Nameless Queen by Rebecca McLaughlin

Synopsis:

Imagine a land with a thriving caste system (it’s not difficult – I’ll wait). It’s called Seriden. At the top of Seriden you have the Royals – they rule everything except the Sovereign, who is one of them, but also above them. The Sovereign is indicated by the presence of a crown tattoo on their arm, which is passed from leader to leader by the saying of the successor’s name at the death of the current Sovereign. Below them are the Legals – their power is that they are allowed to have names, homes, and the ability to prop up the Royals. Finally there are the Nameless – they have nothing – not even names (so it’s not just a clever name!).

In Nameless Queen, somehow a member of the Nameless finds herself bearing the crown tattoo which marks her as the new Queen. But how? How can someone with no name be named in order to inherit the tattoo?

Naturally, her ascent to the throne will not be a smooth one.

Disclosure:

I received an Advance Reader copy of this book from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts – those are 100% my own for better or worse.

Edition:

Kindle e-book (Net Galley)

My Thoughts:

This book was a pretty quick read. At about 350 pages, not abnormally short by any means, but the storytelling progressed at a fairly brisk pace, which I appreciated.

At no point did I feel super invested in any of the characters, but I didn’t hate them either. In fact, I can even name several despite having finished the book a few days ago. So, I think I can safely say that I felt McLaughlin did a good job creating some memorable characters.

As for the story itself, I do appreciate the general storyline, but there are some specifics I wasn’t wild about. For example, there is a rather large plot-point that I wish had been a tad less predictable – how the Nameless Queen came to possess the crown tattoo. I wish it had been something different. A breaking down or perhaps evolution of old magics or some-such would have felt a little less disappointing for me personally.

That being said, this is Rebecca McLaughlin’s debut novel, and with that in mind, I think she did a good job of it! I hope that her second (which she is already working on, according to her website) holds more surprises than this one did, but again, all in all, this one was pretty good.

I also keep trying to remind myself that I’m not technically her intended audience here. I have to imagine that young readers are more into those tried and true story tropes, and that perhaps readers of YA lit also find some comfort in them, so maybe the ground I wanted to be broken isn’t really part of the YA landscape anyway. I don’t know. I now officially feel like I’m looking too far into this. All I’m saying is that I wish this story had been a little more ambitious in its specifics.

Rating:

Nameless Queen was, all in all, a pretty good book. No new ground was broken, but the characters were fine, the story was fine, the world building – also fine. Since I understand that saying it is all fine isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, I will say this:

I am not a Young Adult. I am also not a huge fan of YA books, generally speaking. The fact that I finished this one is a testament to the fact that people who dig YA in general will probably find something to like here. I couldn’t finish either Twilight or The Hunger Games, and people ate that mess up, so… I don’t know. Read it or don’t – your call.

Now you’re probably wondering – why did you read this? Why did you request the galley in the first place? Honestly, because I liked the pretty cover. I get taken in by that a lot. I didn’t even see that it was a YA imprint until it was already too late.

But ya know what? I’m not mad at it. It was a quick, entertaining enough read.

Nameless Queen
Rebecca McLaughlin
Crown Books for Young Readers
Fantasy, YA
ISBN: 1524700266
ISBN13: 9781524700263
Expected Publication: January 07, 2020