Choko's Reviews > The Queen of the Tearling

*** 3.25 ***

A buddy read with the MaChalos, since we are on a Yong Adult Summer Binge:)

"...“Time stretched years back and years forward, but nothing that came afterward ever had the power to wash away what came before.”..."

I am not really in the mood to write a review, but I do need to say, that this is one Young Adult book with quite a bit of violence and violent content and innuendos in it. So, if I was a young person approaching this, I would have to ask myself if I am ready to read about some things which tend to be typical for war-torn countries and experienced by the oppressed people. I am talking about everything from slavery, rape, child abuse, child sacrifice, and all of those up to murder by torching someone on fire... I know when I was very young, books with such content made me have nightmares and I just want to give people heads up.

"...“What does the Red Queen want, then?" Kelsea had asked Carlin. She had no interest in maps and wanted to wrap up the lesson.
"What conquerors always want, Kelsea: everything, with no end in sight.”..."

Kelsea is the hair to the throne of the Tearling, a country in a land Americans and Brits have moved to after something catastrophic has happened to those countries. We are not told what exactly happened, but now, about 200 years later, in a country started by an utopic socialist but overtaken by a royalist regime, people live as if in the Dark Ages and very little of the old life has been transferred over. It does not seem like the Queens up to now have been very good at protecting their people, a fact made worse by the neighboring Queendom, where The Red Queen rules with magic and fear. This Queen had won a war with the Tearling and now, as a price for the peace treaty, the Tearling sends 300 people or more every month as a tax, many of those children, and all of them used and abused as slaves by the enemy. The new Queen has to figure out a way to make life better for her regular subjects, while trying to tame down the out of control corrupt and debouched nobility.

"...“...Javel saw evil in those bright blue eyes, not malevolence but something much worse: an evil born of lack of self-awareness, an evil that didn't know it was evil and therefore could justify anything.” ..."

This quote is about our bad guy, who really doesn't think of himself as evil, explaining his deeds as "Nothing personal, just business..." O, how I hate this sentiment, echoing in our political reality today... However, we have some more complex characters, who know where the line is between keeping or completely loosing your soul, and those were the ones I actually enjoyed about reading. The loyal to the Queen guards and the Fetch, a possible love interest, a head of a gang of thieves, were quite interchangeable the way they were written, so I don't have much to say about them... For adults, and supposedly smart people, they did not come of as such in my opinion. And yes,m they are all great warriors and killers...

"...“Not just a thief, but a murderer as well. Beneath the handsome man, Kelsea sensed another man, a terrible one, with a life as black as the water in an ice-covered lake. A murderer many, many times.
The idea should have brought horror. Kelsea waited for a long moment, bu what came instead was an even worse realization: it didn't matter at all.” ..."

The story was very well told, but the book lacks in planning of the plot. I think, from what we have been shown in this first book in a trilogy, the author most probably started with some idea in mind, but could have used a bit more time in structuring the story in a way that would not have felt meandering at times. There is something to be said about less is more. There was a whole a lot of angst, compliments of our 19 year old heroine, newly come into the Queen's throne, having been hidden away for most of her childhood in order to save her life. We are told repeatedly she is not pretty, she is overweight, and she loves books, but has no real life experience in anything, so it is natural for her to have some insecurities. However, the wining her uncle and couple of the other characters subjected us to, was a bit of a overkill... We got it, not to bright, not getting reality, not understanding their evil... There are ways to say all of that and not go on and on, is all I am saying:)

"...“Time stretched years back and years forward, but nothing that came afterward ever had the power to wash away what came before.” ..."

So, not a bad read and I am interested enough to want to know what happens after, but I think it definitely needs a certain mindset, and I don't think I was in it whilst I read it... It's not you, it is me kind of thing:)

Now I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always find what you Need in the Pages of a Good Book!!!