The Queen of the Tearling - Erica Johansen

Rating:★★★.5

Someday I'll be completely on schedule with all my blog posts. That day is clearly not today. In April, the Booksplosion book of the month was The Queen of the Tearling: a book I picked up months ago and hadn't read yet. I decided that Booksplosion was a great motivation to read it and now, a month too late, here is my review!

Plot

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.
 

Kelsea "not another girl" narrator

I must admit that I have conflicted feelings about this book. The main thing I didn't like was the fact that Kelsea, the new Queen, comes across as "very different from normal girls". While I usually crave diversity in YA narrators, it just didn't work for Kelsea. It was too forced and unbelievable. I get that you want to make a main character different, but she's a young girl who suddenly becomes a queen. Would she really be that heroic? Could she be that intelligent? Would she be that emotionally strong? I am not convinced at all.

Can we do YA without a love story? YES WE CAN.

What I did love about this story is the fact that there is no real love story. Kelsea is young, so obviously she's thinking about men and what she's feeling but there is no real focus on it. There's no traditional love interest and that is absolutely perfect in this book. It wouldn't work, it would distract the reader from the already very complicated plot and it would make Kelsea even more cliché than she already was. I loved that the author was brave enough to just leave the love story out of it (at least for this first book of the series).

Plotting genius

And she might have left the love story out of it, because she was already juggling a million plot events. Honestly, this book is a great how-to guide for plotting. There's so much happening, yet everything is paced perfectly and makes perfect sense. There's slavery, wars, different narratives, childhood problems, parent problems,... This book combines everything and does it in a fantastic way. 

The one drawback about this, for some readers, is that there's jumping of point of view and this is done quite inconsistently. I didn't always understand why we had to hear from certain characters at certain times. Besides being confusing at times, it also means that the reader basically knows everything and especially more than Kelsea. This frustrated me because it made it even harder to relate to Kelsea, a character I didn't like to begin with. I wish I had just known her point of view about the story.

Rating

On Goodreads, I gave this book four stars, because there's no half star option. However, my true rating is 3.5 out of 5. This was a good book and I did enjoy reading it, but I was also frustrated throughout and I just wish I could pick this book up and re-write it a bit. But with this potential, I'm hoping the next book in the series will be a 5 stars.

How to... read dystopian and fantasy novels

Let's talk about books you usually do not read. I've mentioned before that I was raised in a household of books. My parents are readers and I've grown up always reading some kind of book.

Interestingly enough, these books were never dystopian or fantasy until about a year ago. Yes, I've dabbled in Harry Potter as a teenager, but I never really loved it and that was the limit of my fantasy adventure.

Last year, I decided I wanted to read more fantasy and dystopian novels, since I felt like I was missing out on so many books that so many people in the book community were loving. However, to start reading these books is quite an overwhelming process. Where do you start? How do you pick books? To help others struggling with the same problem, I made a few points that helped me - or that I wish I knew when I started reading dystopian and fantasy books.

1. Find people who love the same books as you and also read fantasy and dystopian

Go socialise with all your book friends. Ask them if they read fantasy and if they do, pick those. Your book friends know your taste better than Goodreads and they know exactly what you'll like. Also, Goodreads (though one of my favourite sites) has some weird ratings on there. Books that aren't even published are 5 stars and other books are spammed with haters. Trust your friends and ask them what they think you'll like. 

2. Don't start with big series right away

So the thing about fantasy and dystopian is that there is a lot of world building, which means that there is usually more than one book in a series. I get the temptation of immediately jumping in with Games Of Thrones (really I do - I have had book one for months), but it's probably not the best idea. A series is a commitment and before committing, it might be smart to just dabble in the genre a bit. Pick a great standalone or a start series like The Hunger Games. 

3. Loved the movie? Read the book

Talking about The Hunger Games, if you love movies with dystopian or fantasy elements, try the books! So many Hollywood films nowadays are based on books, so you're bound to find one this way. Another bonus is that if you don't love the books, but still want to know how the story ends, you can just switch to the movies again. 

4. Find crossovers

This really helped me the most. Luckily for all of us, the book industry is big on crossovers right now. Nothing is really one genre anymore. There is YA and fantasy, romance and dystopian, adventure and fantasy and everything in between. Try and find a book, and here Goodreads is your saviour, that combines fantasy/ dystopian with a genre you know you love. This way there'll be enough familiar elements for you to enjoy the story.

5. Stick with it

The beginning was rough for me. I didn't get it. I like book without too much description and I really had to learn to not glance over the description in dystopian books. Unlike with books set in this world, you need the description in these books to help you understand the world. Once you get used to it, and after a few chapters I'm sure you will if you picked up a good book, you'll love the description and crave to find out more about this new excited world. 

These were just some general tips. If you want real recommendations, here's a short list of my favourite fantasy and dystopian novels. It's short, because I'm new at this myself so feel free to add more in the comments! (There are links to the Goodreads pages of the books or to my reviews if I've written about the books)

- Throne of Glass series (YA/ dystopian)

- The Selection (YA/ dystopian)

- The Queen of the Tearling (historical fiction/ dystopian - if that's even a thing)

- The Grave Mercy Series (historical fiction / fantasy)

- Half Bad (fantasy / adventure)

-  The Winner's Curse (fantasy/dystopian)

- Harry Potter (YA/ fantasy)

- The Night Circus (fantasy elements)

The Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkoski

RATING: ★★★★☆

I joined a new book club recently to try and read YA books that I normally wouldn't pick up. I really want to expand my literary horizons this year and since I'm writing a YA novel, I want to read as much, and a lot of diverse YA, as possible. This is how I ended up reading The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkoski - I always loved the dress on the cover of the book but was never really motivated to buy it. Until now.

Plot

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love 

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. 

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. 

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. 
 

Summary sounds kind of familiar... 

So that summary from Goodreads sounds like it's a one in a million young adult book. Boy and girl. Some weird world. Unfair relationship. Blossoming love. Difficult choices. Blablabla - I've read a handful of books like that before and I only started reading YA fantasy a few months ago.

However, what it says about the book is that it's impossible to create a blurb that does it justice. I tried to make a better summary, but I just couldn't think of anything that can really explain the book.

At the core, it is just that summary with all the elements you have seen time and time before. But when you read it, it's so much more. And that's mostly because Kestrel is not like other YA narrator.

Kestrel is not kick-ass

Kestrel is not strong. Kestrel does not have any superpower. Kestrel is basically just a normal girl who is stuck in a difficult position. Some might argue that Kestrel is extremely intelligent, but I don't think that's even the case. She's just smart enough to know how to survive, yet she doesn't do anything really extraordinary. Kestrel is brave and stands up for what is right and that doesn't always end well for her, which is so refreshing compared to the female YA characters that can defeat everyone and everything - it doesn't always work like that and it doesn't work like that for Kestrel.

Romance

Besides the fact that Kestrel is surprisingly normal for a fantasy narrator, the romance is also so much more realistic than the average YA book romance. Usually, it all goes VERY fast and it's intense - it either ends perfectly or it ends horribly. No in between.

However, in the Winner's Curse, there is a middle ground. Both Kestrel and Arin realise the difficulties that come from a relationship where one person is in power and one isn't at all (as slave, Arin really has nothing to say) and neither of them try to gloss over it. It's a real issue and the book takes the time to really explore what that issue means for both of the characters.

Rating

So basically, this book takes all the cliché YA fantasy elements and just gives them a little twists. You'll still recognise all the things you love to read in another YA books, but the story surprises you with all the twists and turns it takes. This book won't ever be one of my all time favourites, probably because fantasy just isn't my favourite genre, but it was a very enjoyable and surprising read so four out of five stars.