The Queen of the Tearling by Erika JohansenMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book has multiple personalities, some that I like, and others that I could do without. There are moments when this was a solid 4 star read, with sparkles of 5, and it held my full attention. Then there were long stretches that were so boring that I still can’t keep any of those characters straight and can’t recall what really happened (because nothing really happened).
Where this first goes wrong is that it presents, in terms of setting, as a historical/medieval novel, except that it’s a fantasy world, only it’s not really a fantasy world, it’s a futuristic dystopia of our current world. Um…what? Are any of you still with me? If not, no worries, because I read the entire book and still do not have a clue what is going on with this setting, world, or the world building.
Don’t get me wrong. I like cross genre novels, but this is not that. This is a poorly fleshed out world, and I found that frustrating, even though I’m not one who enjoys a ton of elaborate setting. This isn’t just about the setting, it’s about the whole entire world. If you aren’t much of a fantasy reader or you are okay with vaguey-vague-vague-vague when it comes to your fantasy world or world building, this may work for you. Most of the time, it didn’t work for me, but I hung in there, thinking any moment might be the moment where it all comes together, which at least gave me something to anticipate across the long boring stretches of the story where nothing seems to happen.
The world building that does exist, is sometimes interesting and other times just downright confusing, bewildering, and poorly thought out. On a scale of 1 to 10, this should get maybe a 2 or 3 for world building. Since they’re selling this as some sort of epic or high fantasy novel, that’s absolutely atrocious. It is no way compares to the epics in YA fantasy, such as Sarah J. Mass or Leigh Bardugo.
What I do love is the main character, who is interesting, refreshing, and just a bit different. If she had stayed in control of the story, I probably would have enjoyed it far more. Instead, the story would often shift away from her and follow other people who weren’t that interesting and didn’t seem to be all that important to the plot, enough to have warranted their own segment. Also, for whatever reason, most of their names blurred together. It seems like half the males in the novel have names starting with a T.
My full review was really long on Goodreads, so I cut it down for the blog, since I expect most of you don't want to see another 10 paragraphs of commentary about this novel. :)
Pages: 464
No comments:
Post a Comment