A review by siena_j_p
Bride of the Crimson Queen by Keri Moore, Keri Moore

dark slow-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

0.25

So uh this might literally be the worst book I’ve ever read. I genuinely don’t even know why I kept reading it except that it was oddly compelling to just watch it get worse and worse and worse. Basically the premise is that a young sorceress named Kami goes on a quest to destroy the Crimson Queen and save her town from monsters, except also the Crimson Queen is into Kami and wants her to come be her wife. And there is just nothing redeeming about any of it. The writing is bad, the plot is uninspiring and takes forever to actually go anywhere, and the way it handles gender and sexuality is just abhorrent. Spoilers from this point on, as it’s necessary to explain just how bad this was.

There were a lot of things about this book I found absolutely disgusting, but probably the most egregious was that Kami MAKES FRIENDS WITH HER ATTEMPTED RAPIST. There’s a dragon in human form named Skye and he decides he needs to have sex with Kami because monsters can smell virgins or something??? And he is going to rape her until other members of the group barge in and stop him. But he doesn’t really face any actual consequences other than a slap on the wrist. Doesn’t get kicked out. Nothing. And then Kami decides that actually he’s lovely and likable and she has to protect him and it’s just. So. Gross.

Next up, we have the Crimson Queen herself. It turns out that she is not a queen at all, but the prince of the family of vampires that Kami’s mother defeated, and he reincarnated himself in the form of a woman? I guess? But he doesn’t seem to identify with womanhood in any way, and I believe there are even a couple of comments about how this form is inferior, he wishes he had his body back, etc. But then he also talks about how he likes being in this form because it makes Kami less threatened by him. So not only is marketing this as a lesbian vampire situation false, it is actively maintaining dangerous narratives about men disguising themselves as women to pursue cis women. It’s awful.

Which of course also brings us to the idea that lesbianism is caused by feeling threatened by men. Almost every single male character in this book is vaguely creepy towards Kami, if not outright threatening. And if I recall correctly there’s an explicit line where she talks about liking women because they’re less threatening. That’s. Not. Why. Lesbians. Exist. 

Spoilers end.

So in conclusion, this was just awful. I can forgive poor writing, but I can’t forgive what comes across as an active attempt to mischaracterize queerness and demonize trans women.