**I received this book as a free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All following opinions are not influenced and completely my own.
Title: The Dead Queens Club
Author: Hannah Capin
Publisher: Inkyard press
Release date: January 29th, 2019
Genre: teen, mystery, suspense, contemporary, coming of age
My rating:
Goodreads synopsis: What do a future ambassador, an overly ambitious Francophile, a hospital-volunteering Girl Scout, the new girl from Cleveland, the junior cheer captain, and the vice president of the debate club have in common? It sounds like the ridiculously long lead-up to an astoundingly absurd punchline, right? Except it’s not. Well, unless my life is the joke, which is kind of starting to look like a possibility given how beyond soap opera it’s been since I moved to Lancaster. But anyway, here’s your answer: we’ve all had the questionable privilege of going out with Lancaster High School’s de facto king. Otherwise known as my best friend. Otherwise known as the reason I’ve already helped steal a car, a jet ski, and one hundred spray-painted water bottles when it’s not even Christmas break yet. Otherwise known as Henry. Jersey number 8.
Meet Cleves. Girlfriend number four and the narrator of The Dead Queens Club, a young adult retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives. Cleves is the only girlfriend to come out of her relationship with Henry unscathed—but most breakups are messy, right? And sometimes tragic accidents happen…twice…
My thoughts: To start off, I have to say, I. Ate. This. Book. Up! This is just the type of chick lit, teenage drama, mystery type book that I live for! It was so compelling and the writing is shockingly funny! I didn’t expect the book to make me laugh out loud. I requested it because I thought it might be similar to Pretty Little Liars (which it does have that type of vibe in parts) but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I loved Hannah Capin’s writing style! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of her works!
The plot of this book really moves! There are no dull parts or “filler” chapters or really anything that slows the pace of this book which I love. I literally kept telling myself “ok one more chapter and then I’ll stop” and I just couldn’t! Every chapter drove me forward and I became deeply invested with the story and characters of this book! I HAD to know what happened next and thus I read this whole thing in ONE sitting.
The characters are sort of typical, archetypal high school characters; you’ve got your jocks, cheerleaders, intellectuals, and mean girls. And of course our main character is none of the above but is pretty atypical and “different” and yet everyone still loves her. BUT none of that bothered me because it all worked for the type of story that it was. OH! Did I mention this is a retelling of notorious Playboy Henry VIII? Because it totally is and I was totally here for it.
But anyways, the characters. Loved the main character, however it took her a looooong time to figure out the “twist” even when other characters had literally been screaming it at her for like six chapters. It got a little obnoxious how naive she was but hey, weren’t we all naive in high school??
I also loved the underlying feminism tone this book carried. It hits on many important topics regarding questions like does a girls outfit imply she’s “asking for it” and issues like slut shaming that are all very relevant and important conversation starters. I appreciated the stance the author took on these issues.
I gave this book four stars. I loved it, I ate it up, but there were some plot inconsistencies and maybe a few holes and unanswered questions but all in all this was a highly enjoyable read. I was absolutely head over heels for the author’s writing style.
Definitely look for this on the shelves come January 2019! You don’t want to miss this fast-paced mystery!
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