Fantasy

“You need to stop thinking of me as the boy you abandoned, and remember I’m the monster the Hierarchs feared.” GO OFF KING!!!!

Okay, but seriously–

First of all, re-read Witch King before you read Queen Demon. Yes, even if you think you don’t need to. It will help a lot. (Me, 45 pages in, suddenly remembering that what Kai knows as “horse” is definitely not the same as what I know as “horse.”)

This is one of those rare cases where I almost feel like the second book is better than the first, not because the first was weak at all–it remains a five-star read for me–but because in Queen Demon we really get to expand upon the world that was built in Witch King. I feel that Witch King really drops you into the middle of things without much explanation, which can make the first third or so of the book feel like you’re just trying to figure out what’s going on, e.g. what is an expositor? What is an intention? This was absolutely not a problem for me, I love high fantasy that doesn’t condescend to me in terms of explaining the mechanics of the world, but it does mean your reading brain needs to do quite a bit of limbering up before you really can sink your teeth into the world.

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After spending quite a while trying to decide where to start with this one, I’m going to try to split this review up two ways, based on the style and the content.

Stylistically, I find the prose in this collection absolutely decadent. Vanessa Fogg is unbearably talented; her sentences are tight and often spare, but with every single verb and adjective seemingly chosen to be as incisive and exquisite as possible. Her stories full of fragmented sentences that help to buoy along a sense of otherworldliness in both the Closer and Farther sections of the collection. I also often felt that her choice of language was tailored closely to the setting of each story, so that at no point was there a sense of disconnect between the world and the words being used to describe it.

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In theory, I love the story arc here. I love the idea of a socially subjugated person finding a way to access power that has only been made accessible to the dominant groups, I love the idea of love that manages to transcend these class/social boundaries, and like I wrote in my review of the last book, I love the magic system here which feels unique and interesting compared to other similar fae stories I’ve read before.

From my review of the first book: “Also, a lot of the “high” or “second world” fantasy I’ve read tends to set up bigotry between, like, orcs because they’re ✨️so warlike✨️ versus the other ✨️more civilized✨️ species, so it was kind of fresh for me at least that in this book it seemed to be set up between high fey vs. humans based on their access to certain types of magic, with the “good” and “bad” magic being defined less by the actual results and more by one queen who was so pissed at her boyfriend she made his existence illegal.”

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This was a reread for me, having already completed this series once in like 2023 maybe. And once again I do understand why this series is so polarizing! The content is pretty heavy—there are on-page depictions of assault (sexual and otherwise), there’s slavery, there’s fantasy racism, there’s just a lot going on. 

But like I said in my review for Dark Heir, I feel like one of C.S. Pacat’s strengths as a writer is in his ability to navigate the moral grayness of institutions and circumstances in a way that feels authentic while still remaining hopeful. This is true throughout the entire Captive Prince series, and this is the book where she lays the groundwork for the way that relationships and attitudes will change and grow throughout the rest of the trilogy. Neither of the two main kingdoms in this series are particularly sympathetic—both participate in slavery, both have some somewhat archaic (by my modern American standards) attitudes toward women and consequently some very narrow definitions of masculinity. It’s no surprise that Laurent and Damen are therefore not always particularly sympathetic protagonists, since their attitudes and behaviors are informed by the cultures that shaped them.

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This was a reread for me, so obviously already a book series I enjoyed… but once again I am reminded of why C.S. Pacat is the only bitch I trust with a real enemies-to-lovers arc. This book is such a tense but ultimately satisfying payoff of so many plot threads that were woven through the previous two books, and I really love how many subtle (and tbh sometimes less subtle) moments there are where Damen and Laurent really get to serve as mirrors for themselves earlier in the series. You get to see where some of those motivations came from and how they moved through them to get to where they are now.

Rating: ★★★★☆ – The book was great and I would recommend it to anyone who likes this subject or genre, and I am likely to re-read it at least once.