It’s rare when I DNF a book, but this was too long and, for me, too boring to continue with.

I loved the concept. A retelling of the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear, told in a high fantasy setting, but by 300 pages in....nothing of interest had happened, and I felt litte to no emotional connection to any of the characters. I also found the writing overly flowery and stilted, making it difficult to wade through. In fact, it took me over 2 months before I eventually admitted defeat with this. Perhaps another round of editing, and a trimming of the excess, would have helped here. I just couldn’t find anything that held my interest enough to keep going. It’s such a shame, because this had so much potential, and could see glimmers of a truely good story here. It just could have been executed a lot better.

This story has impressive elements but failed to grab me. 3/5 stars.

When I saw the description of this book on NetGalley, it sounded like everything I could possibly want in a book. A fantasy retelling of King Lear which refocusses the story to follow Lear’s daughters? Yes, please!

I’m sad to report that despite my high hopes, The Queens of Innis Lear failed to grab me. I persevered and finished the book, hoping that at any moment I would be hooked… but it didn’t happen.

This is a shame because The Queens of Innis Lear has a lot going for it. The descriptions are wonderful, and are particularly impressive when describing the forested areas of the island and the characters’ use of magic.

The depth of character exploration, particularly that given to the female characters is brilliant. None of the women can be easily pigeon-holed and have rich personalities and motivations. While with King Lear it’s easy to dismiss Reagan and Goneril as “evil” or “unnatural” and Cordelia as sickly sweet, the sisters here are all sympathetic in their own ways as even if you don’t agree with their actions, you understand them. The writer also juggles multiple viewpoints well and lots of flashbacks without it becoming confusing or losing the reader.

How the Shakespearean Lear story is used is interesting. Many elements of the play are followed, but Gratton isn’t afraid to make radical departures from Shakespeare’s story, so there’s no need to know anything about King Lear to read and appreciate this book.

If I had to pinpoint the biggest issue which impeded my enjoyment of the story, it would be the amount of thinking. There are entire chapters in which a character stands or sits and thinks. Now, while I apreciate that internal character development can be dynamic and interesting, I would prefer them to be thinking while doing something to move the action forward in some way. Or thinking, then doing something, rather than just mulling things over in solitude. Also, while the flashbacks are well-handled, I wasn’t sure all of them were necessary as, once again, they do nothing to move the present action forward. To give you an idea of the sometimes ponderous pace of this story, we don’t get to the important scene where Lear wants to divide his kingdom between his daughters until just over 20% into the book and this book has over 550 pages.

Also, while the writing is often beautifully lyrical and dreamily poetic this does little to keep up the pace of the narrative or create drama. I felt the story dragged and I found myself not much caring what happened. So while the characterisation is rich, I didn’t find it engaging.

Overall: The Queens of Innis Lear is an interesting retelling with great elements and beautiful writing, but you have to be prepared for its ponderous pace.

The magic of the world of TQoIL is utterly mesmerising. From the fact that it consists of two parts, which are technically opposing each other to the fact that the entire island of Innis Lear is basically pure magic, I was completely captivated.
I loved king Lear. It is a tragic story and this does well to retell it. I have to admit it was a difficult read at times and I skipped pages but the story itself is one worth reading.

Shakespeare’s King Lear revisited. Epically told in a decaying world overseen by an obsessed king whose daughters have understandably lost respect for their father through his actions. Well formed characters with their diverse natures highlighted trying to restore what has been lost. Excellent world building. An interesting take take on this story with the authors own added storytelling.adding to its appeal.

A girl whose fate lies in the maps of stars. A boy whose power stems from mud. Whilst one is always gazing skyward and the other is craning downwards, neither has noticed the destruction surrounding them. A mad king is dethroned and a kingdom is divided. Three sisters are both united and divided by what they seek to rule. And the trees whisper the name of the only one who can truly save them all.

I am so impressed with this Shakespearean retelling! [book:King Lear|12938] is a play I have read and studied multiple times but my familiarity with the basis for this novel neither hindered my reading, due to repetitiveness, nor would it make this inaccessible to those who are unfamiliar with the original.

Whilst the story-line was largely true to the particulars of King Lear, the addition of magic to this world made the story newly captivating. The court politics and family dramatics continued to intrigue, but it was the exploration into root magic and the star prophecies that made this story startlingly unique in conception and design.

I also appreciated how the darkness of raging war and the magic that entwined all was juxtaposed by the sweetness of love. The light sweepings of romance, that was diffused over the course of the novel, had bearings on and relevance to the plot, but the fantastical elements were never watered down or the focus allowed to dwell for too long on the multiple relationships, and this provided me with exactly the correct proportions that I desired.

This was both a solid retelling of a beloved classic as well as an intoxicating and unique fantasy, all on its own. I can not wait for a fuller immersion into this world, as the series progresses, as this already has the scope to continue on for tomes to come, so complex was the world and the magic system inside it.

Fantasy version of King Lear - a bit long but quite readable
This fantasy novel is basically a take on King Lear with all the main characters, often with similar names, the fantasy element coming through the magic of the land as manipulated by key characters.
Quite engaging, especially if you're not familiar with the original play (as in my case) but too long at 560+ pages. I don't need as much repetition nor a description of what each character is wearing in most scenes. Characters are well- developed and the descriptions are lush and vivid. If you know the play, I am sure that the ending is different so no spoilers here!

Thank you Harper Collins for an e-ARC of this book, this is, as ever, an unbiased review.

It's hard to know where to start with this book. I am usually a really, really fast reader but this took me well over a week to read and this was not just because it's a long book, but because the writing is so dense and descriptive it's easy to get tangled up and a little lost in it - so overly descriptive and overwrought at times that this review was very nearly a three star.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a retelling of King Lear. The island of Lear is a damp, wind-blown island ruled by magic and superstition. Onec star-gazing and earth magic balanced the island but the king, Lear, has forbidden earth magic and is in thrall to the stars. His eldest daughter, a fierce warrior, eschews all superstition and tradition, his second practices the forbidden earth magic, the third follows in his footsteps and dreams of a life spent watching the stars. Elia, unlike her sisters, has no dream or need for power. But what happens next is well known, the king is, it's rumoured, going mad, the very island itself is revolting against the constraints he has put on its worship, and its time for the king to appoint a successor. He wants his star-born favoured third to take the crown, Gaela, the eldest, plans to take the crown, but in the end, it all comes down to a contest, a contest Elia has no intention of taking part in and so she finds herself cast out and disinherited, exiled and alone.

Every character (bar the fool I think) has at least a chapter in which their backstory and motivations and character are made clear and this is partly what makes the book at times seem so unwieldy, although it does breathe new life into the age-old tale and the age-old characters making the retelling relevant and new. No one, apart from maybe the dead-queen's brother, Kayo, the fool's daughter Aefa, and Rory, son of the Earl of Errigal, come out of the story well, if not unscathed - nobody survives unscathed (that's no spoiler, look at the source material). Elia is so very passive, her sisters so angry, and Ban the Fox, so very bitter. I was definitely team Mars, not team Ban, increasingly so as the book goes on and very much so at the end.

It's hard to sum up a book so dense, so rich, yet maybe self-indulgent and overlong but I'll go with ambitious, ingenious and original. Definitely worth a read, just put plenty of time aside to do so!

I had high hopes for THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR and, although I did very much enjoy it, it didn't blow me away. I had added it to my Goodreads TO BE READ pile long before I found it available on NetGalley. I wish to thank the publisher for allowing me to read a copy before its publication.

At first, it was desperately slow and I was pretty sure that I was going to DNF it. However, I continued, and i'm glad that I did as after the scene setting it started to pick up pace and I begun to appreciate it a lot more. So, if you are finding it hard getting through the beginning, I urge you to persist as it does get better. You also see that a lot of the details given are what make the rest of the book make sense.

I am pleased that this is described as an "epic adult fantasy" as there are some pretty bloody scenes and a rather graphic description of a miscarriage that would not be appropriate for teenagers. As it is based on the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear, the story encompasses a king with a lack of sanity and an obsession with prophecies, and his three daughters - Gaela, Reagan, and Elia who end up having to take matters into their own hands as their kingdom crumbles.

I'm a big fan of William Shakespeare, possibly the greatest storyteller who ever lived, this retelling is definitely worth a read. As you would expect with King Lear, there is much blood and brutality. It is basically a story following the King in his gradual descent into madness.

I know one complaint in many of the reviews of this title is the writing. People feel that Gratton's style bogged it down but many people also feel this about my favourite author, Haruki Murakami, so this for me worked wonderfully. I felt her writing was brilliant and bold. No complaints from me. I tend to love books that describe things in minute detail so her worldbuilding felt like heaven to me. A masterclass in how to construct a world, in my opinion.

Tessa Gratton is such a talent, I know I will be purchasing a copy of this for my bookshelf, and would be interested in reading any future titles she chooses to publish.

I would like to thank Tessa Gratton, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an arc of this through netgalley and I count my bloody stars for that. Thank you netgalley and publishers for keep letting me review your books. Anyways, I read the synopsis of this book and loved the idea of it. But then I just completely forgot about it until I picked up the book and it finally twigged that it was a King Lear retelling. As apart of my GCSEs, I had to study King Lear and I’ve always loved the story since then so when I tumbled and stumbled upon this retelling, I was so happy and amazed when I realised it was a fantasy retelling as well. SCORE! Drawing inspiration from the original work must have been such a feat for Tessa Gratton because what a thing to tackle. I won’t go into much of the plot anyway because it is Shakespeare and is widely known but anyway. The king’s daughters, Gaela, Reagan and Elia, all want the thrown and their dear old dad hasn’t chosen who will be his heir. Gaela is the power hungry one of them all. Reagan is the master manipulator and can manipulate anybody to do her biding. And then there is Elia, the favourite. To help decide who gets to be his heir, they have to tell the king about how much they love him and whoever loves him the most will get the kingdom. Gaela and Reagan make their declarations. And then Elia makes hers by saying nothing. Like nothing nothing. She then goes on to say there is nothing to compare her love to. This outrages the king and banishes her. This then starts the whole chaos of the known tragedy. Well done to Tessa for tackling such a beloved play. And her writing is truly gorgeous.
But please do not go into this if you are not a lover of Shakespeare and big chunky books. I can see a lot of people have DNF’ed this book because it was too clunky in it’s wording. But I bow down to Tessa for this book.

4 out of 5 stars.

~Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I am not associated with the author or publisher in any way. My opinion is completely unbiased and entirely my own~

My rating: 2*

I feel conflicted when rating this title because upon reflection, there’s much on offer here that I really enjoyed. However I have to be entirely honest and say that I found reading The 'Queens of Innis Lear' incredibly laborious for the most part.

In the interest of a balanced review I’d say that the beginning and ending are really strong, the authors interpretation of the characters was great and the world building and magic system were fascinating. Also the story’s inevitable conclusion had the potential to be really satisfying if only it hasn’t taken so long to get there.

Overall I’d say that the books biggest downfall for me was that far too many characters were given a POV, resulting in a lot of time being given to a lot of talk, with characters somehow failing to progress at all throughout the very large middle section of the book.
Another issue was the use of constant flashbacks as a narrative tool. This served the story well when first introducing characters and establishing the relationships between them, however it became tiresome as the story was working towards a conclusion and I feel shouldn’t be necessary at that point.

I’m left with the over all feeling that if 'The Queens of Innis Lear' had been trimmed down by about half of its pages, it would have provided a significantly more concise narrative and would have been much more impactful for it.
Instead it became extremely repetitive and took a long meandering route to essentially get from A to B.

If you’re already familiar with the story of King Lear, this is an interesting take on it. However if you’re unfamiliar with the original work and are looking for a well-rounded story of its own merit, then you might find this lacking unfortunately.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to review this title.

I have complicated feelings about The Queens of Innis Lear. I read an eARC and -- although I gave it a 4, not a 5 -- it's one of the very few books I think I could reread. I'm going to pick myself up a physical copy.

There are a lot of things that The Queens of Innis Lear does really well, and I'll cover those in a moment period but I just can't help but think that the book is far too long. It's almost 600 pages, not ridiculous in terms of page count, but there were quite a few points in the story where it began to drag and that the pacing could have picked up. There are around 10 (I think?) POVs, and the present-day storyline is split up (almost every other chapter) by flashbacks of the previous twenty years. Some of these are really interesting, giving you a lot of information about how the three girls have become the women they are; and answering the mystery of what happened to their mother, Queen Dalat. However, a lot of the flashbacks also unnecessary, covering information that was just too irrelevant.

On the plus side, the writing of The Queens of Innis Lear is really beautiful. It has a real Shakespearean feel to it (which makes sense, of course). It's very descriptive and very overdramatic at times. Personally, once I got used to this, I really liked it. It made it all the more obvious that was reading a Shakespearean retelling. However the prose maybe far too purple for some readers to really enjoy. I had to read the Prologue a couple of times to really get any kind of sense out of it.

All of the characters -- most especially the three princesses (Gaela, Reagan and Elia) and spy/ wizard Ban, are incredibly complex, well-rounded characters. There’s a whole range of morally-grey motivations and types of ruthless deviousness. I really liked several of the characters. Reagan and her husband, Connelly, were personal favourites. I loved that they were so ambitious and completely dedicated to each other. I also loved the relationship between Elia and her maidservant, Aefa. It was great to see a female friendship where the girl were so supportive of each other. A final favourite was Morimaros, the king of a rival kingdom. It was great to see his outsider outlook of all the wildness and politics going on in Innis Lear.

Overall, The Queen's of Innis Lear is certainly an interesting and ambitious project. I think it has enough the original story to be recognisable and to be enjoyable to existing fans, but it also stands entirely on its own, without any previous knowledge of King Lear. Although the plot sometimes tends to wonder, it gives a fuller, fleshed out and well-rounded look at the story, with a new feminist slant. There is a sense of creeping, inevitable tragedy throughout (unsurprisingly). Gratton writes this dark and depressive -- but oddly magical -- atmosphere incredibly well.


This review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon and my blog, Foxes and Fairy Tales, on May 28th.

The Queens of Innis Lear is glorious, powerful and spell-binding. It is a fairytale woven from nettles and roots, hemmed with the majestic silk of Shakespearean tragedy, sprinkled in stardust and dipped in heartsblood. It is magic and melodrama. It is a whisper in the trees and a scream to the stars.

It is also long. Grown soft on a diet of nourishing fantasy trilogies and the comfort food of long series, I had forgotten just how challenging and all-encompassing a single epic tale can be! Unable to glomm it down in one gulp (due to…you know, needing to eat and sleep and work…) I instead had to take my time and digest it in stages. Honestly this left little thought for much else and I would not have been surprised to find I called my family Elia, Mars and Ban respectively!

I never really took to the tale of King Lear and his daughters. I found the motivations behind the characters unfathomable and alien, and it made little sense to me as a story. Tessa Gratton takes the story, shakes it out, adds magic to the land and breathes life into the characters, and suddenly the tale unfolded before me naturally and terribly and with full understanding. In vivid colours she paints passion and pride, grief and rage, loneliness and sacrifice and despair.

She deftly avoids casting villains and heroes by showing us, through varying perspectives, the blindness of those who see only through their poison-tinted glasses and therefore fatally misunderstand others and the consequences of their own actions, set against those who see further and more openly but are stricken with inaction and a refusal to take responsibility for what they see. These are not pantomime evil stepsisters and innocent Cinderellas, but fully realised humans with all their flaws and beauty.

Not to say that this is realism. It isn’t. This is melodrama and the hisses and boos, cheers and tears are in full flow, not for the characters but for the actions and inactions that drive the plot at a furious pace to the stormy crescendo of a cathartic finale. The author follows many of the conventions of Shakespearean tragedy in her tale, but not all, making this less a retelling and more a unique story in its own right. Alert readers can spot the many references to the eponymous King Lear, without the smug confidence that they know the turns the story will take or where it will end.

I’m sure it’s clear that I loved this book. This is a re-reader for me, and I would expect fans of epic fantasy, fairytales, literary fiction and melodrama to all enjoy the flavours here. I see that Tessa Gratton has other novels already released and will eagerly add her backlist to my Christmas wishlist!




It begins on the day two bright hearts are born to the island, one just past dawn as a crescent moon rises, and the other when the sun is brightest, obscuring the glow of stars. Their mothers knew they would be born together, as witches and best friends often do, and though it is the first child for one and the last for the other, such does not come between them. They sit beside each other, arms stretched to touch the other’s swollen belly as they grit their teeth and tell stories of what might become of their children.

– Tessa Gratton, The Queens of Innis Lear

Very very slow to get going. I'll admit I skimmed most of the first section, and some of the Ban section. But things picked up with Elia then and I started reading for real.

Fans of Three Dark Thrones will enjoy this new series. It should be aimed at higher teens, though, for some of the content, including a fairly graphic description of a miscarriage.

I enjoyed reading this one.


Receiving an ARC did not alter my review in any way.

I had such high hopes for The Queens of Innis Lear but it just didn't capture my attention. The writing is brilliant, no doubt about that but I found the style rather ponderous and over-baked. Reading is incredibly subjective and I should imagine that readers who enjoy minutely detailed world building and slow burn plot-lines will love this. For myself, I became lost and confused very early on and struggled throughout. Please don't think I'm not in awe of the author's talent of which she has in abundance - I just couldn't engage and this is one of my favourite genres so I was disappointed. I think this is a subtle case of 'it's not you, it's me; I'm sure that the Queens of Innis Lear will garner tons of fans - I'm just not one of them. Yet,.

I enjoyed reading The Queens of Innis Lear. It was very different to what I expected, I thought I would find it an easy read that I could dip in and our of but it was much much more than that.

I wouldn't say it had me hooked from the beginning, but the ebook that got sent to my Kindle had formatting issue so the middle of the page was at the end and the top in the middle.. it was all very strange!

I would have to say one of my favourite things about the book was that every single character had multiple flaws, even the heroes. This blurring of the good and evil made for a thought provoking read and for me has certainly prompted some very deep serious conversations. The characters felt like real people - and that it why I read the book the whole way through.

I must admit the story wasn't interesting to me but what kept me reading was my interest in how the characters would response to certain situations.

I'm going to start off by saying that a basic understanding of the plot of King Lear is probably helpful for getting the most out of this book. My understanding was entirely based on a production I saw when I was eighteen or so, which had some school friends in and involved a lot of terribly mature giggling about the name Goneril. I really only remembered that there were three sisters and that it was a tragedy, and I think this is part of why I initially found it a bit difficult to get into the book. But Gratton's writing is gorgeous, and she takes the premise of King Lear and has spun it into something deep and bitter and full of so much life that it soon won me over, and by the end, I was just so impressed by the whole book.

The characters in this book are beautifully drawn. There's so much complexity to all of them, and the true depth of that only becomes known as the book draws to a close, when all the lies and deception and manipulations come to a head. Their different stories in the book's present are skilfully woven together with chapters from the past which provide glimpses of Innis Lear's history and explain the roots of the ills afflicting the island and its people.

Gratton's writing is beautiful. She brings such life to Innis Lear and its inhabitants with her rich prose and intricate plotting. All the main characters have very distinct voices, which is great as the story does jump around between the sisters and a few other characters quite a lot. I particularly loved all the descriptions of Innis Lear itself - the cliffs, the trees, the rootwater wells - and it felt like such a real and wonderful place to me.

I also really enjoyed the fantasy elements of the story - the prophecies, the star charts, and the magic. There was a lot of variety to this aspect of the book, and this is in and of itself a huge source of tension in the plot. I think Gratton incorporated these elements really well into the overall storyline, and made them feel like a very natural part of Innis Lear and an essential part of the plot, which I think isn't always the case with retellings that move into a different genre from the original source.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a beautiful book, and one which I'm planning to read again and really take my time with. Gratton's writing is gorgeous, and she makes Innis Lear such a vivid place and its inhabitants so real. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a darker fantasy novel about magic and nature, and the complicated nature of family. I've already recommended it to a couple of people from my feminist science-fiction book club, and am hoping they'll pick it up when it comes out so I can rave about it with them!

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton grabbed my attention with its beautiful cover and this tag line; A KINGDOM AT RISK, A CROWN DIVIDED, A FAMILY DRENCHED IN BLOOD.

On the island of Innis Lear, the King has turned his back on the earth gods, and seeks prophecy and knowledge in the stars. In doing so the magic of the land is dying, each year less crops are surviving and the subject are losing hope. With his devotion to the stars he has lost the love of his oldest two daughters Gaela wishes to be a warrior King, Reagan who will manipulate anyone to get her way. The only daughter that loves the King is his Star priest youngest daughter Elia, but when Elia doesn’t do what the stars the King names Gaela and Reagan to be both queens of Innis Lear, but not until the longest night of the years when a ritual can be preformed. This decision will break the island apart unless Elia can mend her family and doing so fix her island.

First thing I must say about this book is that it is beautifully written, unfortunately for me the writing style didn’t match with my reading style so I did find it difficult to get into a rhythm. I found that I ended up take a lot of breaks whilst I was reading which is strange for me, as I like to binge read.

I loved the idea of the trees and the earth having their own language that you could learn. It’s an element that I haven’t read before and made the Island of Innis Lear sound even more magical.

I liked Elia as a character she really grows as a character thought out the book, at the beginning she always seems to be over shadows. As the book she comes out of everyone shadow and becomes the person that the Island of Innis Lear needs her to be. I also like that she wasn’t reliant on a man.

Ban the Fox is a character in the book where my opinion changes, sometimes I was on his side and other parts of the story I was disappointed in his actions. After reading the book I still haven’t decided what I truly think of Ban the Fox.

This book is a beautiful and moving re-telling of King Lear, and people who enjoy Shakespeare and books like The Bear and the Nightingale should give this book a read.

I give this book 3 out of 5.
Thank to Netgalley and HarperCollin for giving me the chance to read this book for a fair and honest review.

I loved that book very very much!
I am amazed at the writing of the author and I loved the action and the characters.
The first thing that got to me was the title and I immediately decided that I wanted this book ad that I wanted to read it ^^
I am not disappointed and I hope everybody else gets to enjoy it as much as I did.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a retelling of King Lear. The writing was very good and the characters are superbly fleshed out however the overall story was let down by the slow pacing and it did feel a bit too long.

This is a retelling of the Shakespearean play, King Lear, and it is so well done. It is not an exact retelling but there are familiar characters and scenes from the play. I've never read anything by this author before but I found it so easy to get into the flow of her writing. However it did drag a little at times. The pacing is slow throughout and there isn't a lot of plot, which meant that it did drag for me at times. I still found this to be an engaging read as I loved learning more about the world. I thought the characters were well written and had good development through the book. Overall I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it.