Today I’m sharing my review of The Thorn Queen by Sasha Peyton Smith. I loved The Rose Bargain so I was very excited to see how this duology would end and how this inventive story would continue. Thank you to Farshore for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
This review originally appeared on The Nerd Daily.
Having won the hand of the faerie King Bram, Ivy is now Queen of England.
But with his ascension to the throne, Bram unleashed the fae into the human world. After hundreds of years of being kept from their favourite playthings, the Others are looking to make up for lost time … and they do, with wicked revelry that sweeps through the country.
To survive, Ivy acts the sweet, devoted wife. Behind the smile, she plots to banish her husband, save her sister Lydia, and reunite with the love of her life, Emmett.
Yet Emmet and Lydia are trapped in the Otherworld, where the fae games are deadlier than ever and a queen must play most viciously of all. Or see herself dethroned.
CW: death, murder, domestic violence, abusive relationship, injury, blood, gore, classism, animal cruelty
My Thoughts:
The Rose Bargain was one of the most imaginative and interesting fantasy books I had read for a while at the time with its marriage of Bridgerton-esque revelry and these dangerous trials to secure the hand of the prince. It was a vividly imagined and all-consuming version of our world with a key difference in a pivotal decision in history to make a bargain with the fae. For me, it had the essence of Grimm fairytales with that darkness bubbling through to the surface. It enjoyed runaway success, meaning that The Thorn Queen had huge expectations hanging on it. Fortunately, Sasha Peyton Smith levels everything up in this sequel, which delivers a satisfying continuation and conclusion of Ivy’s story.
Ivy continues to be an excellent protagonist and her character growth from the start of The Rose Bargain to the end of The Thorn Queen is spectacular. She is loving, passionate and determined to pursue justice no matter the cost. That naivety has well and truly been shattered by the ordeals she has faced and the grief that motivated her in the first book is complicated in the second. She is now driven by wanting to change the fate of the world and correct the mistakes she has made. For me, she is such an endearing and persistent character that you root for. I also enjoyed her dynamic with Lydia and how that moves throughout the book. It flips certain aspects on their head and brings a new texture to the story. I loved how at its heart this is a story about sisterhood and the complicated bonds between Ivy and Lydia. That dynamic is the beating heart of the duology and it can be fraught and full of secrets. Despite it all, you can feel the love the two of them share and how determined they are to protect the other. We get more layers to that relationship here and it deepens the story started in The Rose Bargain. Also, the new narrators in this story are inspired choices and offer new insights on previously held secrets.
The Thorn Queen takes us into new places and continues that darker territory of The Rose Bargain. I loved the expansion of the geography and settings of this world, we get to find new places and learn more about the history and mythos of the fae. This world is fascinating but every choice has a consequence and some of them are deadly. It delivers a wild ride of a story and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. The Rose Bargain dripped blood but this oozes it. The stakes have gotten higher and the fates of worlds are in play now. It is a dark story that ups the tension and we delve into some very heavy topics, so do be aware of that while reading. In particular, it explores coercive control, manipulation and abusive relationships in really interesting and considered ways through this fantasy lens. The monsters here are recognisable in our own lives and I hope this reaches the readers who need it.
Peyton Smith nails that tricksy nature of the fae of legends. They can be impassive spectators of suffering or malevolent tricksters that are amused by it. That sense of complicity in violence and suffering is something that Ivy struggles with and I enjoyed the way we explored the nuances of living in this new kingdom, while also looking at how the effects rippled out across the population. The actions that characters took in book one have tangible consequences here and they must face the mistakes they made. It still has the beauty and glamour of the court and balls, but the mask is firmly off. The gilded cage’s bars are visible and Ivy must work to break them once and for all.
The Thorn Queen epitomises the excellence of sequels with an evolution of The Rose Bargain in characters, world-building and politics. It expands the fire started in the first book and builds to a wonderful conclusion.
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