The Queen Underneath

by Stacey Filak

The Above and the Under have a tenuous truce that is shattered after the death of both their respective rulers. Gemma, the new queen of Under, must throw history aside and team up with Tollan, the heir to the Above throne, in order to take down a power that seeks to rule them all.

Their group of rebels is comprised of an assassin, a sex worker, and a palace servant from Above, and we follow their unique perspectives as they are forced to question previously held beliefs. But even with war looming, romance still grows. Challenging gender roles and the expectation that every prince must have a princess, Tollan discovers love with Elam—a young man, a sex worker, and one of Gemma’s closest friends.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, LGBT, Romance, New Adult, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 2018

Reviews

[destiny ♡ howling libraries]

DNF @ 50pg

I DNFed this one so fast that I won't be rating it, but I think I'm doing the book a mercy in this decision, because if I'd read enough of it to justify a star rating, I'm pretty sure it would've been a measly 1 (maybe 2, at most).

I received this as an ARC from the publishing house without requesting it, but it sounded like an interesting premise, so I decided to give it a try (plus, the cover is kinda gorgeous, and I'm a sucker for a pretty cover). Unfortunately, the writing is a disaster. It's jumpy, feels unnatural and stilted, and every action feels utterly inconsequential. Even in the first few pages, events occur that should be a really big deal, but they just get tossed aside and breezed past for no apparent reason.

On top of that, the sexual aspects of this book... oh, boy. I have no issue with sex in books. In fact, I think it typically adds a lot to the development of the story, if done well. This, however, is not a book that does it well. In the first few chapters, there's a "fake" sex scene that gave me what might have been the worst case of secondhand embarrassment any book has given me in years. Unfortunately, I don't think it was meant to be as funny and awkward as it turned out.

If it tells you anything, this book has me strongly considering creating a Goodreads shelf titled "interesting-ideas-with-terrible-execution".

Thank you to Page Street for offering me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Mandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Be prepared for a long winded review where I completely lose my mind and go on bullet point rants
*Thank you so much to Page Street for sending me over a copy for this!! I super appreciate it, it was a fantastic surprise, and it did not change my opinion of it at all!*

To be honest, I had never heard of this book before the kind and gracious people over at Page Street sent me this book and it ended up in my mailbox. It sounded like such an interesting premise, and when I saw on a little piece of paper that informed me that it was Leigh Bardugo meets Sleeping Beauty, I whipped that book open as fast as I possibly could.

However, the book that I got…I’m not even sure whereeeeeeeeeeeeeee to begin. There was so, so much that I just am at a total and complete loss. I can’t even explain everything to you because me just explaining half of the book to Sha over chat was a straight up hour plus another half an hour of email updates because I had full on convinced her to be so invested in the insanity that was this book.

Let’s start off with something simple: THIS IS NOT YA THIS IS NOT YA THIS IS NOT YA. It’s probably NA? The book straight up says on the back 17+, but it deals with a lot of graphic situations like murder, rape, and there are quite a bit of sexual content in there (um, there is literally sex worker priests, so that’s a thing). So, um, I just didn’t anyone wanted to walk in here thinking it was something it wasn’t. Just a disclaimer.

I have to say that the first…40 pages were really good. I was invested. I thought it was a cool premise, and I thought Gemma was a great heroine. I was intrigued by the world, and it kind of had a Six of Crows feel to it. Like, except grittier? Imagine grittier Six of Crows in high fantasy land. I have to give the author major props because she created a super cool vibe to it.

However, after about the glorious 40 pages, literally everything went downhill. I mean, everything. I started getting super confused. Big revelations lasted two paragraphs. Unimportant characters somehow became narrators. Romances literally happened where one minute a guy is just holding a vase and literally the next second, he’s being kissed by someone that I swore wasn’t even in the room??? The revelations that did happen made no sense, and I can’t even tell you the plot anymore, because I think everything but the fantasy kitchen pot was in this book sink.

This book is only 288 pages. 288 pages for this mess of a team to try and solve the following: the murder of the Queen of the Underneath and the King of the Above (while also explaining the whole world building of this which wasn’t done that well at all since I’m still super confused – where is the above??? where is the under????); stop the sleeping spell that was mentioned a total of like 3 times in the entire story and then promptly forgotten; create 3 romances that I was supposed to feel the angst for; re-create a mage war; babies….lots of babies; insert some feminism; stop the evil mages; and…I DON’T EVEN KNOW. Have some sex on the front lawn because I know that happened?

But, um, ANYWAY, that was a lot to jam pack into 288 pages. The pacing was unbelievably fast. Wayyyyyyyyyyyy too fast. I’m not even joking, I skipped two paragraphs and I missed an entire plot point.

I mean, it seemed like the author had a plan that she wanted to stick to but she kept getting distracted by other good sounding plots and couldn’t figure out how to keep the pacing intact and then everything just was in there and you have got to tell me how one of the main character confesses to murdering important people when he was really being asked about his mystery daughter but we don’t get to hear about the murder after more than two sentences because we have to focus on the mystery daughter???? It felt like we weren’t focusing on what we needed to focus, and any kind of plot just got whipped through to go onto to the next one. What is supposed to be the biggest plot on the back – the sleeping spell – wasn’t even mentionedddddddddddddddd. I didn’t even realize that it was a thing except for the two sentences that were said because we literally had 20 things that had sped through and were going on before it was mentioned again.

Um, let’s just take a quick tally of absurd things that were crammed into this 288 pages:

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Main character’s love interest straight up murders the mc’s surrogate mother/queen and her father figure but is instantly forgiven and then reamed out because he has a secret daughter

…secret daughter is, like, 11 because love interest is ACTUALLY LIKE 75 YEARS OLD but he looks really young because of unexplained mage magic

Evil mage women decide to take over the world and head of evil mage women is love interest’s mother who poisons main character, causing her to have a graphic miscarriage for, like, the next five chapters and then promptly “all good” basically (I mean, they’re sad and all but it gets very brushed to the side along with the terrible thing love interest did)

main character #2 meets love interest #2 and after a day it is in lust at first sight with him, which, you know, happens

HOWEVER, their first kiss happens when mc 2 runs up from hiding in the basement for totally unexplained reasons, crashes into a vase, is holding onto the vase, and then love interest #2 races up the stairs and kisses him – all happening in two seconds flat with no romantic leadup

sleeping spell is just an excuse for mc and love interest #1 to have front lawn sex BECAUSE IT IS BARELY MENTIONED EXCEPT LIKE THREE SENTENCES (not the front lawn part because I think there was more sentences on that instead of the sleeping spell)

the whole ruler of the above kingdom is solved when Momma Pirate literally swoops in out of nowhere

the entire mage problem is legit solved by the secret daughter who just so happens to whip out this hidden mind reading power that so neatly gave us a reason to hear why the evil people were evil (since they were dunzo dead), and then she just flits around and cures everyone and everything is 100 again

these were just a few of the wonderful things that I couldn’t totally wrap my mind around

END OF SPOILERS END OF SPOILERS END OF SPOILERS END OF SPOILERS

Ugh, the characters. I didn’t feel an absolute thing for any one of them. Not a single thing. As I said, I liked Gemma in the beginning, and I do have to say that Filak made some great feminism statements in the book. That being said, in the last 80 pages, Gemma and her love interest were literally crying every other page. Just because I’m not a book crier, I don’t judge people on their crying in books, BUT SHE WAS CONSTANTLY CRYING. JUST MORE AND MORE AND MORE CRYING. I felt like she was trying way too hard to be tough girl fantasy queen, and we didn’t get any more characterization besides that.

With Tollan, I mean, I have nothing. I can’t even give you a description of the man except maybe insecure? Frozen? He was the other lead of the story, but I honestly got nothing to give you. I felt like we spent too much time with pointless characters like a woman I call Momma Pirate and the still wonderfully boring and useless Wince. Dev was there, and he was the cause of many of the most absurd moments of the story.

The romance. You have to be there going, at least the romance was shippable, right? Well, there was a ship in this story, and we got a paragraph describing it and it was more intense than the romances. I think Elam and Tollan had the ability to be a very cute, feely couple, but they got bogged down by instalove and no real development besides the sexual attraction they felt after sleeping on some front lawn together (actual sleeping not like the thing I mentioned earlier – wow, front lawns were a thing in this novel).

The writing style was good. I liked the feel that the novel had, and it really was quite easy to read. I mean, I was constantly bug eyed by the absurd things that were happening, but it was just so easy to read. And I mean, I never got bored? I think if Filak just slowed it down and focused on a few plots, this would have been a whole different rating for me. I mean, things were still a little odd, but I still think Filak had promise with her just easy to read style.

There were a lot of elements to this story, and some of them were quite interesting. There were quite too many for me, but I do have to give props to Filak for trying to create something new and different in a fantasy world that is kind of stuck sometimes iwth trying to create something new.

So, yeah, I think I’m going to stop here. It’s a lot. I’m sorry to Filak, because I feel like I really harshed on this book mellow, but it was so not a pleasant read for me. I had so many side-eyed conversations and then full on eyed conversations because it was TOO MUCH. It was just way too much. I think there was so promise in the book, but it got bogged down by weird plot twists, too many things going on, way too fast pacing, surface level characterization, and meh romance. Filak has a good writing style, though, and she did have some creative ideas. It just wasn’t nearly enough for me. 1 crown, and a Merida rating!

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review coming soon.

[Vicky Again]

UPDATE: found out this book is actually 17+ and is NA. so there's that.

I'm sorry, but this book is a Hot Mess™.

I really wanted to like it, but I came out of it very, very confused & deeply unsatisfied.

Right from the start I was just very, very confused. Because really big things happen in the first chapter and the way they're written is that they're downplayed. Like, "Ooh, the Queen of Under & King of Above are both dead on the same day; cool beans."

I felt like this was what the whole novel was like--the emphasis on some scenes were decidedly off. The big queer make out scene was less than a page long and did not get the buildup & tension it deserved. All the important parts of the novel were treated in an almost blasé manner and just kind of whizzed by the reader, so if you weren't paying attention you wouldn't realize that something really important just happened.

This also links with how the pacing was just all over the place. Some parts of the novel were especially slow (they wander around and do nothing for quite a while) while other important parts were zoomed past (see previous examples). I just don't understand why the emphasis & similarly, the pacing of the story was so out of whack.

I'm not really sure why the whole novel was like this--was it a lack of plotting when writing or problems with writing style? It just all felt off because there was barely any exposition before you're thrust into and quickly tugged out of the first really big moment.

The writing did feel extremely choppy at times and part of the reason why I think some scenes were severely downplayed was a result of the writing style & just the way Filak writes.

And because of all these issues, I wasn't able to really connect with any of the characters. I'm sure they were cool, but I just was very confused throughout this whole book and could barely grasp what was happening with the plot, let alone the characters' internal complexities.

These execution problems were ultimately the story's downfall and I think this could have been redeeming (the plot seemed to have some highlights, even if it was paced funkily), it ultimately flew over my head.

I did think the plot was semi-decent but the whole world felt a little contrived. There's Above & there's Under and Above has a King and Under has a Queen and Under is where the pirates, thieves, assassins, and sex workers live while Above is where a medieval style world is run.

I think Filak was trying to convey the message that Above, which is traditionally portrayed as good because it doesn't have people in unsavory jobs, may not be so good, & that Under was more honorable, but it did fall pretty flat as well. This was something that did have a lot of potential, but I still feel like the idea of people being sorted as a specific guild is a little derivative based on a lot of other YA out there.

Something else that had a lot of potential (but also fell flat) was the idea of sex-positivity in this novel. Sex is a little more explicit in this novel than a lot of YA and at times, I thought it was NA. (Apparently it is!) And based on some scenes (Gemma, the FMC, calling out boys from Above about how she's allowed to have a lover & that women can also have lovers & enjoy sex), I felt like Filak was trying to convey sex positivity.

But except for that one aforementioned example, the way it was accomplished was by including semi-explicit sex scenes or a scene that I think was supposed to be funny (Gemma in a whorehouse faking moans etc. while communicating with another prince on a pad of paper). But the idea that explicit sex = sex positivity isn't exactly true and this is another instance where this book failed for me.

The last weird thing in this book that I can think of is how they substitute 'prick' for 'fuck'. As in "prick my life; why did I read this?" or "pricking characters are having sex instead of solving the problem at hand" (all very true thoughts I thought while reading this).

I know other people have talked about it, but the use of made up cursewords (or similarly, modern curse words in worlds that don't fit) doesn't always work. It's kind of worked in books like Across the Universe and LIFEL1K3, but I've never seen it 100% work in a book. And it doesn't work in this one either, although I can see how the pun with the briars on the cover comes into play.

Unfortunately, I think this book's problems boils down to a lot of execution issues. It had the potential to be a full, well-paced & well-plotted story but the whole vibe and pacing and message and almost everything was just very much not working.

I'm proud I managed to pull through and read the whole thing but I definitely wouldn't recommend you try it, unfortunately. There are just so many things that didn't work & were messy in this novel that it'll end up more painful than anything to read.

Thank you so much to Stacey Filak for sending me a copy of The Queen Underneath as part of her Twitter giveaway!

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[Heather (The Sassy Book Geek) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review Originally Posted On The Sassy Book Geek

**** Thank you to Page Street Publishing for the copy in exchange for an honest review****

Trigger Warnings: (Fairly Strong) Sexual Content, Sexual Assault, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Torture/Violence

I always hate when I have to write a negative review for a book especially when a book was sent to me for said review. But I like to give you guys, my readers, my honest opinion and my honest opinion about “The Queen Underneath” is that it is just…..awful. I don’t even know where to start with this one because there wasn’t a single redeeming quality, it’s all just a giant mess.

Plot

First of all I don’t think this actually qualifies as a YA book, it’s more NA than anything. There’s two pretty strong sexual scenes (although fairly brief) that occur within the first 50 pages of the book and they completely put me off because I was not expecting them at all! Completely came out of nowhere! I’m not a prude by any means but when I go into a book that’s being marketed as YA and there’s no hints of stronger sexual content at all and then BAM! I am attacked with it within 50 pages. Yeah, no thank you. And as mentioned in the Trigger Warnings above there is an instance of sexual assault in the book as well. You have been warned now, I know I sure would have liked to have been!

I feel like I don’t even know what this story is supposed to be about, the Queen of Under is murdered and so is the King of Above. So the characters set out to find the killers basically and then from there it’s a whole mess of like fifty other unrelated things happening. It’s like the author couldn’t make up their mind about what they wanted their book to be about. I was confused 100% of my time reading this book. It also didn’t help that the pacing was too fast, like 10 “important” things just happened in one sentence too fast. Then there were “twists” that made no sense and felt like they were only there for the sake of having some twists! It was one giant mess, a mess I tell you!

And as you can probably imagine the world building was just as much of a mess. I mean the story made zero sense so why would the world building? What and where exactly is the Above and Under? Because from the way it was described at times it made it seem like the Under were tunnels and actually UNDERNEATH something but yet they have pirates that go around ya know….sailing on seas. Explain! Then don’t even get me started on the fact that there were sex worker priests for whatever religion it is they practice, because literally nothing was ever explained! Plus how the hell does all of this magic work? Once again: Explain!

Also this was being marketed as a retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” and oh boy hahahahahaa NO! How? Someone tell me how exactly this was supposed to be similar to “Sleeping Beauty” in any way! There were some vines at one point, okay, check. And the main character was asleep for a while I guess, check. Townspeople all fell into a magical slumber at some point, check. That’s it. That’s everything I can even remotely compare to the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”. Talk about disappointing.

Characters

The characters. The. Characters. THE. FREAKING. CHARACTERS. I could have cared less about all of them, honestly, they had so much potential though. Characters in fantasy books always have so much potential! There was zero character growth or depth. Everyone was about as interesting as a wet mop (unless you happen to find wet mops interesting, in which case just substitute for something you find boring).

Gemma is your typical strong heroine that we seem to find an endless supply of in YA these days. She brought nothing new to the table though. And Tollan, the other MC, was shy and that’s about all I got out of him at all, he really had no personality whatsoever.

There was also a slew of secondary characters that liked to show up out of the blue for the purpose of moving the plot(or you know…not plot) forward and then vanish.

Romance

Annnnndddd the romances were just as bad as the plot and characters for me. At this point in the story I just wasn’t even surprised any more. One of the romances was insta-love to the max and had zero lead up, although the ONE good thing I have to say about it and this book in general was that it was a LGTBQ+ romance. Now I will discuss the other main couple but in order to really rant like I want to there will be spoilers:


The romance between Gemma, a MC, and the assassin character Devery was so, so bad. Devery was the one responsible for literally killing the woman she thought of as her mother and all was forgiven immediately. Like are you serious right now? It was that forgivable, huh? And if he loves you like he says then why in the hell would he do it! I don’t care what excuse he gave, people that love each other don’t go around killing your other loved ones! And yep, it was literally brushed aside like it never happened!



In Conclusion

What I Loved:

LGTBQ+ Romance
Literally nothing else

What I Didn’t Love:

Um, everything?
Messy, confusing plot that made zero sense
Twists that came out of nowhere
Lack of world building with explanation
Pretty much NOTHING is every explained actually….
Nothing like a “Sleeping Beauty” retelling
Trigger Warnings that were mentioned
More NA than YA
Characters were completely undeveloped and lacked depth
And romances that were either completely unbelievable, full of insta-love, or had zero build up

Recommend?

I can’t say I’d recommend this one at all, not even to my worst enemy. I know how much work authors put into their books and I hate to give a book such a negative review but I honestly did not enjoy this one bit.

[Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just 'cause you've cooked a plate of food, doesn't mean you can open a restaurant.

And just 'cause you've written a book, doesn't mean it's worth publishing.

The Queen Underneath reads like your first shot at writing as a young teen: a gazillion helpings of soap opera-grade drama piled into a stunted wordcount, executed without a trace of forethought, nuance or skill.


– Stylish cover
– Surprisingly well-developed background/setting given overall quality
– Writing is bafflingly confident
– The author used action tags? (Seriously. I'm grasping here.)


– The fake swear words
– Abuse of "said" replacements
– Characters talk about
– Half a dozen tragic backstories
– Completely useless/replaceable characters (Wincel)
– Every prose mistake
– Weird sexual content
– Pacing all over the goddamn place

Man, I don't know what say of The Queen Underneath.

The aim of any review is to go over the qualities of a book decide if it sucks or not. Most books are simply, overall, mediocre. So the goal is to narrow down what makes it worth reading or not, where it's done wrong or right, how well or how badly it's done those things and at the end of the day if there's something worth reading there.

I don't know what the hell to say when EVERYTHING — EVERYTHING — is awful, and it's awful the entire goddamn way through.

Let's start with the concept. The concept is actually good! A pact between the King of "Above" and the Queen of "Under" kept Yigris running smoothly after the Mage War, but someone's poisoned both the King and Queen, leaving Above's heir, Tollan, and Under's new Queen, Gemma, to scramble for answers. As things escalate and the city burns, it's up to

But: execution is everything.

Everything.

The writing is bad. The writing is so, so goddamn bad. The first chapter, despite some info-dumping, is passable, but everything after is a smoking, festering trash fire. It reads as if the author is haphazardly jotting down the scenes of a particularly cringy soap opera. There's no voice, no style, no sense of execution. It's just jotted down, willy-nilly. It's so slapdash and all over the place, I could barely even scan through to end my agony sooner. The author clearly doesn't have enough writing (or reading) experience to pull this book off. It was full of every prose mistake I can think of: filter words, extraneous words, unnecessary adverbs, pure sloppy writing.

The plotting was a nightmare. I mean, what goddamn plot? The Queen Underneath fluctuates between out-of-place, high drama moments — betrayals, miscarriages, torture — and melodramatic exposition as someone lays their tragic backstory bare, or worse: they'll talk about a scene which happened off-page which the author should've included. It's not entertaining and it's not well-written.

Oddly, the setting was pretty okay? I mean, some individual elements were cringy, but the author clearly thought through this world, even if it's execution and portrayal was awkward.

Okay, so is The Queen Underneath is marketed as an inclusive, sex-positive fantasy which challenges gender roles and expectations. Does it at least deliver on the content end?

Hahaha, no.

You don't get points just for writing a sad gay closeted prince. Everything surrounding Tollan's experience with homophobia sounds like secondhand, worn out crap from other (mostly heterosexual) sources. Tollan didn't actually contribute to the plot. He just sat around and felt bad for being gay. His "romance" with Elam (a professional sex priest???) was not only insta-love nonsense — they knew each other for a week, oh my god — but it doesn't even get the same treatment as the obnoxious main hetero couple.

As for challenging gender roles and expectations? Gemma knows how to do stuff. Like, she's spent about half a dozen years under the former Queen's tutelage as a thief. That's all. That's it. It's a step up from the number of books about girls with special, hidden magical abilities and no other skills, but it's not groundbreaking. Worse, Gemma spends half her time randomly passing out and spends the one (of two) fights she actually participates in with magically enhanced powers via the name of her boyfriend permanently etched into her skin.

There's also the lack of other women in the core group. Gemma's really the only one. Twelve-year-old Katya (who sounds like a six-year-old, because despite apparently being a mother of four, the author can't write kids accurately) joins in towards the end and sometimes Lian, Gemma's maid. Also Isbit, but the other characters deliberately take her out of the equation. Tollan and his pervy friend Wince are both POV characters around from the start, despite how little Tollan contributes and how Wince could be removed entirely without any ramifications. As Tollan's crush and Gemma's friend, Elam is always around, and there is waaay to much of Gemma's annoying lover, Devery.

Then there's the sexual content. First: The Queen Underneath has neither the maturity of tone or the style to pull of the sexual content. A heroine with sexual autonomy? Great. Showing a heroine and her lover on the verge of boning when they've only been around for four seconds? That's just cheap porn. There's so much unnecessary sexual content here. I had to read about four unnecessary boners before the quarter mark. Early on, Gemma, Tollan and Wince sit around and mimic sex noises to mask their plotting, and if that wasn't weird enough, Gemma spits on both their privates so it looks "authentic" when they're interrupted. Full yuck. It wasn't funny or quirky. only immature and gross.

Additionally, while I think it's important to show sex worker characters in positions other than disposable victims or tragic sob stories in need of saving, there's a difference between treating your sex working character with dignity and writing a culture where it's glorified. It completely erases the many, many tales of those who were trafficked, abused, manipulated or fell into such a position when left with no other choice.

Oh! I almost forgot: the godawful fake swear words. Prick/prickling instead of fuck/fucking and the Void instead of hell. It's awkward enough to read shitty fake swear words, but at the rate these guys used them? Obnoxious.

(And seriously. If your character can spit-shine a dick, they can say fuck.)

Save yourself. Don't read The Queen Underneath. There's nothing here worth your time. It's immature, sloppy and not as much of challenge to gender roles as it thinks it is.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

(DNF @ 56%)

Recommended By: Pre-publication hype
Acquired: Purchased in hard cover
Content Warnings: Homophobia, Violence, Pregnancy/Miscarriage, Graphic Sex

The Good: Um, the cover is pretty? I swear I can’t think of a single redeeming quality about this book that at all outweighs the bad. I guess I didn’t scream and cuss at it like I did Red Rising , but that’s a pretty low bar to meet.

The Bad: I’ll sum it up by saying that this book is an adult fantasy novel crammed into less than 300 pages and marketed as YA. This is the crux of all the book’s problems, and I think that if it had been developed as an adult novel, it could have been really good. Like, there was a lot of potential. But nothing about this book worked. To start, the plot picks up in the first ten pages, so we never get to meet the main characters properly. Hell, I don’t even know what they look like, and I made it more than halfway through. In addition, so much was told to the reader that should have been shown in action. For example, at the beginning of Chapter 15, we are told in two paragraphs a series of events that should have taken 3-5 chapters to show. I wanted to see those things and experience them along with the characters! But instead, we get almost nothing but plot summary to make room for an excessive number of sex scenes (and I’m a former Sarah J. Maas fan). I’m serious--at one point there are two different sex scenes with two different pairings in the space of less than five pages.

The world is so hastily described that it’s confusing, the characters aren’t given space to actually be characters, and there is a lot of material in this book that disqualifies it as a YA novel. To be clear, this isn’t the addition of sex workers--I appreciated the attempt to positively represent this line of work. Unfortunately, it was poorly conceived and constructed, and I’m not sure it accomplished what it was trying to do. I’ll have a lot more to say about this book in my Extended Review, but I’ll wrap it up here by saying that I’m so sad and disappointed, because I was really looking forward to this book and even got a signed bookplate for it. I wish the insides were as nice as the outsides.

Representation: One of the things that drew me to this book was the promise of a main queer pairing and the positive representation of sex workers. Unfortunately, this is botched. We first learn that Tollan is gay when he gets an erection at the sight of a male sex worker. It’s like, Gay Rep 101 to know that you don’t describe someone’s orientation by hypersexualizing it! By focusing on genitals, sex acts, etc., it reduces queer couples to strictly their bodies and removes a great deal of their agency. Now, Tollan isn’t the only one whose genitals and their behavior is described, but that’s another story. I also find myself wondering if a sex worker was hired as a sensitivity reader for this book. Somehow, I doubt it, because despite some preaching about bodily autonomy, I don’t think the sex worker characters are treated well or given much personality apart from their occupation. I have a hard time seeing this as positive representation for sex work. As for other forms of rep, I think a couple of characters are described as people of color, but there was so much glaringly wrong with this book that I either overlooked it or blocked it out for fear that this too would be poorly handled.

Favorite Line: I refuse to pick one.

[Misty]

I'm gonna hold off on rating this one until I can decide what seems right, because I am very on the fence. And I feel like I have a LOT to say, so review coming soon HERE!...

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.

THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH grabbed me from the minute I pulled it out of the envelope from the publisher. I'm not sure what exactly sucked me in (maybe the gorgeous cover?), but I started reading and didn't stop until I was finished a few hours later. Action packed and full of plot twists, THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH sucks the reader into the world of Yigris, making you want to discover all of its secrets.

And secrets abound in THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH! There were a lot of twists that I did not see coming. And once the action starts (and it starts nearly immediately), it does not stop until the end. There are narrow escapes, magical traps, family reunions and lots of fighting and some loving. There's also a Sleeping Beauty retelling vibe (everybody falls asleep and brambles grow up around the buildings). The issue there is that between all that and the huge cast of characters, I felt sometimes the reader was just skimming the surface.

There are certainly a lot of badass female characters in THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH but I never felt like I really got to know any of them well except Gemma. There is some explanation of motives and such but it was generally one character monologuing to another character. The book did manage to touch on some interesting themes, especially pertaining to how women are viewed, which I wouldn't have minded if it had delved into more.

All in all, THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH is a solid standalone fantasy that's entertaining as long as you don't mind that it's a bit superficial.

Sexual content: Brief but violent rape scene, somewhat explicit sexual scenes

[Cristine Mermaid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read. The action starts right away and doesn't let up through out the entire book. I admired the (new) Queen , Gemma, right from the start and was impressed with her multi layered, complicated, bad-ass personality. The two worlds (under/above) intrigued me immensely as I saw a lot of parallels with the above and our own world to a degree. I admired the world 'under' where they worshiped the goddess, women owned their lives and were sexually free. Anyone who knows me knows how disgusting I find it when women are demeaned over this sexuality and this 'under' culture that is horrified by how the 'above' culture refers to women as whores and degrades them over their sex lives resonated with me.

However, the crux of the story is about a coup to take out both the leaders of the above and below and that is well done and filled with plot twists and action and interesting characters. The magic and mages and even the slang of this book built such an interesting world that I found myself wanting to be in it.

There is a 'love' story but it's not the focal point and the dynamic is such that the dynamic between Gemma and her love is a partnership without the 'man' subjugating the woman. It also delves into homosexuality, gender roles, morals, and family dynamics.

The only thing is that it didn't read like YA fiction to me because of the sexuality and graphic scenes . (Not complaining about them, enjoyed the raunchiness, well done!) I will be recommending this book to fantasy fans 16 and up.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gemma is the newly elected Queen of Under. Tollan is the soon-to-be King of Above.
However, both are only in charge of their respective provinces because someone has killed both of their predecessors.
Now, they are forced together to save both the Under and the Above. Can they do it?

Sounds like a typical fantasy right? WRONG!
The land of the Above is controlled by the rich elite who use powerful mage women to keep the world in their grasp.
The world of Under is the seedy underbelly ruled by prostitutes, thieves and assassins.
Gemma is dating the world's most feared assassin. Tollan has some things to work out.
Fairytale/Adventure-esque elements of witches, booby traps and oversized brambles are incorporated, though the relationships of the characters rule the story.

An adrenaline rush of magic, twists, sexy bits, politics, religion, money, codes, spells, power, battles and unspoken secrets will all come to light. The themes of making ones' own family and the beliefs of right and wrong are pushed to their limits in this book.

More drama than a soap opera and addressing topics of sexuality, family and "faith" (I use that term loosely as it is mentioned rather loosely in certain beliefs;) provides a whirlwind experience. The twists and turns "feel" predictable, but I promise that they won't be for reasons voracious readers may expect.

[V · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely disgustingly awful. Obscene.
A backwards step for humanity.

“Confused and dazed, Tollan stared as she spit on his cock-once, then twice, and then a third time... He turned and saw Wince rubbing spit onto his own cock.” (Pg 44)

This book is a spewing of child-like language, porn-like vulgarity, and useless characters mashed together in a poorly constructed plot and dashed with abusive, love triangle relationships.

Filak prides herself on what she believes are complex, diverse, and progressive characters. In reality, they are flat, predictable, and illogical. The plot is loose at best. There is very little to tie any of it together and the conclusions that the characters come to are often lacking in any real reasoning. I just wish that was the worst part.

The author chooses to use phrases like “I want to prick you,” “prick me”, and “I don’t pricking know” on what feels like every SINGLE page and then includes multiple, vulgar scenes that add absolutely nothing to the story. There was zero reason for three of the main characters to fake a threesome and then write the lines seen above on page 44. The first time she strips down a character and gives them an erection is on page 18.

The author claims the heroine is plus-size, but I can find no evidence of this in the actual text. She is explosive, dramatic, and emotional. When given the option to continue fighting for her country or going to find her lover, she immediately runs off leaving the other two main characters with no plan, no where to go, and no help. That’s right. She dumps the best chance she has at regaining control of her country in the slums and bolts. Only to find out that, predictably, her lover is a bad guy and she’s probably pregnant. It took 110 pages before the author impregnated her heroine. (Technically she’s been running around in dangerous tunnels, dressed like a prostitute for the entirety of the book but I’ll let that slide)


That’s not even mentioning her male characters who burst into tears with little build up. Yes, the events are trying, but the writing makes them into blubbering fools repeatedly. Her assassin is both dangerous and SHY?? Awesome dichotomy, except she wrote it so poorly it seemed like multiple people. And her king? He’s a useless fool with zero ideas who follows characters around like a lost puppy and then explodes in anger at the main character only for her to tell him “finally”. No?!? Any person speaks to another person that way and they should be re-evaluating their life from the floor.

This book is a spewing of child-like language, porn-like vulgarity, and useless characters mashed together in a poorly constructed plot and dashed with abusive, love triangle relationships.

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really sweet. The only reason it didn't get five stars is that it had a lot of sexual themes and that's not really what I'm into. I liked how it was handled and I appreciate the way Filak treats teenage boy sexual desire in particular, I just am also asexual and so felt like it pulled me out of the story.

The worldbuilding here is really cool!! I wish we'd had a map on the inside cover! The way the worlds work and how their values clash and contradict each other just within Yigris was really fascinating. How the world of Above is partriarchal and reflective of today's society, and also worse in how it treats women, but its Rich, while Below is a land of thieves and cutthroats and sex workers but by god they all respect each other! I really enjoyed the way sex work was treated as a respected profession in Under, and in fact there's a part of the church where sex workers are also priests and priestesses.

I really liked seeing the evolution of Gemma, Devery, and Elam as a trio, but also as adults? The story doesn't show us their coming of age story, or their found family bonding story. This takes place after all that. They're solid friends even now that they're all grown and doing their own things. It was really cool to get their backstory in bits and pieces and see their relationship NOW.

Tollan and Wince felt a little bit out of place within the group, and I would have liked a little bit more insight into Tollan. I WANTED to be attached to him but I feel like he wasn't quite developed enough to catch me. He was very sweet and innocent and I enjoyed that. He was good. I just wanted more.

All in all, highly recommend! Just be aware that characters have sexual feelings and act on them.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a good premise. The characters were good. The setting, great. A world divided and considered as the Above and the Under really was interesting but wasn't truly given the greatest backstory. I liked the concept but felt like the ending was rushed just a bit and then when it did end not everything was gone over about what happened to certain characters.

I really just feel unfulfilled after finishing this book because there could've been so much more that she could have covered to give it a more cohesive ending that would have made sense.

[MC · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Blame It On The Books

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.I was really excited and honored to receive an ARC of The Queen Underneath from Page Street Publishing. The cover is absolutely stunning (I believe on the finished copy there is gold foil) and the story sounded really intriguing. After reading the synopsis, I was already imagining the two kingdoms of Above and Under, thrown into turmoil and forced to work together to save their people. Unfortunately, I was left incredibly disappointed.

The biggest issue with this book is that an opportunity for amazing world building was completely lost. The kingdoms of Above and Under sound so interesting, but the reader is never given a clear picture of the world. There were tunnels leading from Under to Above, so is Under really underground? There are mentions of the sky and docks in Under, so is it above ground? Is Above at the top of a mountain and Under is in a valley? I honestly have no idea, and from the way this book was written, I'm not sure the author even knows.

In addition to the confusion regarding the world, there were numerous other plot holes and tons of missing information regarding the history of the area and how the kingdoms came to be. There was a glossary in the back of the book which explained many things that were mentioned throughout the book. I didn't bother reading it. The book was less than 300 pages. There was PLENTY of room for embellishment and there should have been absolutely no need for extra explanation in the back of the book. If you are too lazy to figure out how to include information about the world in your book, I am too lazy to read your glossary.

Another thing that really bothered me about this book was the really unnecessary sex scenes. I am not a fan of sex in my books, but I will never hold it against the book if sex is included. The sex scenes in this book were just a mess, however. They were ill-timed, popping up at random times that didn't fit with where the plot was going. They were vulgar and crude and incredibly awkward. Readers should not be cringing and feeling mortified on behalf of the characters. That is not sexy or entertaining at all.

Unfortunately, The Queen Underneath was both one of the biggest disappointments I have read this year and one of the worst books I have read in a while. I usually try not to be this harsh, but I truly don't think I would recommend this book to anyone. There are a million other fantasy books out there that are more worth your time. From beginning to end, this book displayed clear signs of writing skills that have not been developed and editing that is too lazy to push the author to improve. I will not be picking up any future books by this author and I will probably be pretty wary of the quality of books coming from this publishing house.

[Caitlyn Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this strange little book but it should not be classified as YA. I went into it thinking it was YA and was a little shocked by how sexually graphic it was. I don’t have any issues with adult books with adult themes as I am an adult, but I would not want this is a younger person’s hands. Lots of nudity, graphic sex, rape, pregnancy, miscarriage, sex workers. And not just talk of but actually descriptions and events. Otherwise I liked the characters and found the world intriguing. It was definitely missing some world building and background history and I did feel some of the events that happened felt forced just for the sake of being dark or graphic. Loved the m/m relationship as it was one of the only sweet parts of the story.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well... this was certainly... a book. That started out not amazing, but decent and then turned into... a giant pile of WTF.

Review to come. (So much material dear lord)

[R.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE QUEEN UNDERNEATH is a racy upper YA fantasy about power, revenge, and love. With imaginative world building, language that is sensuous one moment and poetically lovely the next, and a fast-paced storyline that keeps pages turning, Stacey Filak’s debut is a testament to the strength of a young woman who knows what she wants. Delightfully scintillating.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

** actual 4.3 stars **

- received ARC from publisher in exchange for review -

This novel really surprised me. I was not sure what to expect from it, but I adored the journey throughout the majority of the story. Gemma is a strong character, and enjoyable to follow. She is passionate, and a true leader. As the perspectives switch among the various characters in their misfit group of friends, I enjoyed hearing from Tollan (the King of the Above world) and his friend, W___.

The setting combination of two very contrasting worlds was refreshing to read about, and the magical elements throughout the novel will appeal to many YA fans. The various relationships, and surprising family ties are very engaging.

The rating on the ARC copy is 17+ and I do agree with that, if not even a bit higher of an age suggestion. There is a range of sensitive content, from sexual to a hint of torture, that might be surprising and uncomfortable for some readers.

[Azbaqiyah · Rating 2 out of 5]

🙆

[Leanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily the worst book I've read so far this year.

Mini review to come.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 85 pages, skimmed the ending.

So I usually don’t post many negative reviews (for a number of reasons), but I really need to talk about this one.

The first 40-50 pages were rocky but really fun. The pacing is quick, the central problem (murder of two royals) is set up, and there’s strong imagery. There were definite moments where I was like uhhh....wait what? But it has a genuinely fun feel, so I kept going. But then the problems got bigger and bigger, and kind of more ridiculous.

In short, this reads like a book that, as other reviews have said, has so much potential but then wrecks it all. So much happens in the first 80 pages (around where I stopped) and it all seems to happen in one day? No one is breaking for food or sleep? There are several outfit and location changes? It’s rare that a plot over-paces itself, but this one does. It sacrifices every other component of the book (characterization, relationship development, plot build up, etc) for action. There’s literally no time for anything else, especially as this is a shorter length novel.

Had the above been the only (?) issues, I probably would have marked it as finished, not rated it, and went on my way. But the harmful representations and tropes in this book need to be called out. I can’t even call it problematic because it honestly soars past problematic in a lot of areas. Tollan, one of the main characters, is gay. We are shown this through very negative and hypersexualized queer stereotypes. SPOILER: This also falls into the dead gays trope. It seems the author tried to subvert that trope by having Tollan being *surprise* alive in the epilogue, but that’s just it- it’s in the epilogue. We get *several* chapters believing Tollan, who has just found love, is dead.

Another part that is troublesome is the sex representation overall. It seems to be striving for sex positivity, especially in contrast to the “Above” world, but it fails in this regard to.

I know I’m rambling at this point, so I’ll cut off here. In short, this is an extremely harmful book that began with great potential and ended in disappointment.

[Grimmsnaught · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Queen Underneath⭐⭐⭐1/2 (Prick me this was fun)
Read full review at: https://grimmsnaughtblog.home.blog/

Story:
I found it funny, engaging and well paced. From the first page to the last there’s hardly a dull moment. There’s a lot of sexual themes in this book, which I don’t mind. They felt like they belonged and added a ”coming of age” vibe and openly questioned norms and prejudice. Which I’m all for! But it was very graphic at times, which many readers should be made aware of beforehand. This is NOT a Young Adult book and has many triggering scenes. So I’m adding this book to the pile ”Why New Adult needs to be more firmly established”.
But as it is a novel, there was not enough time and pages to really deepen the story. And that such a shame because I felt that there was so much more here to evolve on and explain. And those thing are what made this book good instead of great.

Writing:
This is another book that was overall well written, but managed to have a small detail that annoyed the crap out of me! And that is that the word ”Prick” was used to the extent that I started wincing every time it was used. It literally felt like a prick in the brain. If you mean ”Fuck”, just type it out. We got the word ”cock”, torture, detailed sexual encounters and brutal rape plus other ”adult” topics and language. So why change the word ”fuck” to ”prick”? I don’t get the point of that.

Conclusion:
This is not fo anyone. Me, who’s not triggered by explicit content and likes dark, twisted and cruel stories loved it. I loved the randy humour, that the author did not hesitate to really go there when it came to cruelty and the pacing of it all. But I wanted more details and work building, and ”Prick” is a word that will have me wincing for a while. 3,5 stars.

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Page Street Books for a copy of the ARC in exchange for a fair review.


Gemma is going to meet the King Above and she is baring bad news, but she is even more shocked when Prince Tollan meets her and informs her that he is the new King Above, and he is taken aback when she informs him that she is the new Queen Below.


However, they both know something is wrong when they compare the way the King and Queen died and it was similar and when Prince Tollan falls ill, Gemma begins to suspect the mage women are behind all of this.


As she works with Tollan and others to figure out what is going on the conspiracy deepens even further. When she barely survives an assassination attempt she knows that time is running out.


I have to say this rather short compared to most fantasy type books. However, it was interesting with a lot of good concepts. I think it would have been amazing if this more than a standalone or if it had been fleshed out a tad more as a standalone. I felt like I was just hitting the surface and didn't get deep enough.


I am not sure I had a chance to connect or care about any of the characters or their relationships. Which is a shame because several of them were really interesting and I wanted to care. Overall for a debut novel it is good book and I look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with.

[Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids]

This is another book with such an intriguing premise. When I read that this book is, "a spin on Sleeping Beauty that melds Leigh Bardugo with Victoria Aveyard-with a dash of sexiness and grit", I jumped right into it. Unfortunately this book didn't hold up to it's expectations. This story had so much potential too. I really tried to like it, but there was so much I felt that was missing from the story. I don't know if it was me or the book, though I think it was more of the later. I almost want to re-read it again just to see if I can better formulate a review, because right now I feel like I read more of an unedited manuscript vs a book. Maybe with having read the ARC, things will be different with the final book. I'm definitely considering giving this book another shot in hopes that my thoughts will be different the second time around. *More thoughts to come*

[Neha Thakkar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure what this was. Fantasy? Erotica? Romance? It certainly is NOT YA: substituting “prick” for the F word does not make this somehow “clean”. The premise is great, the cover is GORGEOUS, but too many subplots, poorly developed characters, and strange neatly tied endings add up to a terrible book. It’s also hard to follow and some small moments are made HUGE, whereas some huge moments are made small. IE: She has a miscarriage and then storms the palace!

[Jessica Riches · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried. I made it almost half-way through! It sounded like my cup of tea. It really was NOT. I couldn't picture anything, the characters were undeveloped, the plot jumpy... And then there's the super awkward and weirdly graphic fake sex scene (I know, I know!)-- so unnecessary and creepy! DEFINITELY not YA, people. Overall, it was a DNF.

[Necessittee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! I enjoyed the world building. I enjoyed some of the characters. I also enjoyed the storyline. The pacing was a bit fast and I felt the magic system and some aspects of the world could have been explained better. Overall an enjoyable read. Also this book is most definitely Adult and not Young Adult.

[Abigail Heustess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters start on a new page with a still blank page to the left. Personally waste of paper. Also multiple chapters had the same name. Plot was bit confusing and all over the place. It was eh okay. Didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it. I loved the gay love in this book and the magic I guess. But totally just a weird book.

[Katie (Melting Pages) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2.5

Man oh man. This book was definitely interesting, and surprisingly, I did find it really enjoyable despite the fact that I had a lot of issues with it. I have a LOT to say about this book, and so you are aware, this review WILL have SPOILERS, so read at your own risk!



So first I want to say that the premise of this book sounded so interesting, and it was one of my most anticipated reads for May because of the synopsis. BUT, once we got into the book it was completely different than the synopsis suggests. When I first opened the book, I noticed that its separated out into 3 different sections, which for a 288 page book I found a little excessive, but figured that it would help with the flow of the book. But boy, was I wrong. As far as the plot goes, there was just too much going on in 288 pages. It almost felt like the author wanted to cover soooo much more but didn’t want to commit to a longer book. I think that if this book was a little longer, the different plot points could’ve been better developed.

Basically, the main point of the story is that there are these mage women from a land called Vaga who are slaves to the kings of Above, and they start a revolt to get free. And while that is happening, the king of Above and the queen of Under are killed on the same day and their heirs Tollan and Gemma assume power. Among all the other plot points, there was one that was specifically mentioned in the synopsis and was only touched upon MAYBE 3 or 4 times in passing, and that would be the sleep spell that the kingdom is put under. There was more focus on the romances than there was on the actual war that they were trying to prevent.

And that brings me to the romances. First, this is considered YA, which it definitely is NOT. There is a TON of violence, murder, rape, and even sex worker priests! Yeah, you heard that right. About 40 pages in we get thrust right into an awkward situation, where Tollan, now the king of Above is on the run with his best friend so Gemma, now the queen of Under, hides him in a whorehouse. Of course, to keep up the ruse she dresses up as a whore and jumps up and down on the bed while discussing strategy with them. That was all fine and dandy, it's something that happens in books and movies often, but THEN. It's taken a step further and when someone knocks on the door, Gemma immediately strips, makes the boys strip, and then proceeds to whisper in Tollans ear that it needs to be wet and SPITS ON HIM. I was literally in shock that this was something that happened in a YA book! I found it hilarious myself, but if some young teen picked this up, they would be in for one BIG surprise!

The actual romances in this weren’t horrible (well except for one), and for once, the two main characters aren’t the ones falling in love! Which was super refreshing. Tollan is secretly gay, but then once he meets Gemma’s friend Elam (who is one of those sex worker priests I mentioned) he basically comes out by suddenly making out with him. They were the one couple that I liked, but they were definitely very insta-lovey.

Then there is Gemma and her master assassin Devery. This is where I had the most issues, because at first they start off as this badass couple, but then there’s a major plot twist where Devery reveals that his mother is one of the Vagan mage women and the ones who are enslaved are his mother’s sisters. Then Devery admits to Gemma that the previous queen of Under and her lover, who were like Gemma’s adoptive parents, were killed by him on the orders of his mother! And of course, Gemma is upset with this, but then she learns that he has a child that he never told her about and she is more upset with him that he didn’t tell her about this child than she is about him killing her family! AND THEN in that same conversation, he reveals that he is actually under a spell that keeps him looking young but he is actually 68 years old and Gemma is fine with that! I was so creeped out at that point and the fact that she was okay with everything and stayed with him. Then, at the end of their conversation, he hands her a cup of tea that his mother poisoned and Gemma gets knocked unconscious. Oh yeah, and did I mention that Gemma is pregnant with his child?? Well, she ends up miscarrying because of the poison, and after she wakes up, they go off to save their friends and end up having sex in the middle of town on someone's lawn. Like she just miscarried and is still bleeding out and is emotionally unstable but sure, makes sense to have sex right after! This is pretty much the only place the sleeping spell comes in and almost acts as an excuse for them to have lawn sex. And of course, after this, all they end up doing is a whole lot of crying constantly, which for me made them no longer badass, just really emotional.


Okay, enough about the romances, because I could go on and on about those. The pacing of this was wayyy to fast for 288 pages, and some of the plot points happened within a paragraph or two, so if you skimmed you would’ve missed it!

The ending of this was not wrapped up neatly, and I had to double check that this is a standalone because I was left with sooo many questions! First off, the whole thing with the mage women was solved because that secret child I mentioned? Yeah, she whips out this secret mind reading power to convince the women to step down and give in, and then goes around healing everyone (except Tollan, who is definitely dead, sorry). But we are never told if the sleeping spell is lifted, like, is everyone still sleeping? What is going on with that? Then, we have an epilogue where Tollan wakes up in the family crypt next to his brother and fathers rotting corpses, and we don’t get to see how he gets out, if he meets up with Elam, does his mother, who is a pirate I guess, become queen of Above? And what exactly is the Above and Under? Because the line between the two is pretty blurred.


I did enjoy the writing style, it was really easy to read and I flew through the book because, while there were absurd things happening, it was intriguing and parts were pretty interesting. If there were either A) more pages to really dedicate time to the plot and characters, or B) less characters and fewer plot points, I would’ve given it a much higher rating. It was very unique and I loved it for that reason alone, and I do feel really bad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping. It was very entertaining though, and I didn’t even touch on all the absurd things that happened so if this sounds interesting or if you want to read all these interesting situations, definitely pick it up! I will try other things that this author comes out with because I did like her writing style and the idea behind the book.