The Queen of the Tearling

Summary (from the publisher): Magic, adventure, mystery, and romance combine in this epic debut in which a young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler—and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her.

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.

 

Review: This novel is the first of a fantasy trilogy that focus on Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, who upon her nineteenth birth journeys to claim the throne her mother held. Kelsea knows little about her family history or about the circumstances around her birth, and has been raised by foster parents in the woods for her own safety. Her kingdom, the Tearling, faces a dangerous enemy in the neighboring country of Mortmesne and sends them monthly shipments of Tearling citizens to appease the Red Queen of Mortmesne. Kelsea must navigate her rise to power and righting the largely deplorable state of her agrarian-based kingdom. 

 

This novel failed to live up to its potential for me. First off, the timeline was sketchy and poorly fleshed out. Despite the fact that the novel feels very historical - they only ride horses and carts, use swords and knives, and lack any form of technology - this is supposedly set in the future, after the "Crossing" when the individuals who established the Tearling made a break from America and Europe. It was "founded by a man named William Tear, a utopian who dreamed of a land of plenty for all." But because their land lacked resources, over time the country has become poor and largely illiterate.

 

In addition to my disappointment with the lack of creativity or definition relating to the setting, I found the Red Queen to be almost laughable in how starkly villainous she is portrayed. One of the first scenes with her shows her in bed with a slave whom she has just used for sex. But when the slave begins to snore she has him escorted out and orders her servants to "remove his tongue and uvula. And sever his vocal cords, just in case." Later, her distress is evident because she had "forgotten to sign a set of execution orders one night, and the next morning the crowd had gathered in Cutter's Square and waited...and waited." She's a stereotypical fairy tale villain with no nuances or understanding of what would make her so hardhearted.

 

Additionally, the novel is overly heavy handed in pushing certain ideals. The Tearling possesses few books, and Kelsea is constantly discussing the power of knowledge and reading and pushing her agenda of creating a printing press for the Tearling. Kelsea is forever making declarations like "Books may have been a fool's errand in my mother's kingdom, Lazarus, but they won't be in mine." The issue with this is that anyone reading the book is unlikely to argue with this idea so the author has failed to set up any type of crisis or conflict that the main character is facing other than an obviously evil villain. The reader is clearly going to side with Kelsea over the horrendous Red Queen; there's no true conflict for the reader to buy into, and thus a large reason why this read was less than compelling.

 

Similarly, Kelsea spends a lot of effort describing how not beautiful she is and how she is plump. Obviously women do think about their appearance, but Kelsea seems to consider herself unworthy of being queen because she doesn't look the part. While I appreciate that she's not a stereotypical beautiful princess, this seems like a ridiculous source of turmoil when she is the legitimate heir and when people are being sent out of the country to their death. There are bigger concerns than Kelsea's vanity at stake here.

 

There is certainly room to improve in the second installment, but also many plot points to expand upon. Kelsea's blossoming interest in the mysterious Fetch character has yet to be investigated, the identity of her father is still a mystery, and perhaps most critically, the future of the kingdom and its looming war with Mortmesne is still uncertain.

 

Stars: 2