This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it let me down so much. The disappointment is strong with this one, fam.
With confusing timeline and world-building, Four Dead Queens leaves many questions unanswered and a lot to be desired. It's a murder mystery told from six points of view with different timelines. Keralie's POV is the main one, and the other five are the four queens and a character that appears later in the story.
Keralie is your typical YA protagonist: a ruthless 17 yo anti-hero with a dark secrets but a bright mind, and skillful fingers that like to steal all things her little teen hands can carry. She gives off strong Kaz vibes when we meet her—though somehow not in a good way—and it only goes downhill from there. Throughout the book we're often reminded what a mastermind she is, when, in reality, she's just a street thief who pickpockets naive-looking suckers and does it with without any elegance or tact. The author does very little to portray her as dangerous as we (and Keralie's love interest) are told she is.
Speaking of Keralie's love interest, Varin... Varin is a bit bland, but overall an okay character with disability the story doesn't really handle very well. The biggest problem with his character is that he doesn't have his own story, but is pretty much tied to Keralie and the cliche insta-romance of theirs.
All in all, it's an average YA fantasy with poorly handled mystery and bland characters, but still quick enough of a read to be worth picking up (if it sounds like something you might enjoy and you don't mind tropes)
With confusing timeline and world-building, Four Dead Queens leaves many questions unanswered and a lot to be desired. It's a murder mystery told from six points of view with different timelines. Keralie's POV is the main one, and the other five are the four queens and a character that appears later in the story.
Keralie is your typical YA protagonist: a ruthless 17 yo anti-hero with a dark secrets but a bright mind, and skillful fingers that like to steal all things her little teen hands can carry. She gives off strong Kaz vibes when we meet her—though somehow not in a good way—and it only goes downhill from there. Throughout the book we're often reminded what a mastermind she is, when, in reality, she's just a street thief who pickpockets naive-looking suckers and does it with without any elegance or tact. The author does very little to portray her as dangerous as we (and Keralie's love interest) are told she is.
Speaking of Keralie's love interest, Varin... Varin is a bit bland, but overall an okay character with disability the story doesn't really handle very well. The biggest problem with his character is that he doesn't have his own story, but is pretty much tied to Keralie and the cliche insta-romance of theirs.
All in all, it's an average YA fantasy with poorly handled mystery and bland characters, but still quick enough of a read to be worth picking up (if it sounds like something you might enjoy and you don't mind tropes)