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In the kingdom of Eire, magic flows as wild as an undercurrent through the land. Banshees chill the air with their screams and water-wights lurk in the rivers. But magic among the common people has been outlawed by the king. Instead, it is jealously hoarded by his Druid priests.
Neve, the youngest daughter of the king, and Ronan, a Druid’s apprentice-turned-thief who makes his living selling stolen spells, should be enemies by law. Instead, their shared hatred of the Druids — and the dark magic which has marked them both — makes them unlikely, if uneasy, allies.
When the kingdom of Eire is threatened by a power struggle, it’s up to Neve, with the help of Ronan and the realm’s most dangerous outcasts, to seize her rightful place on her family’s throne. Somehow, even against their odds, Neve has to believe there’s a world where she can right her father’s wrongs and where an outlaw and a warrior princess might be able to carve a future with spells and swords.
Queen Among the Dead focuses on a part of Celtic mythology I’ve rarely seen explored in young adult fiction (as opposed to author Lesley Livingston’s series about faeries, for instance, Wondrous Strange). Within her fictional world, Livingston incorporates the historical monument of Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne), making the story feel grounded in something realistic even if still lost to time and myth. But readers who are not familiar with Celtic mythology (and even those who might think they are) will definitely find themselves flipping to the list at the beginning of the book just to keep the countless names of creatures and clans straight.
While it does take a while for the underlying plot of the story to make an appearance, Queen Among the Dead is fast-paced once it does. And while I found some plot points to be predictable, others took me off guard. This unpredictability, matched with a surprisingly fresh setting, really captured me, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the story overall.
Rated: Mild, for 2 uses of moderate language, 42 uses of mild language, and 5 uses of the British (bl-) profanity. Violence, while not particularly descriptive, includes war and battle, blood and death. A ship full of prisoners is burned, a monster kills a man, a character’s hand is cut off, and a throat is slit. Characters kiss.
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