Read The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton Online

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The Queens of Innis Lear Reviews

• 
  Cindy ✩☽ Savage Queen ♔

  Read an excerpt of this and honestly I’m not sold on it yet. But maybe it gets better during the second half?
  
  ---
  
  Re-reading this synopsis, this book sounds pretty similar to Three Dark Crowns. Not sure how I feel about that...
  
  ---
  
  After reading the blurb, all I can say is...
  
  
  
  
  
  I am so ready!
• 
  Atlas

  KING LEAR? TESSA GRATON?
  
  THE AUTHOR OF ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MYTHOLOGY RETELLINGS IS WRITING A RETELLING OF ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SHAKESPEAREAN PLAYS? end me now
• 
  Judy Lesley

  Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan - Tor/Forge for a digital galley of this novel.
  
  This is a retelling of the Shakespeare play King Lear mainly identifiable by the leading characters of Lear and his three daughters along with his decision to carve up his kingdom to benefit the daughters who can express their love for him better than her sisters. The main problem is that you have to read way, way into the book before you get to that pithy bit of Shakespeare's maneuvering of characters.
  
  The Queen Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan - Tor/Forge for a digital galley of this novel.
  
  This is a retelling of the Shakespeare play King Lear mainly identifiable by the leading characters of Lear and his three daughters along with his decision to carve up his kingdom to benefit the daughters who can express their love for him better than her sisters. The main problem is that you have to read way, way into the book before you get to that pithy bit of Shakespeare's maneuvering of characters.
  
  The Queens of Innis Lear has wonderfully lyrical prose and yet I came away feeling very ambivalent about the characters. I couldn't seem to work up any emotional attachment for them or their predicament-of-the-moment. There is earth magic in here - as in being able to communicate with the trees and elements - which I normally enjoy and liked here too. There are all sorts of misunderstandings about events that happened in the past and we are given many flashback opportunities to see for ourselves what actually happened but only after we have watched characters struggle with their misconceptions of those events over long segments of the book.
  
  When I'm reading a novel and find myself frequently wondering how many pages there are in the book, well, that's not usually a good sign. For me this one is firmly in the 3 star category. I'm glad I read it (even though it took me a rather long time to get through it), but have zero desire to read it a second time. ...more
• 
  Bentley ★ Bookbastion.net

  See this review and more like it on www.bookbastion.net!
  
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  It's been awhile since I've really challenged myself with a proper adult high fantasy novel, and I can proudly say that I'm glad it was this one that I took a chance on. A retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, The Queens of Innis Lear faithfully draws on the same interpersonal conflicts between complex, morally gray characters found in the original play, but also infuses their world and societies with a breath of magic that serves to See this review and more like it on www.bookbastion.net!
  
  ______
  
  It's been awhile since I've really challenged myself with a proper adult high fantasy novel, and I can proudly say that I'm glad it was this one that I took a chance on. A retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, The Queens of Innis Lear faithfully draws on the same interpersonal conflicts between complex, morally gray characters found in the original play, but also infuses their world and societies with a breath of magic that serves to elevate the characters in surprising ways.
  
  
  
  Make no mistake, this is a novel that makes you work to appreciate it. It likely helps to have at least a cursory knowledge of King Lear before you start - as part of the fun for me was watching the ways in which this book paid respect to its source material, as well as the ways in which it differs. I entered into this with slight knowledge of the original play - having read it years ago - though I did familiarize myself with the source material again through summaries before I started this. I definitely think it only helped raise my appreciation for the labor of love that was clearly worked here. 
  
  Clocking in at 576 pages long, this is a hefty tome, full of lovely prose that is wildly descriptive without being flowery. My hat is off to Tessa Gratton, for it is clear that she is a gifted author, with an imagination that is as wild as the roots of the White Forest and a depth of skill that must have been drawn from the rootwaters of Innis Lear itself. I sometimes struggle with overly descriptive prose, but here I felt like each word was carefully chosen and suited its purpose well to paint the world of Innis Lear to life.
  
  
  
  I also enjoyed the way Gratton uses her character's situations and legacies to her advantage to craft wonderfully gray and layered characters. Never forgetting that King Lear was itself a tragedy, nearly every character is nudged onward down a path of inevitability and destruction that reaches near fevered pitch for the last quarter of the story or so when I could scarcely put the book down.
  
  The 3 Princesses of Innis Lear were particularly well crafted. I loved that they were women of color, sort of separated in a world apart from their culture, each other, and their family in a way that only can lead in one of two directions: to mutual understanding and acceptance of their circumstance together, or despair. 
  
  
  
  I struggled a bit with the character of Ban the Fox though because he seemed less morally gray than just a really corrupt and selfish individual to me. I know Tessa Gratton wanted him to remain a sympathetic character, but - without spoiling who exactly he corresponds to in King Lear, or what his role was in this - I couldn't bring myself to see him that way, which sort of messed with my enjoyment of certain points involving his character. 
  
  I will also admit that I had trouble with the pacing in the early portions of the novel. There are at least 7 POV characters that are introduced over the course of the story, with most of them being introduced straight away at the beginning. There are also flashbacks incorporated so that we might see these character years before the story begins. That much jumping around made orienting myself to the world a challenge in and of itself. However, once I was familiar with each of the core cast and who they corresponded to in King Lear, things did get a bit easier to manage.
  
  This was a truly lovely read and I am so glad that I stuck with it through the end. 
  
  4 out of 5 stars!
  
  Thank you Netgalley, and Tor for approving me for an Advanced Review Copy! ...more
• 
  Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ Rabid Reads

  Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
  
  I love KING LEAR.
  
  When I took Shakespeare in college, I wrote my research paper on Edmund. I argued that he had little chance to be anything but a villain given the thoughtless mistreatment of bastards at that time. He wore his illegitimacy like a scarlet letter, and even more than Hester Prynn’s, his crime was not a crime.
  
  So of course when I heard that Tessa Gratton’s THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR was a fantastical retelling of KING LEAR, I leapt at the opportunity to read i Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
  
  I love KING LEAR.
  
  When I took Shakespeare in college, I wrote my research paper on Edmund. I argued that he had little chance to be anything but a villain given the thoughtless mistreatment of bastards at that time. He wore his illegitimacy like a scarlet letter, and even more than Hester Prynn’s, his crime was not a crime.
  
  So of course when I heard that Tessa Gratton’s THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR was a fantastical retelling of KING LEAR, I leapt at the opportunity to read it for review. And when I started reading it, and the Edmund-like character, now called Ban the Fox, appeared to be less villainous and more heroic, of course I was ecstatic.
  
  BUT.
  
  I was 2% into it, and I should know better than to make assumptions, especially about a retelling of anything by Shakespeare.
  
  Tackling Shakespeare is a challenging endeavor. It’s freaking Shakespeare. How do you retell a story written a master? The master?
  
  To attempt it requires more courage than the average writer can muster. But to attempt it AND rewrite it to suit your purposes, to imagine your version of events superior?
  
  That, friends, would be HUBRIS. #shameonme
  
  I’ve seen several reviews where the reader has said things like, after the first couple chapters, they just couldn’t get into it, and that, to me, is baffling.
  
  TQOIL has one of the best prologues I’ve ever read.
  
  First line:
  
  

  It begins when a wizard cleaves an island from the mainland, in response to the king destroying her temple.

  
  
  What begins?
  
  Just that easily, I was hooked.
  
  The spectacular prologue was immediately followed by an introduction to a character and an island that were so vivid, so magical, that I wanted to jump up and down shrieking, “I want to talk to trees! I want to see a bird’s dreams! I want the wind to be my messenger!”
  
  I want to live in this world!
  
  Characters that I’d thought I knew and knew well became infinitely more complex. More damaged. More covetous. Anger became fury. Thoughtless remained thoughtful but became loyal and well-intentioned as well. Good became naive, became heartbroken, became a strong and worthy queen.
  
  And a story I already loved became something so much more.
  
  Did it hurt?
  
  Absolutely.
  
  Tragedy is tragedy, and Shakespearen tragedy . . . WHUH.
  
  But Gratton so expertly crafted this expanded version that despite the respect she clearly has for this tale and its creator, she was able to give us a less bleak future. Those left standing are worthy of their survival. They’ve learned from Lear’s mistakes and don’t repeat them. They are poised to let their island heal their wounds, healing their island in return.
  
  THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR more than a tragedy. It’s life lessons. How shutting yourself off from the ones who love you can be the root of your own destruction. It’s about recognizing when someone can be saved and when they can’t. It’s hard choices and unbridled hope.
  
  It’s magic.
  
  ...more
• 
  Acqua

  The Queens of Innis Lear is a fantasy retelling of King Lear.
  
  It begins with the birth of an island, with one of the most breathtaking prologues I've read in a while. It draws you in, and you'll need that, because this may be a well-written story with multilayered characters and intricate political dynamics, but it's also a very slow tome of almost 600 pages and the retelling of a tragedy.
  
  I decided to read this because I loved Tessa Gratton's Before She Was Bloody story in the anthology Three Sid The Queens of Innis Lear is a fantasy retelling of King Lear.
  
  It begins with the birth of an island, with one of the most breathtaking prologues I've read in a while. It draws you in, and you'll need that, because this may be a well-written story with multilayered characters and intricate political dynamics, but it's also a very slow tome of almost 600 pages and the retelling of a tragedy.
  
  I decided to read this because I loved Tessa Gratton's Before She Was Bloody story in the anthology Three Sides of a Heart. The main strengths of The Queens of Innis Lear are the one I expected: clear, lyrical writing, complex worldbuilding and characters I cared deeply for. I would read more set in this world torn between star worship and root magic, forever searching a balance; I want to see more descriptions of cities and castles and old rootwater wells - this story may be a tragedy, but this is one of the most beautiful fantasy worlds I've ever seen. And even when the characters and their bad decisions frustrated me, I understood their motivations.
  
  The Queens of Innis Lear is the story of a mad king, his three daughters and heirs to the throne, and a young man - a bastard, a fox, a witch - who is returning to Innis Lear after a long exile in Aremoria. It's mainly a story about politics and family, character-driven, and I believed in these characters' relationship and rivalries. I liked almost all of them, even the ones who kept betraying everything and everyone who came in their way.
  
  This book is not, however, without its weaknesses. There were many unnecessary scenes, flashbacks and even some unnecessary PoVs, which definitely didn't help the already slow pacing. This is probably the slowest novel I've read this year, and just like most books over 500 pages, it could - should - have been shorter.
  
  I loved the diversity, as this is about three biracial black princesses and there are many casual mentions of main and side characters being bisexual, but I really did not like what this book did with Gaela's character. She is the elder sister, she's heavily coded as aromantic asexual, and she is every single aromantic and asexual stereotype ever. She's described as cold and heartless, she disdains everything that has to do with sex or romance, feels no emotions but anger, and also (view spoiler)[dies (hide spoiler)]. It was unnecessary, and she was probably the weakest character in the whole story; her PoV was very monotonous.
  
  One of the things I loved the most about this book was the ending. It's been a long time since a book made me really believe the main characters were in danger, and it also delivered - just like in King Lear, the ending is not happy, but I thought it was perfect, not as hopeless as it could have been. ...more
• 
  Megan Lyons

  3 1/2 stars
  
  I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it. It was well written, and the author did a great job of adding depth to the story of King Lear, while staying fairly true to the overall story. It is not an exact retelling; new connections are created between characters, and some of the story lines and plot elements have been adjusted, but the author does a good job of expanding on the original play, while staying true to themes. I was charmed to see some exact dialogue from the play sprinkle 3 1/2 stars
  
  I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it. It was well written, and the author did a great job of adding depth to the story of King Lear, while staying fairly true to the overall story. It is not an exact retelling; new connections are created between characters, and some of the story lines and plot elements have been adjusted, but the author does a good job of expanding on the original play, while staying true to themes. I was charmed to see some exact dialogue from the play sprinkled throughout the story, and the writing was strong, though probably a bit on the literary side for a lot of fantasy fans.
  
  The story and characters felt modernized as well; it was a more feminist version of the story, and the characters, particularly the villains, where given more depth and backstory. I just reread the play, and there was an interesting dichotomy between original and retelling with regards to the late queen. In King Lear, she is only mentioned once in the entire play, but she has an important role, mostly via her absence, in this retelling.
  
  This book’s incarnation of Edmund, the bastard villain, Ban the Fox, here, is arguably the book’s protagonist, and I found him very sympathetic. He was interesting and layered. There was also an interesting, star crossed lover, Romeo and Juliet-esque romance between him, and this books Cordelia (Elia). The other two sisters, Gaela (Goneril) and Reagan, were both fleshed out and interesting as well.
  
  The magic system, was dark, and very creepy, as was the setting, which complimented the setting and mood of the play. There is no doubt that the book was well done.
  
  However, it felt very long. It was pretty slow moving and meandering. It was character driven, and a lot of time was spent giving both perspectives from different characters, as well as backstory. Almost 700 pages (that's how long my ARC was anyways) felt a bit too long and meandering to me, especially already knowing the bare bones of the story. There were enough surprises at the end that I didn’t feel cheated, and I appreciated the book, but it did take me a long time to read.
  
  I’m also not really sure who the audience is, as I’m not sure if it will appeal to many fantasy fans. It has a more literary vein than is typical in that section, and is probably more than a lot of fantasy fans would like to take on. I think it will be a little too fantasy for most literary fiction fans. Besides, literary fictions have already had the Pulitzer Prize winning A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, which was a more innovative retelling IMO. However, I can see fans of books like the The Mists of Avalon enjoying this and recommending to other fans.
  
  *I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from Indigo Books and Music Inc. in exchange for an honest review. ...more
• 
  destiny ☠ howling libraries

  Don't mind me, just freaking tf out over having this glorious retelling <3 <3 <3