Title: The Dead Queens Club

Author: Hannah Capin

Page count: 464

Published: January 29^th, 2019

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Genre: YA

Received: From Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Rating:  2/5

Summary:

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…

My Thoughts:

The synopsis of this story sounded amazing because I loved the Mean Girls movie, buuuuut I have to say that I didn’t like this book. I’m not sure if it’s the writing style or the way that Cleves is portrayed. Or it could have been the story being a little slow. Or maybe because its an historical book and I haven’t really read many, I don’t really gravitate toward those type so maybe that’s why I didn’t like this one? I’m not sure.

This is a retelling of Henry the Viii and his six wives but with a high school twist. Which I think is a cool way to put a twist on it. Cleves is Henry’s 4^th girlfriend, then one day when 2 of henry’s girlfriends end up dead from mysterious accidents. That’s when Cleves and the other girlfriends start to piece everything together and try to catch henry in the act.

I don’t want to give this a bad review, but I must. Again, I loved the premise of the story but for me it just didn’t fall though for me in being a great book.