**The Queen of the Tearling: A Review**

I just finished reading The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen and I'm still reeling from the experience. As soon as I started reading, I knew that this was going to be a special book. Like, a really special book. There's just something about it that drew me in and made me want to keep reading, no matter what.

One of the things that really stood out to me was how much I loved the main character, Kelsey. She's like, so strong and determined, even when she knows that she's not going to be able to change everything. Like, she's been told that she has to go through this whole "vow of secrecy" thing because her mother made some kind of deal with the Red Queen, but she just can't help herself. She wants to know more about her past and who her mother was, even if it means going against what everyone else tells her.

As I kept reading, I found myself really drawn into Kelsey's world. Like, I loved how vividly Johansen described everything - the gardens, the palaces, the clothes they wore. It was all so real and immersive that I felt like I could almost smell the roses in Kelsey's garden. And speaking of Kelsey's garden, oh my god, it was like a character in itself. Like, I loved how she'd spend hours out there, just thinking and daydreaming and being her own little queen.

But what really blew me away was the way Johansen wove together all these different storylines and plot threads. Like, at first, everything seemed kind of straightforward - Kelsey's just trying to survive in a world that doesn't want her around, right? But then you start to see more and more clues about her mother's past and what really happened between the Queen and her mom, and it all gets so much more complicated. Like, I loved how everything was hinted at but not fully revealed - it made me feel like a detective trying to solve a mystery.

And can we talk about the Red Queen for a second? She's just so intriguing - I love how Johansen portrayed her as this kind of... I don't know, shadowy figure who's always lurking in the background, waiting to pounce. Like, Kelsey's always feeling like she's being watched by her, even when they're not actually together. And then there are all these little scenes where people talk about the Red Queen and how much they fear her - it was so creepy.

I also really liked the way Johansen wrote about the magic system in this world. Like, at first, I was a bit skeptical - I'd always been kind of turned off by those kinds of books that are like "oh, magic is just wave your hands and stuff happens." But here, it's so much more nuanced than that. There are all these different rules and restrictions on how magic can be used, and it makes sense in a way that feels really realistic.

And then there's Lazarus - oh my god, I love Lazarus. Like, he's just this kind of... brooding, quiet character who's always looking at Kelsey with this intense gaze. It was like, I couldn't even look away from the page when they were together - it was that strong.

One of the things that really stood out to me about The Queen of the Tearling is how much I loved the way Johansen wrote about relationships. Like, there are these scenes where people are talking about Kelsey and her mom, and it's all so... complicated. There's this sense of trauma and pain that just hangs in the air - it was really powerful.

I also appreciated how much I liked the antagonist. Like, she's just this kind of... villain who's not necessarily evil, but is definitely bad news. There are all these little moments where Kelsey is like "what have I gotten myself into?" and it was so relatable.

As I kept reading, I found myself really interested in learning more about the Queen's past. Like, what did her mom do? What kind of deal did she make with the Red Queen? There are all these little hints throughout the book that just kept me turning the pages to find out more.

And can we talk about the ending for a second? I don't want to give too much away, but... let's just say it was really satisfying. Like, I loved how everything came together in this way that felt both surprising and inevitable at the same time.

I think what really made The Queen of the Tearling stand out for me was its tone. Like, it's not a light, fluffy book by any means - there are some pretty dark moments throughout. But it feels so... real? That's the word I'm looking for. It just felt like this book was written from a place of honesty and vulnerability, which is something that really resonated with me.

Overall, I just can't recommend The Queen of the Tearling enough. Like, it's one of those books that you'll think about long after you finish reading - there are so many layers to the story and characters that it just keeps unfolding in your mind. If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up as soon as possible.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam and this is my spoilery gush for the queen of the tearling by Erica Johansson as I said this video will have spoilers in it so if you've not read this book go ahead and check out my spoiler for review which will be linked on the screen so first off I mentioned this in my review I loved this book and it's one of those polarizing reads where I physically don't understand how people don't like this book you know like I get that sometimes and I never go after people because like it doesn't that doesn't matter to me like I don't base my like identity on books I like and people not liking them like I don't need to try to convince anybody to like this book blah blah blah but it's one of those things where I watch I get to reviews and I don't even get mad because I'm just like I Just Disagree completely I just love this book so much and I'm so glad that I read it and I thought I was going to like it based on a lot of my friends and people whose taste I tend to align with liking it but I wasn't sure because it is so polarizing so I love this pretty much from the get-go like I just like Kelsey as a character I think she's just so interesting she's so strong she's so smart I find her incredibly realistic with like her kind of like body self-esteem issues that she has with that she also doesn't let that hold her back that she is still very much like politically minded and just smart and can figure things out that she knows the importance of having really smart people around her and like you know Gathering her Queen's guard and her knowing that like she needs to have the trust and respect of these people so I just adored her all those scenes that we had of her just being incredibly badass being like I know that there's going to be consequences for this and I'm sure we're going to see the consequences of this but like getting rid of the slavery and just like not just not compromising really on her morals I think that's a very like Teenage late teenage thing to do and it's also incredibly brave but there also are going to be repercussions for that so I'm really excited to see more about that I also really liked the crush thing she had going on and the like kind of connection that she had with the fetch like I'm still very intrigued about him because obviously we know that he's older and back from the dead I don't know I don't know but I'm really excited to see more about that like I like that we have this whole thing where he's like yo I'm not interested in you and she's like oh but I just like Pine after him I think that's a very realistic situation like obviously not everyone's going to fall in love mutually with each other and there's going to be this kind like sometimes you have these situations where like love is kind of unrequited or like a crush is unrequited cuz obviously she's not in love with him she doesn't know him but stuff like that so I'm really interested to see what happens with that obviously he's keeping his eye on her and seeing if she's like the kind of queen that he's been waiting for which we kind of discover that she is and we have all these kind of scenes at the very beginning of the chapters I don't know if it would be called like forwards or whatever like the chapter headers where you know that she's done stuff people in the future like either writing about her or like little scenes where people like saw statues of her or whatever so I I just love that little we're like we know things are going to be okay but we don't know how it's going to necessarily get there and will it be okay I don't know so I I just love it I just love everything about it like I just had such a good time reading this book like I tend to shy away from those books that are like oh it's like a future fantasy and I'm going to stop doing that because I realized that I actually don't mind that at all like a lot of books that I've read that are these like kind like future fantasy worlds like our world as a fantasy world kind of medieval times but like has gone kind of we've regressed a bit or whatever but now we have magic like I always like those worlds but I always think I'm not going to and I always do so I'm not going to shy away from those anymore I actually really like that element and I think it's interesting I like seeing like oh what what what happened and all that kind of things I also liked all of her like Queen's garden stuff like I love Lazarus obviously and I like pen and like they're just like a great band of characters and I just adore all all of them like and again I mentioned to in my review like I like the antagonist I like the idea of the Red Queen and like what's going to happen with her obviously we don't see a ton of her in this book but I think their like Dynamic and relationship between her and Kelsey and their differences and similarities is going to be really interesting in coming books so I'm really excited about that as well I'm also interested to know like what happens and what made this whole like vow of secrecy between the Queen's guard and like her foster parents and stuff where she she can't learn anything about her mom like what did her mom do we obviously found out that she was like a little more vapid and shallow than Kelsey was was hoping that she made some kind of bad decisions that even her Queen's guard admits that like she wasn't that good of a queen but like what happened who's her dad you know we always have these like Grand stories about like who's whose dad like the parentage blah blah blah like it just makes me think of like Ray from Star Wars right now but like all of that stuff I'm really interested to see like why was everyone sworn to secrecy why can't she know things like it's just because they didn't want her to repeat her mother's mistakes or like what is it is there some kind of weird prophecy I don't know again like the vague things about this book I don't care about like that's fine with me like I I forgive that completely in this book I think it works based on like the tone and just the way that it is so the like vague magic and stuff it doesn't bother me the like miscommunication makes sense to me like I'm I'm fine with it we're in other books I might not be as okay with it makes sense to me in this book so yeah I love how incredibly strong Kelsey was I love that she stuck to her guns on a lot of things and I'm interested to see what the reifications of those actions will be obviously we have a very realistic character that's a teenager you know sticking to what they believe in Etc and then you kind of discover that sometimes that isn't necessarily the best thing for the country or whatever because we're obviously going to have this Invasion and I'm really excited to see what happens with that like what what are the ramifications of all the things that she's done like is she going to stumble a bit like I hope not cuz I just love how strong she is at the same time would be realistic if she did so I'm very excited to see what happens in the coming books with this series and I'm just so so excited that I finally started this series does it look like I've had a dog sprouting from my head like this entire review oops so comment down below let me know what you thought of the queen of the teerling thank you all for watching and I'll see all you guys soon byehey guys it's Sam and this is my spoilery gush for the queen of the tearling by Erica Johansson as I said this video will have spoilers in it so if you've not read this book go ahead and check out my spoiler for review which will be linked on the screen so first off I mentioned this in my review I loved this book and it's one of those polarizing reads where I physically don't understand how people don't like this book you know like I get that sometimes and I never go after people because like it doesn't that doesn't matter to me like I don't base my like identity on books I like and people not liking them like I don't need to try to convince anybody to like this book blah blah blah but it's one of those things where I watch I get to reviews and I don't even get mad because I'm just like I Just Disagree completely I just love this book so much and I'm so glad that I read it and I thought I was going to like it based on a lot of my friends and people whose taste I tend to align with liking it but I wasn't sure because it is so polarizing so I love this pretty much from the get-go like I just like Kelsey as a character I think she's just so interesting she's so strong she's so smart I find her incredibly realistic with like her kind of like body self-esteem issues that she has with that she also doesn't let that hold her back that she is still very much like politically minded and just smart and can figure things out that she knows the importance of having really smart people around her and like you know Gathering her Queen's guard and her knowing that like she needs to have the trust and respect of these people so I just adored her all those scenes that we had of her just being incredibly badass being like I know that there's going to be consequences for this and I'm sure we're going to see the consequences of this but like getting rid of the slavery and just like not just not compromising really on her morals I think that's a very like Teenage late teenage thing to do and it's also incredibly brave but there also are going to be repercussions for that so I'm really excited to see more about that I also really liked the crush thing she had going on and the like kind of connection that she had with the fetch like I'm still very intrigued about him because obviously we know that he's older and back from the dead I don't know I don't know but I'm really excited to see more about that like I like that we have this whole thing where he's like yo I'm not interested in you and she's like oh but I just like Pine after him I think that's a very realistic situation like obviously not everyone's going to fall in love mutually with each other and there's going to be this kind like sometimes you have these situations where like love is kind of unrequited or like a crush is unrequited cuz obviously she's not in love with him she doesn't know him but stuff like that so I'm really interested to see what happens with that obviously he's keeping his eye on her and seeing if she's like the kind of queen that he's been waiting for which we kind of discover that she is and we have all these kind of scenes at the very beginning of the chapters I don't know if it would be called like forwards or whatever like the chapter headers where you know that she's done stuff people in the future like either writing about her or like little scenes where people like saw statues of her or whatever so I I just love that little we're like we know things are going to be okay but we don't know how it's going to necessarily get there and will it be okay I don't know so I I just love it I just love everything about it like I just had such a good time reading this book like I tend to shy away from those books that are like oh it's like a future fantasy and I'm going to stop doing that because I realized that I actually don't mind that at all like a lot of books that I've read that are these like kind like future fantasy worlds like our world as a fantasy world kind of medieval times but like has gone kind of we've regressed a bit or whatever but now we have magic like I always like those worlds but I always think I'm not going to and I always do so I'm not going to shy away from those anymore I actually really like that element and I think it's interesting I like seeing like oh what what what happened and all that kind of things I also liked all of her like Queen's garden stuff like I love Lazarus obviously and I like pen and like they're just like a great band of characters and I just adore all all of them like and again I mentioned to in my review like I like the antagonist I like the idea of the Red Queen and like what's going to happen with her obviously we don't see a ton of her in this book but I think their like Dynamic and relationship between her and Kelsey and their differences and similarities is going to be really interesting in coming books so I'm really excited about that as well I'm also interested to know like what happens and what made this whole like vow of secrecy between the Queen's guard and like her foster parents and stuff where she she can't learn anything about her mom like what did her mom do we obviously found out that she was like a little more vapid and shallow than Kelsey was was hoping that she made some kind of bad decisions that even her Queen's guard admits that like she wasn't that good of a queen but like what happened who's her dad you know we always have these like Grand stories about like who's whose dad like the parentage blah blah blah like it just makes me think of like Ray from Star Wars right now but like all of that stuff I'm really interested to see like why was everyone sworn to secrecy why can't she know things like it's just because they didn't want her to repeat her mother's mistakes or like what is it is there some kind of weird prophecy I don't know again like the vague things about this book I don't care about like that's fine with me like I I forgive that completely in this book I think it works based on like the tone and just the way that it is so the like vague magic and stuff it doesn't bother me the like miscommunication makes sense to me like I'm I'm fine with it we're in other books I might not be as okay with it makes sense to me in this book so yeah I love how incredibly strong Kelsey was I love that she stuck to her guns on a lot of things and I'm interested to see what the reifications of those actions will be obviously we have a very realistic character that's a teenager you know sticking to what they believe in Etc and then you kind of discover that sometimes that isn't necessarily the best thing for the country or whatever because we're obviously going to have this Invasion and I'm really excited to see what happens with that like what what are the ramifications of all the things that she's done like is she going to stumble a bit like I hope not cuz I just love how strong she is at the same time would be realistic if she did so I'm very excited to see what happens in the coming books with this series and I'm just so so excited that I finally started this series does it look like I've had a dog sprouting from my head like this entire review oops so comment down below let me know what you thought of the queen of the teerling thank you all for watching and I'll see all you guys soon bye\n"