I received an e-ARC from the publisher, HarperVoyager, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What to say about The Queens of Innis Lear?

This is a book based on Shakespeare's famous tragedy, King Lear, though it is not a book that is defined by that play. I must admit that I haven't an intimate knowledge of King Lear, but I know enough about the play to recognise some departures from the "source material" — and I use that term very loosely since this book is entirely its own story.

The most obvious of these departures is the fact that this book is set in the harsh, magical land of Innis Lear rather than England. Innis Lear is an island ruled by two magics: that of the earth and trees, and that of the stars. King Lear has forsaken the magic of the island in favour of that of the stars, cutting off the magical rootwater wells that give the people their connection to the earth and trees.

Lear believes in his star prophecies with a religious fervour, allowing them to guide his life and dictate how he should treat people based on the stars at their birth. A star prophecy foretold that Lear's wife would die on the day of their eldest daughters 16th birthday... and that prophecy was fulfilled.

Understandably, this had quite the impact on the king's relationship with his children.

The book follows the stories of Lear's three daughters — as well as a bastard wizard, a fool's daughter, and a king — as their mad father looks to give up his throne.

In a lot of books the antagonists are antagonistic even when we read from their point of view. We are constantly aware that they are the villain, and so we very rarely get a chance to truly see things from their perspective.

This is absolutely not the case in Innis Lear.

Every character here is the hero of their own story. Every character has their own hopes, ambitions, vulnerabilities, flaws, and personality. Tessa Gratton was able to make me feel sympathetic for all of them - even those I didn't like. This is multi-POV fantasy done right. In fact, I'd go as far to say that this is one of the best uses of multi-POV storytelling that I've ever seen, to the extent that while reading, I didn't really want to see anyone come out on top, because I knew that it would be at the expense of someone else.

This is a story about love, when you get right down to it. An exploration of love in all its forms — which are not always as happy and joyful as you might expect. Obsessive love, the loving of one thing over another, the fanatical love of religion, all-inclusive and ever expanding love, love from a position of power, and the denial of love where it should be given.

But with love comes loss. And with loss comes hurt, pain, and rage. Each of our characters deal with these emotions in their own way, and we are lucky enough to be pulled along for the ride.

In the other reviews I've seen for this book, there has a lot of praise for the prose. It is beautiful, if you are a fan of long, flowing descriptions. The author really knows how to verbally paint a scene. But what really impressed me about this book was the dialogue.

The dialogue in The Queens of Innis Lear is absolutely world class. It burns at times with emotion and passion, breathing life, fire, and personality into each of the characters.

I should mention that this is a story that takes a while to immerse yourself in. The story seems a little awkward at first as it tries to find itself. For the first third of the book, I wasn't really sure that I was enjoying myself. But at some point the current of the story was enough to sweep me off my feet, and then I was racing down the river of one of the finest explorations of character I've ever read.

DNF at 5% I just couldn’t get into this. The description was very flowery, the pace was slow and having read other reviews I can see it didn’t get any faster. I’ve not seen/read King Lear so the retelling part wasn’t very clear to me and this is possibly why I didn’t enjoy it. It’s not a bad book, I just didn’t like it for me.

I can easily see this book becoming a favourite amongst avid book readers. It's an interesting storyline and the sisters are so different from each other. I enjoy reading about the Fox particularly and the stories from the stars. I thoroughly recommend this book to all. ARC from NetGalley

I approached this fantasy retelling of King Lear with some trepidation - but, you know what, it's wonderful!

Gratton shows her deep understanding of the original in so many ways even while she contests and subverts it. Rather than this being a Lear via Game of Thrones, it serves to reveal how much GoT is already indebted to Lear (and others). The writing is gorgeous: lyrical and poetic in its evocation of a world ordered by earth and water magic; dark and edgy when it comes to close-up encounters between, especially, couples: Regan and Connley (Cornwall), Gaela and Astore (Goneril and Albany).

This cleverly unpicks all those problems that have challenged students and scholars: the missing mothers, for example, are written back in; and the three daughters of Lear are no longer conventional fairy-tale archetypes of good and bad women, but have characters of their own - bound by a love which supersedes their differences.

Big moments from the play like Gloucester's eyes are handled adroitly, making their presence felt but in keeping with their new setting.

Less successful are the constant flashbacks: the book insists on giving us backstories to relationships which are already fully-fleshed in the present. Cutting these would have tautened up the pace as this feels unnecessarily drawn out in places. Some character additions, too, could have gone: Aefa, the Fool's daughter, does little other than add to the plethora of female characters displacing the male ones of Shakespeare.

Nevertheless, this is a hugely enjoyable read and an impressive re-imagining of Lear.