booksandbotanics's Reviews (492)

Queen Among the Dead is a YA Fantasy inspired by Celtic mythology. I found that part of the story very interesting, as I haven’t read many books like that. 

Sometimes the worldbuilding could’ve been explained more & better and the terminology was quite difficult as well. A wordlist would’ve been helpful, especially in the beginning. 

The book was a little bit hard to get into. I had to force myself a bit to continue, and then after a while, a quarter or halfway into the book, I started to really enjoy it. 

The writing style was nice and enjoyable and the book read, apart from all the Celtic words, quite fluently. 

The pacing of the book felt a bit off sometimes. Around halfway (if I remember correctly) something major happens and I was under the impression there was a timejump, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Some parts of the book read more slowly then others. 

There’s quite some action in the book, but those scenes weren’t always very clear to me. Sometimes I had no idea what was going on before it was over. 

We follow two characters: Neve, the daughter of the King (the Dagda) and Ronan, a thief from the village. The chapters are written from both their POV’s alternately and we read in a third person perspective. 

I didn’t always liked both characters, but I found them quite interesting to follow nonetheless. 

The side characters were interesting as well, I especially liked the Faoladh warriors, Queen Anann and Sakir. 

I liked the storyline too; there was more than enough action, but I liked the calmer parts & the more political parts as well. The romance plotline fell a bit flat for me, it would’ve been fine if there was only a friendship. 

I would definitely recommend this book for lovers of YA Fantasy with only a little bit of romance, who are interested in Celtic mythology & like a strong FMC. 

Thank you @netgalley for the e-ARC. 

First I have to say this is the 10th volume in a series of graphic novels and I hadn’t read the previous 9. 

It’s stated that you can read them individually, but I found it would be better to read the other volumes as well. I did understand what was going on for the most part (except for some specific terms like “Folly” which seemed to be some kind of magic school?), but I think you’d be more familiar with the characters and the world, which would’ve made me more invested in the story. 

I liked the premise and I liked the fairytale-part of this story, but the plot was quite simple in my opinion. Problems were easily fixed and I didn’t really care about any of the characters, except for the foxes. 

The artstyle was quite nice. 

It was also quite humorous. There were some jokes I laughed out loud with. 

It did spark my interest to read the other volumes though, as the idea behind this world is quite intriguing. 

The story tells (a part of) the lovestories inside a family: 8-year old Lulu is struggling with his feelings for his best friend, his teenage sister Cam has a secret (older) boyfriend and their mom & dad have some issues of their own. 

I really liked this graphic novel! As this story is set in the late 90’s it’s pretty progressive, and I liked how inclusive this story was. Some of the topics it handles are marital problems, teenage problems, sexuality doubts, even gender identification doubts are hinted at. 

It wasn’t really a happy story, but the ending is very hopeful. 
I really liked all the characters. Even though the novel is quite short, we get a good insight in their personalities and their relationships to eachother. 
I would’ve liked it to be a bit longer though, but maybe that’s just me wanting more of this story. 

The drawings were also absolutely beautiful! 
It’s also a very quick read, so I definitely recommend this graphic novel!