To Kill A Kingdom brings back the idea of sirens luring sailors to their deaths, and from this concept we are brought to our two protagonists. Lira, our heroine, is the siren daughter of the Sea Queen and is renowned as the Prince’s Bane, for she always takes the hearts of princes. Elian, our hero, is the crown prince of a wealthy kingdom where everything glitters gold – however, he is afflicted with wanderlust and prefers sailing and killing sirens to royal occupations.
Lira and Elian sound like mortal enemies – a prince-killer and a siren-killer – but what makes them so very enjoyable is that they are actually careful mirror reflections of each other. Both are raised to take on roles more important than their own personal dreams, with heavy expectations placed upon their shoulders that they must live up to. (This theme of power and expectation weaves thematically throughout the novel, and is touched upon most heavily within the last third.) Lira and Elian are both strong-headed and wilful characters because their upbringings, and when they finally meet, their similarities result in scathing verbal banter that’s really quite funny to read. Furthermore, both characters are supposed to be vicious and they are killers, but snarkiness aside, I never felt a real kind of bloodlust arise from either of them. Both are heroes, despite all the humans/sirens they’ve killed in the past.
Lira’s narration I enjoyed from the beginning; on the other hand, I though Elian was a bit of an uppity princeling, but as the story went on I began to really enjoy reading through his eyes. Elian and Lira existed really well as narrators and both could’ve really narrated the books by themselves if the other was axed, which goes to show how they were just more than love interests to each other and actually had characterisation and stories to tell independent of the other. As it stands though, you see a holistic view of the struggle between sirens and humans through their eyes.
In terms of worldbuilding, To Kill A Kingdom is set in a world where there are one hundred kingdoms. I really liked this idea, and whilst not all one hundred kingdoms are mentioned and explored (which is definitely for the best, because it wouldn’t be relevant at all), the ones that were featured were really interesting. This part of the story felt most like a Disney movie – all the kingdoms were individual and different to each other, and they felt a bit like countries that would be used in the Disney Princess movies (like the kingdoms in Tangled and Frozen.)
Each kingdom has a monarch that has a special ‘gift’, and this brings me onto one of my favourite secondary characters: the queen of a country inspired heavily by the concept of romance is called Galina, and she can’t touch a man without making him become blindly devoted to her. Saying too much would be spoilery, but I can say that though Galina wasn’t a massive character at all, I did really like her concept!
Plot and prose-wise, To Kill A Kingdom was strong here as well. It took longer to get into the main adventure than I actually expected, but I did enjoy the opening events and they were all relevant to the novel and impacted the following events. Furthermore, the prose was really nice – it wasn’t overly ornate or on the level of Laini Taylor’s dazzling purple prose, but it straddled the line between beautiful and standard really well, and they were some lovely descriptive lines. The whole thing worked well as a standalone, and I felt the ending was an appropriate conclusion. Everything was wrapped up neatly and there were no lingering questions that needed answering.
Going back to the idea of themes, they were some of my favourite parts of the novel. As we learn through Lira and Elian, To Kill A Kingdom is partly about learning to be better than your predecessors, and the expectations that come with being in a position of power. This is most evident in Lira, but can be seen to varying degrees in Elian too, and I felt this was a really interesting thematic addition to the novel that made it slightly deeper than the usual YA fare.
TL;DR: A strong, well-built and enjoyable YA debut about sirens and pirates that’ll really float your boat
Lira and Elian sound like mortal enemies – a prince-killer and a siren-killer – but what makes them so very enjoyable is that they are actually careful mirror reflections of each other. Both are raised to take on roles more important than their own personal dreams, with heavy expectations placed upon their shoulders that they must live up to. (This theme of power and expectation weaves thematically throughout the novel, and is touched upon most heavily within the last third.) Lira and Elian are both strong-headed and wilful characters because their upbringings, and when they finally meet, their similarities result in scathing verbal banter that’s really quite funny to read. Furthermore, both characters are supposed to be vicious and they are killers, but snarkiness aside, I never felt a real kind of bloodlust arise from either of them. Both are heroes, despite all the humans/sirens they’ve killed in the past.
Lira’s narration I enjoyed from the beginning; on the other hand, I though Elian was a bit of an uppity princeling, but as the story went on I began to really enjoy reading through his eyes. Elian and Lira existed really well as narrators and both could’ve really narrated the books by themselves if the other was axed, which goes to show how they were just more than love interests to each other and actually had characterisation and stories to tell independent of the other. As it stands though, you see a holistic view of the struggle between sirens and humans through their eyes.
In terms of worldbuilding, To Kill A Kingdom is set in a world where there are one hundred kingdoms. I really liked this idea, and whilst not all one hundred kingdoms are mentioned and explored (which is definitely for the best, because it wouldn’t be relevant at all), the ones that were featured were really interesting. This part of the story felt most like a Disney movie – all the kingdoms were individual and different to each other, and they felt a bit like countries that would be used in the Disney Princess movies (like the kingdoms in Tangled and Frozen.)
Each kingdom has a monarch that has a special ‘gift’, and this brings me onto one of my favourite secondary characters: the queen of a country inspired heavily by the concept of romance is called Galina, and she can’t touch a man without making him become blindly devoted to her. Saying too much would be spoilery, but I can say that though Galina wasn’t a massive character at all, I did really like her concept!
Plot and prose-wise, To Kill A Kingdom was strong here as well. It took longer to get into the main adventure than I actually expected, but I did enjoy the opening events and they were all relevant to the novel and impacted the following events. Furthermore, the prose was really nice – it wasn’t overly ornate or on the level of Laini Taylor’s dazzling purple prose, but it straddled the line between beautiful and standard really well, and they were some lovely descriptive lines. The whole thing worked well as a standalone, and I felt the ending was an appropriate conclusion. Everything was wrapped up neatly and there were no lingering questions that needed answering.
Going back to the idea of themes, they were some of my favourite parts of the novel. As we learn through Lira and Elian, To Kill A Kingdom is partly about learning to be better than your predecessors, and the expectations that come with being in a position of power. This is most evident in Lira, but can be seen to varying degrees in Elian too, and I felt this was a really interesting thematic addition to the novel that made it slightly deeper than the usual YA fare.
TL;DR: A strong, well-built and enjoyable YA debut about sirens and pirates that’ll really float your boat