A review by givemaribooks
Queenie & the Krakens by Aleera Anaya Ceres

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I really wanted to like this book. I was drawn to it because the cover is BEAUTIFUL, and the premise of the book seemed interesting, but I was very disappointed. My first disappointment was realizing there were no krakens. I really thought there would be kraken shifters, but it’s just the name of the MC. The guys are actually mermen. 
 
The writing in the first half felt aggressive (?) and a bit repetitive (see how often she started sentences with “see” in the first chapter). I think this book had a lot of potential but the execution of it did not work for me. Once I realized that there would not be a lot of actual world building, I though we would get a lot of character development and really get to know these characters, but we did not get that at all. I am all for no plot, all vibes, but we have to get good vibes! By the end of the book, I still don’t know the real names of most of the men or their actual background, or what illegal/legal activities the gang is involved in. What was the point of getting the men’s POV if we were not going to actually get to know them? I am still unsure of most of the guys’ races/ethnicities. Even for Queenie, all we know is her dad has a Hispanic name and she has dark skin, so we have to assume she is Afrolatina, I guess. The only guys we get to know a bit more are Slug and Box, and even then I was very put off by the scene where Slug is telling her about his traumatic childhood while Box is going down on her, LIKE WHAT?! And then we have Delfin, who has two “conversations” with Quennie and decides he is in love. There was no reason why he was a love interest at all, and should have been cut out completely in edits. 
 
As I said there was a lot of potential with this story, particularly with the idea of an MC trying to rescue a woman who doesn’t really need rescuing, but this did not translate well in the book. Instead we get weird dub con scenes where we see zero consent, just for the Queenie to then say it was all consensual and she could’ve stopped it, but like how exactly? Could she really? And did he know that? I think not on both counts. Plus we also get a lot of implied “not like other girls” vibes from her, both on how she sees herself but also how she sees other women. It made me wonder why such a smart badass woman kept making such dumb decision that are inconsistent with how smart and capable she is (like not thinking she could be easily found). Then again, she was often inconsistent. One second she is calling women bitches/females and curses every other word, but then also objects to a man saying bitches and saying “vulgarities” (I am surprised I don’t have an eye injury from that eye roll). And while she objects to someone in another gang speaking like this, “her men” speak about women exactly the same. I also don’t understand how she can say that the men in the other gang are bad men because they are criminals who kill and torture people, but how is that any different from the kraken, who are also criminals who kill and torture people?? I mean Box is a psychopath who enjoys gruesome torture… And this leads me to the ending being unsatisfactory because we don’t get to see how their relationship is going to work out unless she is now completely ok with being part of a criminal organization. 
 
Lastly, I was also disappointed by the fact that this was billed as set in the Caribbean, but this might as well had been set in a small beach town in New Jersey. There was zero indication this was the Caribbean in the actual book with the exception of her friend saying “coño” twice and them mentioning they were in the Caribbean a couple of times. No one ever spoke Spanish even thought this is supposed to be the Dominican Republic (?), and the one food that was mention was paella (another eye roll). Where were the tostones?! If the author was not going to give this book any Caribbean flavor then I would have preferred if it was set in Florida, especially considering most of the guys seemed to be American since some were in the US Army (again I am assuming because they just said “Army” and spoke of what sounded like the being in a war in the Middle East). 
 
I will say that one of the highlights of the book was Sugar, and I hope she gets a book because I would be interested in getting to know her better. And yes, I know I have said a lot of bad things about the book, but I planning on giving this author another chance because there were aspects of the book that I did enjoy, like when Queenie was bantering with the Lourdes or hanging out with the honeys, plus the writing did improve in the second half. Overall I liked most of the characters, but we just don’t get to know the men well enough for a book that’s over 400 pages long. 
 
CW: dub con, CSA/rape (past), torture, murder, kidnapping, stalking, violence, magical roofing, PTSD, panic attacks, absentee/neglectful parent, restraints, impact play, fluids play, humiliation kink 
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