The Queen of Attolia (Queen's Thief, #2)

by Megan Whalen Turner

[ladygrey]

I'm kind of struggling with this book. It's well written; reminds me of [a:Anne McCaffrey|26|Anne McCaffrey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323715139p2/26.jpg] or even a little [a:Robin McKinley|5339|Robin McKinley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314406026p2/5339.jpg] but I wouldn't say it's as good as McKinley's work in the same genre - sort of the a-typical young adult book that's for teenagers but not kids but isn't really what you think of when you think of YA.

Mostly I had a hard time because it's sort of a dry, distant book, all about plot and politics and countries more than people. I like characters and I like emotions and I think we need good characters to move us through stories, otherwise we don't much care what happens.

And there are good characters in this story, but they sort of borrow on [b:The Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522157426l/19063._SY75_.jpg|878368] rather than being well developed in this book. Gen loses all spark of mischievousness and knowing unpredictability he had. Understandably so, given what happens, but it doesn't make him especially interesting. Attolia is complex but we only get glimpses of her and one nicely done bit of exposition.

In fact, for the most part we only get glimpses of any of the characters, a paragraph or two of dialog or internal exposition that explains how and why we get to what happens next. It's much more a tool of the plot than any chance to connect to the characters, which was disappointing. And I was honestly dismayed with how Gen and Attolia's relationship played out. Their romance was plausible because [a:Megan Whalen Turner|22542|Megan Whalen Turner|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1489507023p2/22542.jpg] gave hints where Gen thinks she's beautiful and Attolia is sort of obsessed with him and weirdly protective. But it wasn't nearly enough to justify his sudden exclamation of love and the story turning on that moment into a whole different tone. Suddenly, the characters matter?! I mean, I like that but it just came out of no where and it's weird to going from a story where we don't spend nearly enough time with the characters to they're all that's left. I would have much rather see the characters more clearly; understood their emotions and thoughts throughout the story so that moment that changed everything seemed pivotal and not jarring.

And yet, despite the fact that it isn't what I want it to be, it's still a good book.