A review by nadifa
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
3.0
I think this book had the potential to be a favourite of mine but the slow pace really kept me from being engaged. About halfway through I had to put it down because I was reading and reading and reading, and it seemed like nothing was actually happening. I was determined to finish it since I was hoping there was going to be a rewarding payoff.
The plot definitely picked up in the second half of the book but I don't think I got the rewarding ending that I was hoping for (I'm not even sure what I was actually hoping for tbh), but I'm still glad I finished it. I especially enjoyed reading about Kelsea Raleigh, the main character, and her internal thoughts. Sometimes I forget that she's only 19, but the author does a good job showing how her upbringing informs Kelsea's judgement and decisions which makes the story-telling much more compelling and realistic.
I'm not entirely sold on the world-building though. It's meant to be a fantasy story that takes place in the future. It's a far reach for me to believe that through some series of events, humanity drastically regressed economically, politically, and technologically and reverted back to archaic European medieval times specifically. As the history is further revealed in the succeeding books, I hope the current setting will make more sense.
Aside from the protagonist and antagonist, there are also no female side characters that are actively involved in plot progression. The ones that Kelsea does interact with are women with seemingly no agency and unfortunate things simply happen to them. I mention this because I don't want to read books about men that are women in disguise. Most of the characters are well written, but I would hate for Kelsea to be reduced to a tokenistic character.
Overall, I still enjoyed this book and I'm curious enough to read the the rest of the series.
The plot definitely picked up in the second half of the book but I don't think I got the rewarding ending that I was hoping for (I'm not even sure what I was actually hoping for tbh), but I'm still glad I finished it. I especially enjoyed reading about Kelsea Raleigh, the main character, and her internal thoughts. Sometimes I forget that she's only 19, but the author does a good job showing how her upbringing informs Kelsea's judgement and decisions which makes the story-telling much more compelling and realistic.
I'm not entirely sold on the world-building though. It's meant to be a fantasy story that takes place in the future. It's a far reach for me to believe that through some series of events, humanity drastically regressed economically, politically, and technologically and reverted back to archaic European medieval times specifically. As the history is further revealed in the succeeding books, I hope the current setting will make more sense.
Aside from the protagonist and antagonist, there are also no female side characters that are actively involved in plot progression. The ones that Kelsea does interact with are women with seemingly no agency and unfortunate things simply happen to them. I mention this because I don't want to read books about men that are women in disguise. Most of the characters are well written, but I would hate for Kelsea to be reduced to a tokenistic character.
Overall, I still enjoyed this book and I'm curious enough to read the the rest of the series.