The Queens of Innis Lear

Seduced by the sumptuous U.K. hardback cover of The Queens of Innis Lear, I fell into the 568 page tome, only to find that it was actually a tomb.By page 78 I was still struggling to pick up the sense, the feel, the direction of this story, not having read the Shakespeare original.My goodness what a lot of words and sentences! But they have to mean something, have an “adding to” capacity to the characters, the mood, and the story, not just be there without purpose.Personally I like a long book, I have just read a trilogy, and each book had over 700 pages. And it never felt onerous as the action was interesting, the characters deep and the story really captivating.The thing that really lost me with The Queens of Innis Lear however, was that almost every other chapter was, like “2 years ago/ 10 years ago /5 years ago/20 years ago”, quite randomly time-wise, perhaps relative to the story, but I had started to skip those sections in order to try and hang onto the plot. Scooted to the last few chapters - before I lost the will to live - which at least carried the story succinctly to its conclusion.If this had been more concise, directed, it could have been an exciting read. The good bones are there. I’m sorry, as the author sounds an interesting person.P.S. Even the gold is rubbing of the cover.

The book arrived quickly and in excellent condition. I have wanted to read this for ages, and I wasn’t disappointed.

An enthralling story of love and betrayal with a vivid landscape. The writing pulled me into the story. The book builds through a patchwork of the current storyline and back story in the past.

There’s a lot to admire about this retelling of King Lear with its representation of female characters of colour and beauty and non-gender conforming characteristics. It also has a strong setting in a world of strange and powerful magic, with a rich history and intricate politics. But that didn’t stop it from being a struggle to read at times. The pace is slow, the narrative constantly swapping between a range of characters as well as taking trips into the past. However, it is also beautifully written with lovely lyrical passages and even bits of Shakespeare dotted here and there.My biggest problem was the characters – and the fact that I struggled to like any of them. Oldest sister Gaela is full of rage and passion, but is also ambitious and selfish and more prone to hate than love. Middle sister Regan is beautiful and cunning, also ambitious and rather single-minded in her selfish pursuit of her goals. But those are the older sisters and we aren’t supposed to really like them, though I did at times feel for both. Gaela because of the prophecy over her mother’s death and how that impacted everything about her, and Regan for her desire to be a mother and the love she had for her husband. None of that stopped them from being difficult to like, but they’re the bad sisters, so that was mostly expected.Elia was worse, because we’re supposed to like her, to get behind her, to want her to win. But she’s so whiny and passive, letting everyone make all the decisions for her because she just wants everyone to love each other – while she herself doesn’t want to love anyone because… of some suspect reasoning. I had hopes for her as the book progressed, but even when she seems ready to take control of things, she still waits for everyone else to make the decisions and gets annoyed when others step in to her passive void. Yet everyone loves her because she’s Elia, the youngest fairytale princess, and that’s how the story goes.Away from the three sisters there’s Lear, who is mad and has little personality beyond his Shakespearean role. There is also Ban, who for most of the book was the one character I liked. He’s the antagonist in all, as apt to take action as Elia is to sit back and wait. He’s not good and he’s certainly not innocent, but he is interesting. His magic is dark and earthy and I really liked how he made things work. But, alas, as the book went on I liked him less. Mostly it was when he got mixed up with Regan that I lost all liking for him. With everything he knew, everything he’d been, that sudden swerve made little sense to me – except to serve the narrative. We also have Mars, the foreign king, who falls for Elia for no obvious reason and is a real whiny wet blanket considering what he’s supposed to be. He and Elia deserved each other, they could talk in drips.Other characters pop up here and there, with the men usually being lacklustre and ineffective and the women having a little more life. I would have liked to have seen more of Brona, the Witch of the White Forest, but sadly we spent more time with Elia’s maid and best friend who kept trying to show how great Elia was, but left me unconvinced.Which is a shame, because the world this is set in is rich and detailed and I loved the magic. There’s the cold and distant star magic of charts and prophecies, and the worm magic of trees and dirt and life and root water. Whenever the magic got involved everything became more interesting, it’s just a shame the characters kept getting in the way. The plot too has plenty of potential, taking what it needs from the play and embellishing – particularly with regard to the lost queen. But the pace is slow and tended to drag, and with all the tension that builds and builds, I found the ending slightly anticlimactic. Which left me feeling rather flat about the whole book. The idea was interesting, the magic and world is great, but in the end it just didn’t quite live up to all it might have been.

I found this to be a really lyrical and poignant re-imagining of King Lear, set in a magical land where wizards cast blood magic to harness the power of the land and the ailing King just wants to follow the prophecies of the stars. First things first. This is not a quick read - the book is a hefty one and the narrative is paced languidly, which gives the reader the time to get to grips with the many characters but does not make for an unputdownable page turner. I really appreciated the detail and depth that Gratton has gone into and once I understood that it was not going to be fast, I settled in to a really beautiful character study that showed the nuance in everyone's nature. I found Regan the most interesting of the 3 sisters and her motivations were not always clear, which I thought was a wise move on the author's part. Elia had an edge to her that I found appealing and Gaela was a fascinating woman, living a man's life in a male-dominated world. Ultimately, this novel won't appeal to everyone. There will be people who struggle with the slow pacing, but for me, I thought it was a fantastic book and I will look forward to reading Gratton in the future.I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.