Review: The Shadow Queen

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is another of those books that pulled me in through the whole ‘fairy-tale retelling’ aspect.

I love retellings, have done for some time. Originally the prospect of such stories terrified me, mainly because I knew how they would end, yet I have read so many with wonderful twists that the fear no longer grasps me. Thus, I was excited to read this one. It sounded a lot like some other books in the genre, yet there seemed to be some originality in place.

Plus, dragons. I cannot say no to dragons.

Truthfully, the dragons were my favourite thing about the book.

The story was a decent enough read, yet for some reason I could never really get into it. Things felt too slow, things seemed too forced. Mainly, I failed to grow attached to any of the characters. They existed, yet I did not feel anything for them. I was watching their world play out but I didn’t care what happened to people. If I’m to enjoy a book, I need to feel some kind of connection to the characters. It didn’t help that the author seemed to be trying too hard when it came to making us feel things towards characters. Following multiple characters can be fun, yet the way it would flicker between them meant I never really understood them as well as I could have. At least with some of the characters, due to some being more fleshed out than others.

It wasn’t all bad, though. There were some moments where I considered giving four stars. This was mainly when the action was happening. At these points I was interested enough to find myself completely submerged in the story. I wanted to continue, I had no wish to be distracted by the world around me. However, these moments were few and far between. Hence the three star rating. There really wasn’t enough for me to give a full four stars. There wasn’t quite enough for me to round up to the four stars, either. To counteract how I spent a lot of my time disinterested, there needed to be a lot more action.

Overall, it was an okay read. However, it is far from being my favourite fairy-tale retelling. Part of me wishes to read the next one, if only because of whose tale is being retold, but after reading this one I won’t be going out of my way to do so.

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