Item: Scorpica
Author: ashley

by G. R. Macallister

A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born in this sweeping epic fantasy that’s perfect for fans of Robin Hobb and Circe.

Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other—and new threats to each nation rise from within.

Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter’s explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain control leads her to risk using the darkest magic, a near-immortal sorcerer demigod powerful enough to remake the world for her own ends—and the generation of lastborn girls, the ones born just before the Drought, who must bear the hopes and traditions of their nations if the queendoms are to survive.

Reviewed by Ashley on Mar 18, 2022

I loved the beginning but DNFed at 55%. I think I lost interest when my favourite character died. I realized that the others were all a bit…hollow? This clearly wasn't a character driven book, and that just didn't work for me. I realized I had nothing pushing me to keep going.

Reading updates

13 March, 2022: Started reading
13 March, 2022: on page 0 out of 448 0%
13 March, 2022: on page 90 out of 448 20%
14 March, 2022: on page 124 out of 448 28%
15 March, 2022: on page 184 out of 448 41%
16 March, 2022: on page 191 out of 448 43%
I don't love Sessadon's chapters.
17 March, 2022: on page 248 out of 448 55%
16 March, 2022: Finished reading
18 March, 2022: Reviewed