Review of Chasing The Red Queen
Posted: 24 Aug 2021, 03:21
[Following is a volunteer review of "Chasing The Red Queen" by Karen Glista.]
Donja Bellanger is your typical teenager whose biggest problem is her mother’s new marriage. Being uprooted from her hometown and her friends is not her idea of a good time. To make things worse, her boyfriend was possibly cheating on her, make that definitely. She seems to think everyone’s perception of her is colored by the fact that she is a goth, including her new stepsister Makayla. The creepy old house she moves into becomes the least of her worries when she becomes the target of a deranged serial killer terrorizing the Big Soo. How does she balance being a teenager, having a new family and protecting herself all before she is eighteen?
A murder detective is the last job you would expect an Iridescent to have but Torin Sancini lives to counter assumptions made about his kind. The serial killer loose in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is a threat to the promise he made to his late wife, to protect the Chippewa females from his kind. But how does he do that when this serial killer not only targets young Chippewa women but is also very elusive?
Donja is drawn headfirst into the world of Iridescents and Sorins by virtue of her blood. Their parts cross when the serial killer sets his sight on Donja and Torin also realizes she just might be his soulmate. Things come to a head with familial feuds, politics and the supernatural world clashing over one person, The Red Queen. The ultimate blood, the last of a powerful generation. Long-kept secrets are brought to light in a race to prevent the extinction of humans.
The climax of the book was the best part. New characters and relationships are introduced and several questions the reader might have had over the course of the book are answered.
Karen Glista’s Chasing The Red Queen portrays one of the most toxic trope of relationships to ever be written. She wants us to believe Torin and Donja’s relationship is a love at first sight relationship, but it seems more like a lust and bloodlust at first sight situation. Donja notices Torin because of how handsome he is while Torin notices her because of the pull he feels for her unique blood. There is no proper courtship or moment that makes us believe in their love for each other, rather what follows is a push and pull of Donja hating him because she has to lie to her mother about being in love so as to protect her family from the truth and being drawn to him because of something she cannot explain.
When your potential love interest warns you at the beginning of the relationship about their out-of-control temper, huge red flag, please run. Do not take it as a challenge. Of course, Donja does the opposite and sees this as some twisted declaration of love. Recall that through all these, Donja just celebrated her eighteenth-year birthday. These toxic moments occur through the book up till the end when we are supposed to accept that theirs is an epic love story and they have a self-sacrificing love for each other.
Karen’s portrayal of a goth is borderline offensive, considering she not only tells us Donja is goth but proceeds to take the reader’s face and slam it into that fact severally. She makes it seem like goth is for delinquents and depressed people without saying it in so much words.
I rate this book a 2 out of 4 because of its pacing. The first three-fourths of the book is more about the toxic romance of Torin and Donja, it’s like she realized the book was ending and there was an actual plot she should have been following. Explanations about the serial killer, Donja’s blood and a whole lot of worldbuilding is left to the latter end of the book. Which is a shame because that was the fun part, but it is written like an afterthought.
There are graphic mentions of blood, rape and violence so if you are sensitive this please avoid the book but if you are a fan of Twilight, you will definite enjoy this book.
******
Chasing The Red Queen
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Donja Bellanger is your typical teenager whose biggest problem is her mother’s new marriage. Being uprooted from her hometown and her friends is not her idea of a good time. To make things worse, her boyfriend was possibly cheating on her, make that definitely. She seems to think everyone’s perception of her is colored by the fact that she is a goth, including her new stepsister Makayla. The creepy old house she moves into becomes the least of her worries when she becomes the target of a deranged serial killer terrorizing the Big Soo. How does she balance being a teenager, having a new family and protecting herself all before she is eighteen?
A murder detective is the last job you would expect an Iridescent to have but Torin Sancini lives to counter assumptions made about his kind. The serial killer loose in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is a threat to the promise he made to his late wife, to protect the Chippewa females from his kind. But how does he do that when this serial killer not only targets young Chippewa women but is also very elusive?
Donja is drawn headfirst into the world of Iridescents and Sorins by virtue of her blood. Their parts cross when the serial killer sets his sight on Donja and Torin also realizes she just might be his soulmate. Things come to a head with familial feuds, politics and the supernatural world clashing over one person, The Red Queen. The ultimate blood, the last of a powerful generation. Long-kept secrets are brought to light in a race to prevent the extinction of humans.
The climax of the book was the best part. New characters and relationships are introduced and several questions the reader might have had over the course of the book are answered.
Karen Glista’s Chasing The Red Queen portrays one of the most toxic trope of relationships to ever be written. She wants us to believe Torin and Donja’s relationship is a love at first sight relationship, but it seems more like a lust and bloodlust at first sight situation. Donja notices Torin because of how handsome he is while Torin notices her because of the pull he feels for her unique blood. There is no proper courtship or moment that makes us believe in their love for each other, rather what follows is a push and pull of Donja hating him because she has to lie to her mother about being in love so as to protect her family from the truth and being drawn to him because of something she cannot explain.
When your potential love interest warns you at the beginning of the relationship about their out-of-control temper, huge red flag, please run. Do not take it as a challenge. Of course, Donja does the opposite and sees this as some twisted declaration of love. Recall that through all these, Donja just celebrated her eighteenth-year birthday. These toxic moments occur through the book up till the end when we are supposed to accept that theirs is an epic love story and they have a self-sacrificing love for each other.
Karen’s portrayal of a goth is borderline offensive, considering she not only tells us Donja is goth but proceeds to take the reader’s face and slam it into that fact severally. She makes it seem like goth is for delinquents and depressed people without saying it in so much words.
I rate this book a 2 out of 4 because of its pacing. The first three-fourths of the book is more about the toxic romance of Torin and Donja, it’s like she realized the book was ending and there was an actual plot she should have been following. Explanations about the serial killer, Donja’s blood and a whole lot of worldbuilding is left to the latter end of the book. Which is a shame because that was the fun part, but it is written like an afterthought.
There are graphic mentions of blood, rape and violence so if you are sensitive this please avoid the book but if you are a fan of Twilight, you will definite enjoy this book.
******
Chasing The Red Queen
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon