by Alexandra Christo
Genre: YA fantasy
My Rating: ★★
Description:
Lira is the Prince's Bane -- the murderous siren who has collected a prince's heart for every year she's been alive. Seventeen hearts. Seventeen lives taken. She only has to wait a few more years before she will ascend to the throne of the Sea Queen, but when her actions leave one of her mother's subjects dead, she is cursed into human form and given a task -- steal the heart of the Prince of Midas -- without her song.
Prince Elian is a siren hunter. He kills to keep the kingdoms safe from the deadly songs of their kind. When he learns that there may be a way to end the siren's rule of the sea once and for all, he's willing to sacrifice anything to see it happen.
When he rescues a drowning girl from the ocean who claims to have the final piece of the puzzle Elian is desperate to solve, they form an uneasy alliance... but is there any way that humans and sirens can find peace? Or will this once again end in blood?
Why I Didn't Like To Kill a Kingdom
A poorly put together plot, as well as some shaky worldbuilding and an anti-climactic ending.
Overall Thoughts
To be completely honest, I probably would have DNFed To Kill a Kingdom if I hadn't been reading it for my book club. It was not an engaging story by any stretch of the imagination, and since I was also reading Oathbringer at the same time, there was really no competition. I was interested to read this book, too, which disappoints me. I mean, a dark retelling of The Little Mermaid? Yes!
Or should I say, no...? Because To Kill a Kingdom never really lived up to any of my expectations.
The Characters
The characterization was kind of patchy. Lira was definitely an interesting character, though her character arc didn't really make much sense to me... it seemed to happen far too quickly. Elian could have been an interesting character as well, but quickly fell into cliche. He's introduced as a merciless siren hunter, but new information is revealed later that tries to make him sympathetic, and ends up making him really boring. Now, I have no issue with a sympathetic character. But for some reason, the set-up his character had didn't match the new revelations very well. He doesn't actually enjoy killing sirens? He's only doing it to protect people? Not that I have any problems with him not being a bloodthirsty murderer, but if that's the way you introduce your character, please keep him consistent!
The side characters were not really noteworthy, and honestly kind of bland. The villain started out interesting and ended up the cackling evil witch from every Disney Princess movie ever made.
Plot/Pacing
The plot was... badly put together. It's a quest style story, with multiple stops at different places along the way, but half of the destinations didn't even make any sense because the author hadn't revealed why the characters were going there. A lot of it just seemed to be delaying the climax and making the book longer. (And also more boring). The ending of the book was kind of cringey. I was really hoping that it would change my mind somewhat about the book, but it was awful. And the romance was really bad as well. There was no chemistry between the two of them, I don't understand...?
Writing/Worldbuilding
The writing wasn't half-bad, but there was a lot of telling (as opposed to showing) in this book as well.
The worldbuilding was fairly solid in the beginning, but as things kept getting added, the more gaps in it I noticed. For a start, I hated the whole idea of the kingdoms literally personifying what they're known for. Like, the kingdom of love literally smells like chocolate, and the streets are covered in pastry crumbs. The kingdom of lies looks like it's shrouded in grey, and the kingdom of gold is -- you guessed it -- painted gold. It ended up being just a bit too silly for me, and kind of odd considering the overall dark tone of the book.
The magic system was also kind of strange. New aspects kept getting introduced, and left me confused. For example, about halfway through the book, we find out for the first time that Elian's ship steers itself. What? I wouldn't have minded if this was set up from the get-go, but introducing it halfway through was just weird.
So, overall, To Kill a Kingdom was a bit of a disappointment for me.
Content
Recommended for ages 14 and up.
There is definitely violence in this book, with a lot of blood, and some brutal methods of killing. It wasn't graphic in the descriptions, but we're given enough that it could be disturbing for some readers.
Sexual content is limited to a few comments/jokes and a few passionate kisses. There's a few mentions of a same-sex marriage near the end.
Several instances of coarse language; no f-bombs, but some of the words used could definitely be offensive to some readers.
Characters drink alcohol.
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