To Kill a Kingdom: textbook character development

By Sophia Doshi

I had to resist the overwhelming urge to buy this book from Amazon within the minute I finished it because of my monthly budget parameters, but that doesn't make it any less worth it.

Alexandra Christo wrote this book and if I could give her a bouquet of flowers and thank her for her excellent service to bookworms universally, I would. Yet I can't (or I won't because although I liked this book, I really don't feel like getting up, finding her address, going out and buying overpriced flowers, and sending them to her via priority mail to prevent wiling), so she'll have to settle for my raving Culture Pop review. 

Let me start by saying a big THANK YOU to Christo for not making the book longer than needed, as the story fit comfortably in its 368 pages. The number of pages didn't overwhelm me (unlike Game of Thrones), so I flew through it and wasn't caught amongst any unnecessary plot points. Some fantasy authors *ahem* Tolkien and Martin write a lot of books with a lot of language and frivolousness that really doesn't need to be there at all. Call me lame, call me young, call me uncultured (which would be a crime, because how would I then write for Culture Pop?), but sometimes, "lesser" is better. I'm not saying Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings needed more dumbed-down stories, but I am saying that most of the sentences could do without some of the words. It's like being force-fed articulate alphabet soup when I'm in the mood for a good ol' bagel.

I also appreciate how the characters were interesting and had good stories to their names. The character complexity is, in my opinion, similar to that of fantasy characters in Sarah J. Maas's books. Now, some people are going to be mad that I brought her up, and I understand why—Maas disregarded any ethnic diversity in her books, killing the only black character in Throne of Glass and making there only one notable black character in A Court of Thorns and Roses. BUT. She wrote her characters so well and gave them such depth over all of their books, and Christo's writing seemed similar. I'd probably be blown away if she had the opportunity/motivation to spread out Lora and Elian's story over multiple books. 

One last thing I admire about TKaK is how Christo works in female rage and female power. Now, I'm not condoning the Sea Queen's verbal and physical abuse, not at all. What  I mean when I say female rage is that Christo allowed Lira to be a half girl (or siren, if that floats your boat... pun intended) and half animal. I haven't read a female character that's so ruthless and homicide-ready like that since... surprise surprise, Aelin Galathynius (Throne of Glass!!). It's different from abuse since it's the siren's nature to take human hearts, but Lira defines rage in this book. The fact that she isn't at all afraid of wanting or having power is also admirable. Throughout the book, Lira constantly yearns for some sort of power, whether in the form of wanting to please her mother by killing, wanting to be a better Sea Queen than her mother, wanting to turn back into a siren, and wanting the eye from Pàgos. She was a great character to root for throughout this book. 

Aside from these couple of things, the rest of the book was also phenomenal. You can find my ratings below:
Plot: 10/10
Length: 10/10
Worldbuilding: 7.5/10
Pacing: 10/10
Characters:  10/10
Message: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Overall: 9.75/10