On her nineteenth birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa. But though she may be inexperienced and sheltered, Kelsea is not defenseless: Around her neck hangs the Tearling sapphire, a jewel of immense magical power; and accompanying her is the Queen’s Guard, a cadre of brave knights led by the enigmatic and dedicated Lazarus. Kelsea will need them all to survive a cabal of enemies who will use every weapon—from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic—to prevent her from wearing the crown.
Despite her royal blood, Kelsea feels like nothing so much as an insecure girl, a child called upon to lead a people and a kingdom about which she knows almost nothing. But what she discovers in the capital will change everything, confronting her with horrors she never imagined. An act of singular daring will throw Kelsea’s kingdom into tumult, unleashing the vengeance of the tyrannical ruler of neighboring Mortmesne: the Red Queen, a sorceress possessed of the darkest magic. Now Kelsea will begin to discover whom among the servants, aristocracy, and her own guard she can trust. But the quest to save her kingdom and meet her destiny has only just begun—a wondrous journey of self-discovery and a trial by fire that will make her a legend . . . if she can survive.
Warnings: Violence, Misogyny, Slavery, Mentions of sexual assault and CSA
Category: M/F
The Queen of the Tearling is perhaps a very adult-seeming YA, or a very YA seeming adult fantasy novel, and is the first in the Tearling series. It has rave reviews online and many fans, so I was cautiously optimistic about the book when I went into it as it boasts a big sweeping epic story of war and political intrigue. I was… not impressed with it personally so this is going to be one of those reviews, but lets get into why.
WRITING
The story follows the secret princess Kelsea as she returns to the kingdom of the Tearling to claim her throne as Queen, and her character growth as she steps into this role as best as she can, sometimes blundering her way through political situations and trying to gain the love and loyalty of her people. The plot is unfortunately full of an awful lot of pieces that don’t make a lot of sense together, with antagonists who either are completely passive or have entirely nonsensical motivations. Kelsea makes a lot of very stupid mistakes but I can forgive that based on her youth and inexperience- what is less forgivable is the narrative treating her missteps as bold bravery. Actions she takes that should have massive consequences just… don’t, plot threads get dropped, and characters actions often make no sense. Kelsea is also utterly obsessed with physical appearances in a truly exhausting way, whether this is contemplating the sexiness of her guards, or the ugliness of old folks, or making assumptions about women based on how hot they are, hardly a chapter goes by that her internal monologue is not judging someone’s appearances. The prose itself often is fairly sloppy as well, at times using two completely contradictory adjectives in the same description.
EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
The characters are fine, nothing groundbreaking but not bad either. Kelsea is believably a teenager who is lacking in experience is is going to have to grow into her position as Queen. She wants to do the right thing and be a good Queen but she doesnt always know how to do this effectively, and her immaturity is going to (hopefully) be the subject of her character arc into the rest of the series. She doesn’t really grow much in this book, but she does show the potential for it. The book goes out of it’s way to deliver several progressive political PSAs that feel incredibly forced, Kelsea having all of the Correct political opinions but simply being too naive to know how to implement them well. This makes the story feel a little lacking in nuance, as though the author is simply using Kelsea and her mentors as mouthpieces.
WORLDBUILDING
The worldbuilding is one of the more interesting aspects of the book- it’s a medieval fantasy setting with a twist as it’s actually set ambiguously in the far distant future, post some undisclosed events that may get more exploration in further books or may not. Its always a fun concept for a setting, so I was on board for the exploration of this old timey future world. That said there are a lot of aspects of the world that don’t feel very well thought through, like the fact that nobody in the Tearling reads books or that the Tearling has no medical knowledge. There’s some magical aspects involving immortals and prophecies that are only briefly touched upon in this book and will presumably be more fully explored in later books which is fine, but the Red Queen sorceress was built up so much as an evil big bad that it seemed odd she did nothing in this book aside from wander around her castle.
STEAMINESS
There’s no on screen sex in this book, but there is the seeds for a romance that I’m guessing will bloom later on in the series. What there is in this book in spades however, is constant threat and mention of sexual assault and child sexual assault. It seems all the villains are pedophiles and rapists to the point at which this book feels like its obsessed with the subject which feels extremely odd for a YA, though it certainly doesn’t feel like it has the complexity or nuances of adult fiction. I found the book’s nonstop usage of such serious subject matter for shallow shock value to be very lazy and also disturbing, considering it’s ambiguous status as probably YA. It also leans very heavily into misogynist territory as Kelsea naturally is not like the other girls, who are often portrayed as vapid or shallow for caring about their looks too much, or as poor victims if they engage in sex work. Not to mention Kelsea’s insecurity about her own looks leads her to tell a sex-trafficking victim how jealous she is of her beauty seconds after this woman relates to her that her looks mostly have just gotten her enslaved and sexually assaulted.
There are a lot of aspects I haven’t touched upon, like side character’s whose arcs go nowhere and Kelsea’s foster parent’s abusive parenting tactics being handwaved and everyone in the beginning of the book refusing to tell Kelsea literally anything about the political state of her kingdom and then being weirdly angry with her for not knowing things. It was just a very frustrating book in ever aspect, and I was glad when I reached the end. I do not recommend it.
Have you read Queen of the Tearling? Let me know what YOU thought by leaving me a comment!
Roses And Thorns 