“It’s not the fairytales that lie to us, but the people we love”—a rare fragment of wisdom bestowed on Morena Atropos by her mother, Malinda the Mad: Queen of the Blood Throne.
It’s a theme that carries through Rhiannon Hargadon’s QUEENS OF MOIRAI, the first book in a fantasy-romance retelling of the Three Fates: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Moirai was divided by an old war, leaving its descendants with the fallout: fates scattered across a deathless land where those who pass away are doomed to rise again as part of an undead army, controlled by Malinda herself. Morena has lived most of her life in a wintry tower, isolated, burdened with powers she doesn’t want, neglected by her cold mother. After years of manipulation, being carved into a weapon at her mother’s behest, she is freed by destiny—bringing her to the estranged descendants of the Fates. Together they have to stop the Cullen army of the undead, but it’s Morena who’s prophesied to unite Moirai once more—if she can only become Death incarnate.
The idea of fate winds through Morena’s story in many forms—ones that destroy her life; ones that enrich it and bring her to people who love her; fates that can’t be changed; and others that are manipulated, twisted, and spun around her. But for someone who has spent her life being controlled, the idea of seizing her own fate is both terrifying and freeing. Morena herself is a complex protagonist, a demigod of Death who has no interest in taking life, no appetite for the violence it requires. Serene, the Fate of Life, creates perfect balance—sometimes ruthless, decisive, and confident in her powers. Between them is Vitess, the embodiment of Time, a steadfast yet soft presence. Though Morena gets the most page time to develop her character—the novel is written in her voice—there are flashes of character development for the rest of the ensemble as it grows, which will hopefully be given even more room in the forthcoming installments. It feels as if this book has barely scratched the surface of how powerful these new Fates are, and exactly who they are as women. Morena’s bond with her siblings can’t be overlooked, either. It’s a complicated, realistic dynamic delivered with some shocking twists.
There’s also a romantic subplot threaded throughout, which unfolds in a way that seems rushed at times when considering Morena’s secluded life. She jumps into things rather quickly, and the amount of development actually shown between them doesn’t often match the feelings that arise. It does, however, make for an interesting, conflict-ridden love triangle between herself, Jasper (the prince of Clotho), and Elijah (the prince of Lachesis). Each character has their own arsenal of demigod-given powers, and the nature of these powers and how they interact with each other is incredibly unique.
The overall pacing of the book comes across as uneven at points, where the beginning takes a bit to get going and the second-half races onward—the timeline often muddled between. It turns out there’s a reason for most of this, as the last act hits with gut-punch after gut-punch of explosive twists. All told with exciting world-building, extraordinary power, shapeshifting Ouroboros, dragons, fae, zombie Cullen—along with the threads of Life, Death, and Time personified.
QUEENS OF MOIRAI’s most striking feature is the writing itself, though—utterly gorgeous prose with a profound voice. Poetic, stirring, and haunting all at once; there are some turns of phrase that are unforgettable. A description of the Cullen: “Their rotting bodies, their souls like battered butterflies, their clicking teeth—I could feel them out there. Waiting.” During a romantic ball for the people of Moirai, Morena describes being in front of them for the first time: “Their hopes beat at me like birds set free.” And describing her own power: “I tilted my left hand over, filling it with inky darkness—a handful of violence, drawing all the shadows from the room into my palm.”
A myth retelling that uses familiar fantasy and romance genre tropes, Rhiannon Hargadon’s QUEENS OF MOIRAI is a refreshing, enchanting first installment in a proposed 4-book series that leaves one clinging to the pages for what the Fates have planned next.
~Jessica Thomas for IndieReader