The Orphan Queen
Jodi Meadows
ISBN: 9780062317384
Traditional "western european" YA fantasy sets a young exiled princess against a conquering kingdom and a murderous magical incursion. First in a projected series, with a GIANT CLIFFHANGER ENDING!
First things first: I read this immediately after devouring two other fantasy series back to back, by absolute masters of the craft, and THEN I read another very similarly plotted book immediately afterwards, which was flat-out one of the best fantasy-fairy-tale adaptations I've ever been blessed to read. So I'm going to be a little sharp here, and it really is unfair of me, because this book was not bad. It wasn't even mediocre, it just - wasn't at the very top of the heap, and that's where everything else this week was, so this suffers unjustly by the comparison.
With that in mind: a decent start-up to a series, with a Hunger Games inspired cliffhanger for the ending. Sadly, I wasn't invested enough in the characters to actually care one way or the other about said cliffhanger, and I won't be particularly looking out for the next in the series. Now, if it happens to come up, or cross my desk, I'll certainly read it - it was an interesting set-up, and I'm curious to know where things will go - just, more in an academic sort of way.
List of unfortunate things:
Character names don't make any damn sense. This is a stereotypical white western european fantasy medieval/Victorian setting. Please just pick a real medieval kingdom to pretend the characters are from, and choose names from there: France, Germany, Poland, wherever! Just don't name one girl Wilhemina, another Quinn, another Teresa, and yet a different girl Paige, and expect me to not slip a few gears.
The "spy ring" was not so great. Naming yourselves (and identifying as such to potential enemies or informants, and wearing clothes embroidered with the representation of such) after the heraldric creature of the fallen kingdom is sweet, but it's also stupid dangerous when living in enemy territory. My desire to think of the main character and the group as a whole as competent and formidable was straining against this the entire book. My opinion was also not helped by the main character's utter uselessness at an infiltration that had apparently been planned for quite some time. I know they're all kids, but they're all trained and espionage-hardened kids, or at least that's what they're supposed to be.
The rationale behind going to the "mysterious location" in a totally different kingdom was really stretched. When the character was explaining her motives to another person, I could just see the author explaining the reasons to an editor, who just nodded with a glazed look under the torrent of words. Set up your plotting better, so decisions and events are actually important to the character's stated goals.
Have you ever seen Zorro: The Gay Blade? If not, go see it, I'll wait. Back now? There's a very "Zorro" character here, and it was super obvious, and a little forced. While I liked the masked version of the character, I had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes otherwise. Cute, decently executed, but so very obvious.
List of enjoyable things:
Wil was an awesome lead, despite being utterly useless at most of her life choices. She made her decisions, stuck to them, and mostly (despite one glaring plot-rail) had in-character reasons for them. She had agency, personality, and an interesting background conflict.
The growing relationship and partnership with "Zorro" was meet-cute.
The plot concept was nifty, and has potential for interesting developments through the series. The "magic gone bad" concept is sort of hot now, but this version also has intro-country political repercussions (slim and plot-dependent, but actually acknowledged) of the magic problem, and attempts to solve it in earlier years.
The lead friendship was very well drawn.
The "mysterious location" was, on reflection, one of the best parts of the book - it was supremely creepy and paced well.
All in all, a fun way to spend an afternoon.
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