Queen of the Conquered

Queen of the Conquered is a fascinating study of an (intentionally) unlikable character with a really interesting overall story arc, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness and courage that went into developing the main protagonist. But I did find earlier parts of the novel more compelling than later parts, and the main character's ability to sink into minds slowed it down (since it was used to tell a lot about the other characters, and these sections were dry and dull).

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tws: death, violent and graphic murders, rape, colonizers

so excited for king of the rising now, this ended AWESOME. very rarely does a book jump out at me like that, but i guess that's a sign i need to decolonize my mind further. some issues with language, pacing, and story telling that i didn't have with callender's other books popped up here, but otherwise fantastic

2.5 stars, rounded down.

Be warned, this is a long review.

I was so hyped for this book. First off, that book cover design is gorgeous. Secondly, the premise immediately caught my attention. A tale about slavery and colonization...but from the view of one of the natives herself; a would-be slave taking advantage of the little bit of extra privilege she has. It's an incredibly nuanced topic and one that you hardly see covered in books like this, I feel. In stories like this, there's always two distinct groups: the colonized and the colonizers. The foreigners and the natives. While still an effective setup for conflict, you hardly ever get into the more complicated layers of narratives like this. What about the levels of privilege within the marginalized group?

It's fascinating to me because it's strongly rooted in human history and human nature itself. Just research about colorism, where black individuals are treated differently based on the many different shades of their skin despite all being recognized as black. Or even look at the division that occurs within a group of people who you presume to be the same. Think of women who bring down other women who don't meet their standard of acceptability. Think of people who live in poverty who dislike others that are in poverty, who they perceive as below them. The LGBTQ+ individuals who express biphobia or transphobia. Hell, I know people like this in real life. I've met immigrants who hated other immigrants for being the “bad kind” and not doing it “right.” People like this exist all the time in real life, and I was excited to read about this topic in a story such as this and to have it explored.

Even the magic present in this story was completely up my alley. I love stories with a fantastical element, and I don't think it makes it any less “realistic” or true to life. It can be a perfect reflective commentary on real life as we know it.

I was expecting a captivating story exploring marginalization among the marginalized, the differing levels of privilege within a group. That's not what I got. Was I too hyped for it? Maybe, but I think it came down to my most hated and yet common foe...great concept, poor execution.

For starters, Sigourney is a baffling character. I really don't know what the author wanted our impression of her to be. I first thought, based on Sigourney's whole character journey–infiltrating the kongelig colonizers and then killing them off one by one to be crowned ruler and exact revenge–made her out to be a clever, scheming woman. In some instances, this is showcased, by her influencing others with the powers of her kraft (her special ability, which is to read the minds of people and manipulate them). But other times, her decision-making was confusing. She'd make choices that made absolutely no logical sense, she'd confide in people who she had no reason to, put her trust in people who non-subtly want to kill her, and generally make decisions that almost felt like she was doing things at random and hoping they would work. Her actions would have no consistent logic. At first, I thought that maybe the author was trying to do some kind of twist with Sigourney, like that all the plotting in the world doesn't mean you're prepared to go toe-to-toe with merciless and cunning rulers. But I never got that vibe from the story, and even if that was the case, Sigourney can literally read minds. If you've been given a crutch that huge and still can't read the obvious signs from people, that's just poor writing. We'll get back to the kraft thing a bit later.

70% of the novel, Sigourney is a passive protagonist and disappointing to read about. Which is a shame, because she started so strong. Without diving into spoilers, she uses her kraft in a deadly way early on in the story to kickstart an event that plays to her advantage. That was exciting to read about. And then Sigourney just...doesn't do anything like that again in the book. Most of the story dragged on with Sigourney reacting to things instead of doing anything. Now, that's not always a bad thing in a story. An interesting story can be told with a reactive character, but the thing is...Sigourney isn't supposed to be passive. In her internal monologue, she reminds herself and the reader over and over again that she's here for a reason, that she needs to take an active part so she can be crowned ruler, gotta do stuff to accomplish her goals. And then she just...doesn't. And on the occasion she would do something, it wouldn't advance her goals. At first, I thought maybe it was a part of some clever 4D chess game she was playing, where some seemingly unconnected action would actually spiral into something that furthered her goals. There were a few times when she would do something that gave the illusion of her being an active character, but what would happen is that she would do something (usually showing something to someone else), the other character(s) would react, then Sigourney would go back to her cottage to continue...drinking tea and taking baths. At one point, even a character in the story points this out to Sigourney and asks her why she's taking her sweet-ass time getting her revenge plan in motion.

But I could tolerate these shortcomings better if at least the writing was good. The book didn't even have that going for it. The prose wasn't too bad, and in some ways, I did enjoy it. Some of the descriptions were visceral to read: early on, Sigourney reads the mind of one old woman and we get a graphic, tragic passage of the horrible treatment she went through (and of course, all inspired by real-life torments inflicted on slaves at one point). It was gut-wrenching to read and powerful. But repetition...dear God, the repetition. It's an effective tool when used properly. Keyword being properly here. How this book was written, you could make a drinking game out of it. How many pages before Sigourney uses the phrase “dark skin, wide nose, and full lips” to describe someone? How long until Sigourney once again harps that she respects Marieke's privacy and won't read her mind? I didn't have a problem with her repeated monologues about feeling shame about how her fellow islanders hated her, because it was a huge part of her character arc.

Major spoilers below and trigger warning:
This brings me to a specific instance about Sigourney's weirdly illogical characterization...A huge part of her internal monologue is her agonizing over how she's "forced" to keep slaves in order to keep what little power she has over the kongelig and how she has to sometimes have them whipped and even executed to not suffer herself. It's a very, very compelling conflict and one of the better parts of the book. She is seen hesitating and being eaten up by grief when she has to treat one of her slaves this way. But if this is the case...then why, oh, why...does she attempt to **rape** one of her slaves? And this isn't an instance of being forced to do this to keep her station like the other instances are. This is a private occurrence when she's alone in her cottage, and something just...compels her to want to force her slave to have sex with her?? There's no explanation for this and it makes no sense with the rest of her internal conflict.Please don't try and tell "well she didn't go through with it" or "but she felt really bad about it" or anything like that. Attempted rape is attempted rape. She also attempts to use her position of power as his owner to get him to submit. I'm not trying to make an argument about Sigourney being likable or not, that has nothing to do with it (and I think it's clear that Sigourney's not supposed to be likable, and that's totally fine). The problem is that this action has absolutely no logical basis in her motivations and character arc.My last complaint: the kraft. A very cool but poorly utilized aspect of the book's worldbuilding. Some people have magical abilities, and islanders are typically punished for having them. I liked the detail about it being used against the islanders as another tool for their oppression, but...you run into a common pitfall when you write abilities such as these: why don't the characters use them more to their advantage? Some of the kraft manifest as very powerful, very useful abilities: the ability to make someone always tell the truth, the ability to read minds and memories, etc. It can't be because the kongelig don't want to kill each other, they all very plainly want to kill each other for the chance to be crowned ruler of the islands. It can't be fear of punishment, since there doesn't really seem to be much punishment over other kongelig killing each other (only when it's a slave doing the killing is when it's instant death). In Sigourney's case, she has the ability to read minds, one of the most powerful magical abilities you can get. Granted, it's shown that people can sense when her kraft is being used on them, but still, that seems like something odd to leave to go to waste. Her kraft can even make it easier to kill people, which is her *goal*. Usually, when Sigourney uses her kraft, it's so the book can info-dump about the pasts of characters and their feelings. It feels like waste.But let me finish this review off with things I enjoyed: the reveal at the end was not one I saw coming. I guess there could be some complaint that ties into my earlier "it made no logical sense and came out of nowhere" points I raised, but I do give kudos for legitimately throwing me off guard and giving an actual compelling reason for it to happen. The worldbuilding was clearly inspired by real-life history, and I appreciated how it was a reflection of actual historical eras. I do appreciate how there are one or two Fjern that are not completely heartless and are given some redeeming qualities, it makes it feel more real than if it was written as "the obviously bad guys versus the obviously good guys." And I always praise a book that doesn't bore me and motivates me enough to keep reading to the end. This book was that, and I don't remember any parts reading where I was bored.Overall, I'm not happy to report that this book, after spending so long on my to-read list, ended up being a disappointment.