This review is spoiler-free!
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Series: The Queen’s Thief #2
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: September 22nd 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 2000)
Format: ebook, 300 pages
Rating: ★★★★☆
Find it here: Goodreads || Book Depository
So, first of all, this was almost like reading a completely different book from the first book. It’s in a different POV, you’re not just watching the world through Eugenides’ eyes, and you’re even thrown into the minds of a variety of characters that you weren’t in the first book. It’s a little bit jarring, honestly, but it also makes it kind of hard to compare the first book to the second one.
Which means I really can’t tell if I liked the first one better than the second one. It’s the same story and the same characters and all, the writing-style is still the same (since, you know, it’s still the same author), but this sequel is just. So. Different.
I still really, really enjoyed The Queen of Attolia a lot. I went from having Gen as my favorite character to adoring Eddis as a fave, and my favorite scenes ended up being any of the scenes where Eddis and Attolia interacted, rather than between Gen and [insert character name here], like it had been for the first book.
Don’t get me wrong, I still really liked Gen and his line of the story, but he got bumped down to second place in favor of Eddis. I just really love her character and how she interacts with everyone (especially with Attolia).
As for the story, I did find it a little tedious at times and there were parts I had a little trouble following, but that didn’t really deter from the overall story for me at all. They were necessary details and whatnot, but without understanding them fully I still managed to get the gist of everything going on. It was all very political, with land disputes and rivers and threats, as queens do. If you’re not a fan of that kind of stuff, you might not enjoy the story as much as I did, but I say you should still give it a try. The characters add a lot of flesh to the story where the politics make it dense.
I’m ready for the next one, and I plan to pick it up hopefully within a month or two. (I’ve got so many things I need to read, first, and I’m in such a slump with everything. Ugh.)
Thanks for reading!
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