This week we are discussion The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter, Prologue - Ch. 12.
Content Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: blood, death, forced marriage, loss of a loved one, and violence.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter.
Discussion:
Michaela: Hello friends and welcome to our first discussion of The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter! This is the first book in our summer book exchange and this one is my pick. I read this book in the summer of 2020, which we all know was a very interesting time! At the time I ate this book up, I read it in just a few days and stayed up all night to finish it at 4 am. However, in the last 3 years I have found that my interest in the YA genre has definitely been dwindling so I am curious to see if this book still holds up to how I felt about it originally. This book is a reimagining/retelling of the Snow White fairytale, which I absolutely love retellings so that part of the book is still right up my street.
The premise of the book is still fascinating to me. I mean a forest where all fairytales kind of converge together but you don’t know if you’re part of one or what your role will be. Amazing. Currently DMing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a similar premise that I am very excited about. However, I will say that the beginning of this book is pretty slow for me this time around. The high school worries and drama’s for Everly’s character is much less relatable to me now as a 28 year old, it comes across as a little silly to me sometimes but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been extremely relatable if I had read it as a teenager.
That being said I do enjoy the characters and once Everly gets to Enchantia she starts to be more serious about things but of course we still have to have a hot boy to crush on. Would it be a YA fantasy if we didn’t focus on a hot boy at some point?
Jac: I’ve also been finding that my interest in YA is changing a bit, depending on the kind of book. I have traditionally not been super into retellings, personally, so this is definitely outside my usual range of books - which is part of the point of the book exchange, after all.
I did find the beginning to be a bit slow. It felt to me like some things were a bit beyond my realm of belief - the most significant example of that for me so far was how Everly and Hartly were so curious about their mom’s past, but also just kind of let it go? When Everly found remnants of her mom’s time in Enchantia before she left the home, I was surprised. It didn’t really seem like her mom tried very hard to keep those items hidden, so it seemed odd to me that the girls hadn’t stumbled across them at some point. The box was literally labeled “My Old Life!”
I did find the relationship that their mom and Nicholas had to be really sweet. I may end up being proven wrong, but it seemed like the love Nicholas had for her was sincere and deep. Is he more trustworthy than Everly believes? There’s definitely a lot of discrimination against sorcerians in this society - in spite of Everly’s mother’s love for her, she still feared her, and many people in Enchantia still hold that mistrust. I can’t say I particularly blame them, to be honest. I also wonder how Nicholas managed not to siphon off of his wife and the girls. Is this something sorcerians have more control over when they’re more trained? Everly has shown a couple of times that she siphons without actually meaning to, one time literally leading to the death of her mother.
Michaela: There’s definitely a lot of conveniently placed “my old life” boxes, as well as convenient events and information that we get in the beginning of this book. But I feel like that is kind of normal for a lot of YA fantasy stories that I have read in the past. The acceptance Everly and Hartly had for the lack of answers their mother gave them feels the most unrealistic to me, at least for me, I would be the most annoying child constantly asking the same questions to get a satisfying answer. However, they were raised with that lack of answers so maybe you just learn to let it go, I don’t know.
I do not remember everything about this world or the story for that matter. But the book mentions that sorcerians tend to need a connection to the person they are siphoning from but Everly doesn’t seem to need that. Nicholas feels like he could go either way, he could be the nicest person who used to be bad or he could be bad who happened to love a nice woman. I don’t entirely understand how much magic uses up Everly’s battery, I suppose that’s what you could call it. Maybe she’s using a lot more than she needs to, so certain things shouldn’t be using as much store of magic, since she doesn’t understand her powers yet.
I think the magic system in this book is interesting. We have sorcerians who naturally have the ability to wield magic but not produce it? But they can siphon from those who do naturally produce it. Then we also have those who pay to get magical abilities transferred into them, which of course they would, rich people in every universe are so predictable. I think the prejudice against sorcerians is a little…hypocritical? Many nobles paid to have their powers but did the person/creature who gave up their power for that noble really have a choice? Whereas the sorcerians seem to need a connection with someone which feels like it has more chance of being consented. I think both sides have major non-consensual vibes.
I love that the world of Enchantia isn’t a happily ever after version of fairytales. We jump into Enchantia and immediately find trolls eating a human. Personally I like having a world with real stakes in it even if it is about fairytales, but really fairytales didn’t always have good endings either. Something that draws me out of the story, which goes along with the YA-ness of it all, is the language used is very clearly a teenage human. Which, I understand that’s the whole story but still, I just think I’m moving away from YA’s. Even if the plots still interest me, the language, relatability, and pacing is starting to not fit into my style of reading anymore. Doesn’t mean this book, or other YA’s, aren’t good because I do think this is a good book still, I think I’ve just grown away from this style of writing and that’s okay. Growth, my friends, is fluid for sure!
Jac: So far, my favorite character is Noel. I don’t really feel like Everly can fully trust anyone right now, but I also feel like, since she’s the Evil Queen (or at least is LIKELY the Evil Queen) that people can’t really trust her either. Noel is just a big ball of energy and cuteness to me. She is obviously super powerful, so she feels like she knows all of these people already, even if they’ve only interacted a little bit. I’m still uncertain on the role Truly and Farrah will play in the overall story, as well as Hartly. Honestly, I trust Roth more than anyone else right now, and that’s mainly because of the prologue. He seems to have noble intentions, at least thus far. Now, Foreverly? I don’t trust her, even if she is future Everly. She’s leading her down a dark path, I feel. Every time Everly consults her, I get tense.
I hope we get to meet Allura soon. She’s been helping Everly, with clothes and supplies and even gems for currency, but if there’s one thing I know about fantasy, it’s that very rarely do you get random help for free. And, now that Everly has siphoned off of her and the forest, will Allura become more malevolent? I truly don’t know!
Violet is fascinating to me as a character. What was it that caused this woman to become so evil, so heartless when seeing her own flesh and blood? Was it having to give Everly up in the first place? The trauma of having to stay in Enchantia with her horrible husband and try to protect Truly? What is it that warped her soul in this way?
Michaela: Noel’s “we’re going to be such mediocre friends!” killed me. She’s such a fun character, I love her chaotic nature. I do not trust Foreverly at all, she feels like she’s purely the Evil Queen side of Everly’s personality and is manipulating everything she says to Everly. But she also doesn’t seem to know what to do at the same time, but also why does she know what others are doing when Everly isn’t looking in the mirror? Super suspicious behavior. Ophelia also gives me suspicious vibes but I think that’s more because she is so suspicious of everyone but trusts Noel at the same time. Farrah also feels untrustworthy from the prologue, which can I say I felt like the prologue lasted forever. I felt like it gave me almost too much insight into the final boss battle scene in a way.
I do like Roth’s character though, his slow melting personality in Everly’s presence is *chef’s kiss*. That is my romance bread and butter, hard exterior protective badass with a soft heart for the person they fall for, freaking love it. The raspy laugh that sounded unused and all his friends were surprised to hear…my heart. Let the man be happy! Queen Violet on the other hand, horrible woman. What a horrendous interaction for Everly, I feel so sad for her. Queen Violet has clearly been changed over the years, but she really is almost an evil queen herself. I think so many characters can fit into the roles of the fairytale but they can also flip flop around. I wonder if Violet’s personality change might be magically influenced, it’s just so intense. But we really have hardly any of the story so far so we will learn a whole lot more as we continue. The procession of blondes to meet the king though, does not give me much hope for any happy events!
Jac: The procession of blondes was eerie as hell, and does not make me feel great. Why does he need them? Is he actually evil himself? Do Farrah and Roth want to save him out of a sense of duty, or do they truly love him? I have so many questions still, but I imagine they’ll be answered with time.
Well, friends, that’s all for our first discussion! We’ll see you again next week when we check in with Everly once again.
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