So I recently read a fairly newly published book named The Queen of the Tearling by Eria Johansen. It was a book that Goodreads kept pushing me towards for over a year. All I had from the blurb and some reviews was "Game of Thrones for girls", "An action-packed book for the ladies" but there was a problem.
The book hadn't been completed so how had these people said all these things about it? Well that's the industry for you. From my year of studying media and film pitches in detail, I can reveal that when pitching a story, the writer and production team often say it's blah meets blah and in this case that's what happened.
It's a tragedy though because a reader shouldn't have to be reminded who the main character is throughout the entire book every chapter. I personally couldn't get over the way "I am the queen" or her full title was supposedly dropped every chapter. I already knew who she was and btw this was not a Game of Thrones for girls. Sarah J Maas (Author of Throne of Glass) creates a rivetting world very similar to the Game of Thrones but not completely. Heck why are we even comparing books to George RR Martin's bestselling series? Oh yeah because that's one of the most talked about adaptations of the moment. Eugh. Honestly I hated that they made it sound like GOT is for guys, it's like no. Authors and publicity people should not narrow down the market, that's how one loses sales.
But back to the book I go. The book itself I ended up splitting in half. I got bored easily, maybe because I was on a 3hour train journey and on my last stretch of it or because the lead was fairly naive and rather silly at first, how Emma Watson is signed on for this, I don't know. She's way too badass for this role. But nonetheless I carried on with the book, complaining to my best friend and sending her pictures of the repeated queen quotes/lines. But as a reader of high fantasy (maybe, maybe not) or just someone who enjoys that fantastical world, I found the book rather basic. It just needed a little umph and less about some stuff.
Altogether though it did take me about an hour to read and there were some good moments. Maybe I'll read the sequel, who knows.
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