Cesar (Inactive)'s Reviews > The Queen's Rising

2 stars.

I was so disappointed by how dull The Queen's Rising was. After reading Emily May's review, a part of me should've known what I would not enjoy this book. In fantasy novels, I do like when politics and magic are involved, but The Queen's Rising was too boring for me to enjoy.

The Queen's Rising has politics and magic mixed in. By all means, I should've enjoyed it. But I didn't. Mainly it was because of the slow pacing and how boring everything was. I skimmed read the last part just so I finish it.

There was so much potential. Yet it was all squandered by a slow, boring plot. I would definitely recommend The Winner's trilogy. It doesn't have magic, but it has politics that is engrossing as well as having great characters.

Our protagonist Brienna is struggling to find her passion in life. Where she lives, a person can be trained under five passions: dramatics, wit, knowledge, art, and music. Brienna was brought to Magnalia house, a school to train for passions, under her grandfather's request and since then, she has yet to master what she wants to passion in. This brings up her past and how that past could be connected to a kingdom that is in desperate need for a queen.

What sounds like a promising plot is dulled down by slow pacing, a character that doesn't have a proper motive, and a lackluster world.

Brienna, as a protagonist, didn't make sense. What I mean is she didn't have a proper motivation to even be involved in the story. Yes, she has ties that could help take down a king, but when she is given the opportunity, she just jumps on that decision. She goes with the flow instead of thinking for herself. She just listens to those around her and follows their orders. You could argue that she's doing this because it's right, but even then she doesn't think for herself or even her own safety. Instead of just automatically agreeing with someone, she should've put more consideration into what she was getting herself into. She could die and yet she still goes with it because someone said so. A weak protagonist in my opinion.

The pacing of the story was slow. Like, turtle crawling slow. I was maybe invested for about a hundred pages before I started to get bored out of my mind by how slow everything was. I kept expecting for things to start getting interesting but nothing happened. It lost me so many times to the point where I forgot what page I was reading when I set it down for a while.

Speaking of the pacing, there's also an issue with how Brienna became quickly attached to the people around her. There are people who are complete strangers to her and she makes friends with them quickly. It just didn't make sense how she could form a bond so quickly with people she knows nothing about.

Then we have the worldbuilding which is basically nonexistent. Magic and politics are focal points of the story but are never fully explored or implemented into the story. It's just a bunch of there's-this-and-there's-that stuff and I did not like any of it.

Verdict

The Queen's Rising was a disappointment. I wasted my time reading a boring story with a weak protagonist. I sure as hell am not going to continue on with this series.

Thanks for reading my review!

-Cesar