Review Of The Novel Chasing The Red Queen By Karen Glista

Karen Glista’s Chasing the Red Queen is a Paranormal Romance novel centring on the protagonist, Donja Bellinger. She is a seventeen year old goth who is still coming to terms with the death of her father that happened six years ago. While still trying to straighten out this upheaval Donja’s life is turned upside down again as her mother remarries and moves her away from her friends to Saulte Ste. Marie, Michigan. Donja is cautious at first with her new glamorous step-sister who is practically her antithesis but soon warms up to her. Due to her step-sister she quickly meets detective Torin Mancini, an eight hundred year old immortal, who takes an interest in her. He is working on a case concerning the murder of Chippewa women by beings just like him called iridescents. They have a taste for blood and due to the ancient bloodline that Donja has she seems to be the perfect victim. So, it is now his duty to protect her from this deadly plot to take her life. When I first started reading this novel I did not have great expectations as the premise seems very cliché especially with over used tropes like an older supernatural man seducing a much younger woman. Thus, I was expecting a YA vampire novel like Twilight or Vampire Academy which it was surprisingly not. I really enjoyed the protagonist Donja as she is a three dimensional character that grew with the progression of the book. You could feel her struggles and empathise with her as a person. The imagery the writer used in her scenes were very in depth which helped as you could feel being with the characters.

Moreover, the detail with the gore and the sub plot of the Chippewa murders was added bonus that pushed it away from the YA genre to Paranormal Romance. It made it more interesting and different as using that further on the plot made sure that the progression of the book was not going too slow. In addition to that, by adding the history of the Chippewa tribe, which is a real Native American tribe located in Michigan, into the novel it made it more real especially as the research done was quite accurate regarding them. It also made the book more diverse as the main character is not the usual Caucasian girl seen in supernatural novels. However, the best thing about this book is the relationship between Donja and her stepsister Makayla. This is because it was amazing to see that their interaction with each other was not cliché. It was nice to see that they developed a healthy strong bond with each other right from the start and did not fall into the realms of being enemies. On the other hand, the things I did not enjoy was the use of the trope of an older supernatural man seducing a much younger woman especially when they are seventeen years old and the male seducing them is in a position of power.

Firstly, this is very over used and is one of the reasons why I thought it was a YA vampire novel. This is kind of problematic as the age of the protagonist would attract teenagers who should not be reading graphic sexual scenes and very gory descriptions. I feel like it would have been much better if the protagonist was over the age of eighteen. This leads to my second point of why this is problematic as by having a protagonist that is seventeen be involved with a person in a position of power that looks ten years older than them it romanticises these types of relationships. This might be not be a con for you, but it does not sit well with me especially when its illegal in Michigan and where I am from. Another aspect I’m not particularly a fan of is the cliché of the protagonist having something innately special that attracts the love interest which in this case was her blood due to her heritage. It is something you see all the time, so it was not exciting when it is revealed as you expected it. In addition to that, the writing could have been better as it seems to not be professionally edited. There are spelling mistakes and repetition of phrases when doing imagery. Moreover, sometimes the imagery can be too much in places for example in the first chapter where the sun is described as a ‘blinding ovearhead orb’. All of this could have been avoided if it had been edited professionally. I give this book a 3 out of 4. This is due to the lack of professional editing and the age of the protagonist being too uncomfortable for me to get over. However, due to the characterisation and interesting plot line I would recommend this book to people who like paranormal romance.