Kogiopsis's Reviews > The Queen of the Tearling

I've spent about half the day trying to figure out what to say about this book, and I'm still not sure. Everyone on my feed rapidly fell into either 'loved it' or 'hated it', but I find myself in this awkward in-between state. There were a lot of things in this book that frustrated me, a lot of first-author flaws... but there was a lot that was compelling, interesting, and well-developed too. So: a nice, middling three stars it is.

There is one factor which I think significantly impacted my reading of this book compared to others', and that's that I knew the background of the setting going in. Honestly, that was the most intriguing aspect of the book for me - the idea of a post-modern society somehow interacting with magical things and reverting to an earlier state of a society has a lot of potential. Knowing that - expecting it - meant that I was hunting for references to our present day as Easter Eggs, rather than being thrown out of the story by their unexpected inclusion. I will grant, though, that especially going in aware of what the Crossing was, I was disappointed that very little was revealed in the actual book. What I knew going in was basically what I knew coming out. There's obviously a lot more here to tell (and several hints dropped that discovering more will be part of Kelsea's story).

As for the plot... this is where a lot of my internal conflict comes in. This book clearly has the pacing of a first novel: there's a huge chunk of it in which goals are vague, information is withheld from Kelsea (and by extension, from the reader), and it feels like very little progress is being made. In the broader context of a series this makes sense, but it makes the reading experience early on somewhat frustrating. Once goals and antagonists are more clearly defined the pacing picks up significantly, but this doesn't happen until the last third or so of the book, at which point the story gets significantly stronger.

Information being withheld from Kelsea is a component of a larger problem, and by far the thing that I found most frustrating: the constant disrespect of people around her, especially her own guard, for Kelsea herself. I find myself of two minds here, too: on the one hand, there are some possible reasons for their behavior and some narrative reasoning behind the choice; on the other hand, it is frustrating to read both because Kelsea is the reader's window onto the story, and because she is being established by the chapter-heading epigraphs as a legendary figure. It's difficult to reconcile this idea of 'The Glynn Queen' posited by these quotes with the girl whose own guards refuse to tell her about recent events in the kingdom she's about to rule. (view spoiler)[This is a huge part of why I never grew attached to Lazarus/Mace: he repeatedly and flatly told Kelsea that he would not obey her authority, even long after she started to gain the respect of others. Moreover, his arguments were often completely illogical - what does it mean for someone to claim 'being a Queen's Guard' to his Queen as a reason he won't obey her orders? He also often directly impedes her development/assumption of her authority by cutting her feet out from under her, as when he confiscated her uncle's belongings and then, when Kelsea objected to her name being used while she was unconscious:

"Still, it's my name. Maybe you could wait for me to wake up next time."
Mace looked at her, and Kelsea realized that he considered this a dolls-and-dresses moment. She sighed. "What property did you confiscate?"
"Jewelry, some liquor and tasteless statuary. Some spectacularly bad paintings, gold plate-"
"Fine, Lazarus, I'll leave you to do your job in pleace, just as you wanted." She peeked up at him. "You should thank me for that."
Mace bowed. "My most humble thanks, your most illustrious-"
"Stuff it."

Mace doesn't allow her control, unless he already has the situation in line to limit her options and/or do whatever he wanted in the first place. She tries to take authority and responsibility for actions done in her name, and he cows her back into 'place'. This is, moreover, repeated - especially notable when he refuses to tell her about 'details' in how the Guard defends her life, with the strong implication that this involves killing people.
There's an argument to be made here that this is part of a character arc for both Mace and Kelsea - that he is in the process of learning to respect her and that, until her show at the pass at the end, she hasn't 'earned' that respect. However, this still requires Mace to be incredibly resistant to growth, which doesn't exactly make him easy to like. (hide spoiler)]
The other aspect of this is that withholding information can have dramatic effect, but it can also backfire when the reader feels like the information has no good in-world reason to be withheld, but is simply done for dramatic effect. Such was the case here, especially for the early portions of the book. It makes no sense for Kelsea to be uninformed about the state of her kingdom... except to preserve for the reader the shock factor of their arrival in New London.

I feel like I should address the aspects of Kelsea's personality that many readers found frustrating, but honestly there's little I can say. I was bothered by a lot of them as well (especially her fixation on appearances), but... by the end of the book, I feel that she's grown and matured so significantly that I can no longer hold that against her. In light of that final segment of the book, it seems more and more likely that her more frustrating character traits are intentional in order to give her room for growth. The sequel is where this will play out, but I remain optimistic.

Kelsea's politics, though - that bothered me. Not for what they were, as I agreed with her ideologically, but for how out of place they felt in the setting and the problems she faces. She had a political cast I've seen a lot from people in our age group on Tumblr, which was jarring in this context.

One thing that will, I think, draw YA readers to this book: there's no love triangle for once! There are, in fact, no clear love interests at all. (view spoiler)[Personally, I'm rooting for Pen - there were some subtle tender gestures near the end that made me think he might be having ~feeeeeelings~. The obvious choice is the Fetch, but a) he's basically a magic zombie and b) I find it hard to root for a potential LI whose first conversation with the protagonist included him saying she was too unattractive for him to have raped her.

His smile widened. "But you needn't worry, girl. You're too plain for my tastes."

Nah, no thanks. (hide spoiler)] The lack of romance subplot really improves the book as a whole: it keeps the focus on Kelsea and external conflicts, and it makes a nice break from the formulaic norm of much YA.

Would I recommend it? I'm honestly not sure. For a lot of people, clearly, this has been a frustrating and unpleasant reading experience; for others it's been wonderful. I can see where both sides are coming from, and I don't think this is a book that could ever be blanket-recced. For people who are on the fence: I suggest waiting until reviews start coming for the sequel. The first book has potential; the sequel is where we'll see how well Johansen builds on it. I'm looking forward to doing so.