Review of The Empress by Kristin Cast

My Rating: 2 stars

CW: sex and violence, sexism, other women are bad trope.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded AMAZING and I used to read the Marked books when I was really in my YA Vampire phase. I read Into the Mist by PC Cast and thought that any foray into reading their separate books would be great.

But the first few pages had the lines “her breasts like offerings” and “I said to his cock” and “harness your power” all in ONE scene.

I also am SO SICK of antagonists for a women main character being other women. I HATE the mean girl shit and the “other woman being a bitch” shit. I get that it happens, I do, but it’d be nice for authors, especially women, to show some girls supporting girls. If you’re going to make fantasy, you might as well use that suspension of disbelief to do something fresh.

Hannah, the main character screams NLOG from the jump, she’s upset, fairly, her life does suck, and then she’s transported into the world of Arcana. Which is an INSANELY inventive plot. But it just doesn’t deliver. When a plot is like this, it needs a good character, good characters, plural, to keep it up. And it doesn’t do that.

The main male character is one of those that gives a weird and kind of infantilizing nickname to the FMC, with such a unique plot, Kristin Cast could’ve done a really good job of diverging from the usual tropes, she doesn’t. And if you like that sort of thing, then maybe that’s a plus for you. I think it’s pretty classic romantasy with a cool premise, just none of it is for me.

Like I’ve been saying, the plot is REALLY cool. Towerfall is this alternate world (there are mentions of “mirror selves”). It is made of several different kingdoms, each protected by a different group of cards (the MMC is the protector of the Kingdom of the Pentacles), all under the control of the Empress.

The romance is typical of new adult romantasy, borderline toxic, all her exes are cartoonishly bad people so he’s great by comparison even though he’s a walking red flag. He’s controlling, demeaning, doesn’t really treat her like an equal, the author portrays him as pro-women but it’s very surface level, she’s very much the same, she doesn’t seem to put a lot into her relationships with other women but she’s almost this caricature of the “klutz turned badass.”

The author’s dialogue is also full of what she seems to think are Gen Z buzz words, including “catch feelings” and characters being in their “__ era” according to other characters. It just comes off cringy and try-hard.

I think this book could’ve done really well with a MUCH gayer plot. Hannah could’ve had her rivalry with Stephanie, then met and fallen in love with her mirror self, and done a twist on the enemies-to-lovers trope, or something similar with Jade/Marion. But no, Cast chose the boring option!

Yet another scene makes a weird comparison to breasts (what is with the breasts?!?) this time calling them “pomegranates” the MMC then proceeds to simulate sex with the pomegranate. Hannah is taking a bath, the MMC intrudes, while she’s BATHING, she drops a pomegranate in the water, tells him as much, and he says “looks like you have two pomegranates right there.

??????!!!!????

Ultimately this book was just so cliched and predicable. It could’ve done so much and it fell flat.