This week we are discussion The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter, Ch. 13 - 32.
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:
Jacilyn: Hello friends and welcome to our second discussion of The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter. I gotta say, this section had me pulling out my hair a bit in frustration as I watched Everly continue to make decisions that weren’t the smartest, that clearly led her down the path to becoming EQ. She siphons from Allura, and of course Allura is not a fan of that because who would be?? So, Everly has to face the consequences of that while also trying to evade the centaurs her crazy birth mother has sent to kill her. Then she keeps putting off telling Roth and Truly the truth and I was just waiting for the ball to drop the entire time. Obviously they were going to learn at some point, and because she put it off AND chose to siphon from Roth, it all blew up in her face spectacularly. I can’t believe she thought it would go over well, considering the trauma that Roth endured at the hands of the sorcerian overlord.
As frustrated as I am with all of this, it seems like Noel and Ophelia want her to make these decisions so she ends up where Noel determines she should. I’m still so confused about Noel and Ophelia’s intentions and where the trajectory of the story is going. I’m also a bit confused about Allura’s intentions and motivations at this point, too. Apparently she’s over being upset at Everly for the siphoning incident, but I don’t really know what would have caused her to have a change of heart.
Michaela: The Foreverly side of Everly really just takes her over sometimes and she makes the worst decisions possible. I understand being scared to tell the others she is a sorceress, especially considering the punishments they endure include cutting off their hands, but she had so many opportunities. But instead of telling them she siphons from Roth under the pretense of “he owes me for the pain he’ll cause me in the future”. MA’AM NO. What logic is that? It was the same with Allura too, she gave me gifts therefore she would want me to siphon from her. Actual insane thinking. Especially considering Roth’s history, I can’t handle Everly during this part of the book. She’s at that in between point of she is Everly and she is also the Evil Queen, and she does not know how to combine them or control them.
Noel and Ophelia are wild cards. I’m not sure what they’re aiming for yet, but I feel like there’s probably safer ways to get there. Or at least provide Everly with a little bit less vague answers to things. Oracles are always the most annoying characters in fantasy because they can never provide concrete information or any answers at all, it’s so frustrating and yet necessary to further the plot.
So much happened throughout this second section but I’ll tell you my favorite part is the tension between Everly and Roth. The ‘I shouldn’t be attracted to you but I cannot stay away’ gets me every time. Then, being connected by the prophecy takes it out of their own hands and they have no control over the connection, love it. I think it’s such an interesting dynamic to have in a book like this when there’s so many contributing factors. On the other hand something that throws me is Everly’s immediate outward love towards Truly. They’re twins and Everly cares for her family to an extreme but if I was Truly I’d be a little creeped out to hear this person I’ve known for a couple weeks admit their love for me. I find Everly’s love to be really overwhelming, it doesn’t seem the characters take it that way which is good, but it gets me every time, it’s too much for me.
Jacilyn: That’s a really good point, Everly’s love is very intense, particularly towards Truly. I can’t say I really blame Truly for not wanting to believe that Everly is her twin, too. To have someone show up out of nowhere and say that to me would really throw me for a loop… ESPECIALLY considering the relationship that Truly has with Violet. Everly isn’t capable of doing anything at a low key, everything is at the extreme, including her relationship with other people. In her eyes it seems like people are either all for you, or against you. There’s no in-between.
I have a lot of questions about Hartly right now. What is her role? Is she part of this fairytale prophecy, or is she just kind of on her own? Although I can’t say I fully trust Ophelia and Noel, I can’t help but believe them when they say that Hartly will be happy with the troll commander, and even thrive there. So far, we haven’t really seen anything to the contrary when Everly has observed from a mirror.
I liked that the action picked up in this section. I feel like I was supposed to have a bigger reaction to Reese’s death, though, honestly. I don’t feel like we got to know him well enough for that to really hit the way that most book deaths tend to hit me. We all know I cry very easily, and this kind of just made me go “that sucks, let’s move on.”
Michaela: I read this book a few years ago and I have forgotten so much! I am definitely confused about Hartly and the troll commander. It feels really random but I suppose it’s to keep the trolls from Everly so her story can unfold. I remember how Hartly’s story goes in this book and even that doesn't help me remember why Noel puts her with the trolls. Especially considering they are so dangerous that a single bite from them causes a person to change into one immediately. The scene of Roth killing Reese was actually heartbreaking, when Reese speaks to the others to calm them even though he took a vow of silence. Ugh! However, I agree, we didn’t get very much time to get to know him, so it doesn’t hit as hard as it could but I think the harshness of the world they live in affecting the presumably most innocent or the sweetest character so far does jar the story in a darker direction.
I’m also still confused on where Nicholas is coming from. Like what does he want? I really cannot tell, I wonder if he’s playing a few games at the moment and he hasn’t decided where he wants to end it. Another person I am confused by, Vikander. He mesmerizes Everly to make her tell the truth, then he starts trusting her. But then he doesn’t trust her because she’s a sorceress but then also tells her she could win Roth. Which Everly’s “why can’t I be the prize for once?”, the entire world, Enchantia or the ‘real’ world, views her as a side character or the evil character. She has yet to be seen as her own main character and the toll that takes on her, I imagine that could be another reason she loves so hard. She’s been taught by her mother her whole life to care for Hartly, making Hartly the main character in Everly’s life. I think this is really the first time Everly has had the chance to truly think for herself and act on her own whims rather than being connected to Hartly.
Jacilyn: I’m not sure what Nicolas or Tyler have going on yet, either. I think you may be right in that they may just have a few balls in the air and they’re waiting to see where the wind blows before they make any big moves. I almost feel like Vikander and Rothefus might be background characters that are actually quietly instrumental in how the story plays out, but I may be wrong in that regard.
Even after Roth had Everly apprehended and locked in a cell, he clearly didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. She is his “dream” girl, after all. The ceremony that Challen put on was really fucked up - they were going to sacrifice her to heal him somehow, which I still don’t fully understand. I don’t feel like the five-minute marriage was really enough for Everly to be considered anyone’s step mother, though. Every time Everly thinks that to herself in her head I’m like yeah no, I don’t think this counts. I’m not sure what to expect once Roth gets back to the castle. I imagine there will be some sort of confrontation but I don’t know what kind or which way it will go.
Michaela: The ceremony was so fucked up! I was so tense the entire time reading it the first time and again this time. It’s so so creepy. Marry a minor to establish a familial tie to then just drain her of her magic and life essence basically. Absolutely disgusting. I think Everly considering herself an actual step mother is one of those suspend your disbelief moments in this book. I think if this was an adult story this whole ceremony would have been much much darker and the life sucking part of it would have happened a few weeks following the wedding. Then the stepmother thing would make a lot more sense, but I think Everly is just hyperfocused on it because of the prophecy and her attraction to Roth.
I don’t know that Roth knows how he’s going to react either. He has to be upset about his father’s death and Farrah and Vikander’s banishment, but he cannot deny the way Everly was treated. Which Everly summoning Farrah, Vikander, Truly, and Annika right after almost being killed and ALL of them were just clearly interrupted during certain activities. That’d be my villain origin story too. Everly was just forced to marry an old man to then be almost murdered, and not a single person tried to help her, and they didn’t even care enough to wait 5 minutes before gettin busy. With that one, I’m on Everly’s side a little bit. Speaking of, Farrah’s character…she bugs the hell out of me. I can’t entirely place it but I do not trust her at all. Her whole helping people thing is such bullshit, she even said she was determined to be this kind of person so that she wouldn’t be the Evil Queen. That is precisely what makes her a candidate for being a version of the Evil Queen, everything she’s done had a selfish motivation behind it no matter if it helped people or not.
Everly has been Queen for all of an hour and she’s already doing really well at it. However, I don’t think it’ll last too long even though so far she’s actually making things better between the countries. There’s already been an assassination attempt on her. Obviously everyone is going to view her as being evil because “she killed the king”, and no one will probably ever know the truth and the more I think about what she just went through the more I think I would struggle to not give in to that evil side too.
Jacilyn: With the final section of the book, we’ll be finding out just how far Evelyn goes in embracing her role as the EQ, and what the conclusion is to that scene at the very beginning of the book with Roth and Snow White. Until next time, friends!
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