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A review by micaelamariem
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
5.0
I’m writing this review in a haze because I stayed up until two am to finish it, and then I was too excited to sleep. I’m so tired. It was a great book.
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, published by Macmillan Publishing Group, is a YA Fantasy that is sort of a Little Mermaid retelling, mixed with other fairy-tales and its own unique takes. Lira is a siren known as the Prince’s Bane because, as heir to the underwater kingdom, she sees fit to only take prince’s hearts. Elian is a golden prince to the Midasan kingdom, but he’s moreso a pirate, who hunts and kills sirens to save his own people. When Lira disobeys her mother, her punishment is to become human and to kill Prince Elian in her mortal form, or else she will die. A siren who hunts princes paired against a prince who hunts sirens–and yet, there’s so much more.
The author, Alexandra Christo, is a British writer living in Hertfordshire. Amazingly, To Kill a Kingdom was her debut novel. Since then, she’s written two more books: Into the Crooked Place, and its sequel, City of Spells.
I was initially drawn into this book by the writing style. It was so descriptive in a way that made me want to taste and savor the words on my tongue as I read some sentences aloud. It was insightful in a way that really let me feel the characters and their dilemmas, including their own unhappiness. The setting was beautiful as I was transported to a world where Elian sailed across the expanse of sea, between hundreds of kingdoms, each seeming to represent their own fairy tale. Elian’s kingdom, for example, is an allusion to the tale of King Midas, who is cursed with the golden touch. It is said that the Midasan rulers’ blood runs gold. There are also kingdoms that I believe to be inspired by The Red Queen and The Snow Queen. In fact, though this was a standalone novel, I would love to see other novels from Christo that focus on these other kingdoms and be their own retellings within the same universe. In fact, I would devour that.
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I was also so invested in the relationship between Lira and Elian and what would happen next–who would win in the end? Their banter gave me life; there’s nothing better to me than flirty snarky comments. Which is probably why I also loved the side characters so much. Tell me if I’m wrong but the side characters gave me Inner Circle vibes–Torik reminded me of Azriel, Kye of Cassian, and Madrid of Mor. Either way, I loved them so much.
No book is perfect, of course. I thought the ending–betrayal to forgiveness and that sort of thing–happened way too quickly. I’d think the characters would need more time to process everything. And also, this is a minor thing, but it bugs me that I can’t figure out how sirens, er, mate. It’s mentioned briefly in the book that sirens aren’t as lucky as mermaids, that they have to actually mate, but I still don’t understand how that’s possible. I don’t know, maybe it’s better I don’t know.
Despite those minor flaws, I adored this book. Five stars out of five stars! Highly recommend to lovers of fairy-tale retellings, YA fantasy, The Little Mermaid, the enemies-to-lovers trope, and pirates.
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, published by Macmillan Publishing Group, is a YA Fantasy that is sort of a Little Mermaid retelling, mixed with other fairy-tales and its own unique takes. Lira is a siren known as the Prince’s Bane because, as heir to the underwater kingdom, she sees fit to only take prince’s hearts. Elian is a golden prince to the Midasan kingdom, but he’s moreso a pirate, who hunts and kills sirens to save his own people. When Lira disobeys her mother, her punishment is to become human and to kill Prince Elian in her mortal form, or else she will die. A siren who hunts princes paired against a prince who hunts sirens–and yet, there’s so much more.
The author, Alexandra Christo, is a British writer living in Hertfordshire. Amazingly, To Kill a Kingdom was her debut novel. Since then, she’s written two more books: Into the Crooked Place, and its sequel, City of Spells.
I was initially drawn into this book by the writing style. It was so descriptive in a way that made me want to taste and savor the words on my tongue as I read some sentences aloud. It was insightful in a way that really let me feel the characters and their dilemmas, including their own unhappiness. The setting was beautiful as I was transported to a world where Elian sailed across the expanse of sea, between hundreds of kingdoms, each seeming to represent their own fairy tale. Elian’s kingdom, for example, is an allusion to the tale of King Midas, who is cursed with the golden touch. It is said that the Midasan rulers’ blood runs gold. There are also kingdoms that I believe to be inspired by The Red Queen and The Snow Queen. In fact, though this was a standalone novel, I would love to see other novels from Christo that focus on these other kingdoms and be their own retellings within the same universe. In fact, I would devour that.
Processed with VSCO with kc25 preset
I was also so invested in the relationship between Lira and Elian and what would happen next–who would win in the end? Their banter gave me life; there’s nothing better to me than flirty snarky comments. Which is probably why I also loved the side characters so much. Tell me if I’m wrong but the side characters gave me Inner Circle vibes–Torik reminded me of Azriel, Kye of Cassian, and Madrid of Mor. Either way, I loved them so much.
No book is perfect, of course. I thought the ending–betrayal to forgiveness and that sort of thing–happened way too quickly. I’d think the characters would need more time to process everything. And also, this is a minor thing, but it bugs me that I can’t figure out how sirens, er, mate. It’s mentioned briefly in the book that sirens aren’t as lucky as mermaids, that they have to actually mate, but I still don’t understand how that’s possible. I don’t know, maybe it’s better I don’t know.
Despite those minor flaws, I adored this book. Five stars out of five stars! Highly recommend to lovers of fairy-tale retellings, YA fantasy, The Little Mermaid, the enemies-to-lovers trope, and pirates.