Book Review: The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin

**Disclaimer: I received a free electronic ARC for review on NetGalley.**
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Retellings
Release Date: January 29, 2019
Description:

"Mean Girls meets The Tudors in Hannah Capin’s The Dead Queens Club, a clever contemporary YA retelling of Henry VIII and his wives (or, in this case, his high school girlfriends). Told from the perspective of Annie Marck (“Cleves”), a 17-year-old aspiring journalist from Cleveland who meets Henry at summer camp, The Dead Queens Club is a fun, snarky read that provides great historical detail in an accessible way for teens while giving the infamous tale of Henry VIII its own unique spin.

What do a future ambassador, an overly ambitious Francophile, a hospital-volunteering Girl Scout, the new girl from Cleveland, the junior cheer captain, and the vice president of the debate club have in common? It sounds like the ridiculously long lead-up to an astoundingly absurd punchline, right? Except it’s not. Well, unless my life is the joke, which is kind of starting to look like a possibility given how beyond soap opera it’s been since I moved to Lancaster. But anyway, here’s your answer: we’ve all had the questionable privilege of going out with Lancaster High School’s de facto king. Otherwise known as my best friend. Otherwise known as the reason I’ve already helped steal a car, a jet ski, and one hundred spray-painted water bottles when it’s not even Christmas break yet. Otherwise known as Henry. Jersey number 8.
Meet Cleves. Girlfriend number four and the narrator of The Dead Queens Club, a young adult retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives. Cleves is the only girlfriend to come out of her relationship with Henry unscathed—but most breakups are messy, right? And sometimes tragic accidents happen…twice…"

Firstly, I will admit that I know next to nothing about history, let alone about Henry VIII, so I'm sure someone who actually knows the history about him will probably enjoy this more than I did if this was a good modern retelling. 

Now, about the actual book. In general, I did not find any of the characters particularly likable, especially Cleves. I find her personality to be quite grating. It's as if the author tried a bit too hard in attempting to make her a relatable girl by making her quirky and the "not the typical girl" kind of gal. Probably the "best" character out of the pool of characters is Cat, but she didn't grow on me until like 3/4 into the book, which is also when she actually shows her true colors. This is unfortunate since it would have made the story much more interesting if she had done that earlier. 

I would also like to comment on the pacing of the story. Firstly, I found the first half of the book kind of boring and a bit unnecessary to the plot since nothing important really happened. In fact, the story itself does not start to move until halfway through the book and approximately 3/4 way in the action really starts to happen. Maybe it was just me, but I found that the placing of the flashbacks was not done that well, as the jumping from the past to the present got confusing at times as it was not consistent, or maybe it was and I just never noticed (if that's the case then just disregard this comment). 

Lastly, I would also like to say that the ending wasn't bad, but it could've ended better, as I felt a bit unsatisfied. Perhaps an epilogue could have fixed this problem, as it would be nice to know what happened in the aftermath of the whole incident and what happened to the girls because admittedly, they were an awesome group that worked well together. 👍

Overall, I thought this was okay. Nothing outstanding, so don't be surprised if you're not entertained at first, but it does pick up later if you stick around for it. 😕

Overall rating: 2.75/5