Another read for the Fredricksen Children's Library. I'm now going to recommend this to every kid who requests a fantasy book with a strong female hero! The adventures and characters are so fun and I would gladly read this again.



This book immediately fascinated me with its sense of adventure and imagination. Meylyne isn't the typical middle grade fiction character. She's complicated and complex. Holland expects a lot from the reader. She expects mature kids to be able to understand that no character is perfect, even the heroes. This isn't to say that I don't like Meylyne, I found her to be a relatable person. I didn't agree with every decision she made because she's more of a daredevil than I am, but I respect her.



As for the other characters, her little band of friends are adorable! I didn't expect to love them as much as I did! Everyone deserves the friends she has. "The Thorn Queen" teaches the reader the valuable lesson that sometimes families aren't good for us and that friends are more so our family. My favorite character was the ogre who's name I won't attempt to spell. He is hilarious!



The only issues I had with this story were the excess characters and plotlines and the cliffhanger ending. The excess characters weren't a big deal, but it did take a while for me to get used to so many central characters. As for all the plotlines, while they were entertaining, they were overwhelming. It took forever for the thorn queen to actually be mentioned. Plus so much worldbuilding was stuffed into a relatively short book. At least the worldbuilding was beautiful and immersive.



HOW ABOUT THAT ENDING?! I really hope there will be a sequel otherwise the ending was a disappointment. We never find out what the prince's sickness is and that seemed to be an important plot point. Will it be revealed later? So far I've heard nothing about a sequel but I would definitely read it!