is almost obtusely dense about all the clues in front of her, of which there are many.
There are also plotlines and character lines that feel like they should have had more time dedicated to them to have the impact the book seems to want them to have, but instead we get large dumps of exposition and a lot of telling instead of showing, which is a shame because Cho is incredibly good at showing when she wants to. There's a rich world with great characters, and honestly I'd be perfectly happy if the plot were a bit more general, but I think it just got bogged down in trying to be of service to a plotline and "twists" that were clear from about 16% of the book in.
Though we do get to see a lot more of Rollo and Damerell, and there is endgame f/f, but both are given Cho's usual weight on relationship plots, which is to say minimal, so it's more fun to just see inclusion.