THE BAD QUEEN IS BAD (The Bad Queen Book Review)

Hey there! You look like the kind of person that would
be interested in a slow-paced historical fiction novel that is only marginally better than
a textbook! Well you're in luck, partner, because I got
the perfect deal for you. BAM! The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer. The Bad Queen: It's pretty bad. *Laughs*
So this is The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer.

It's a novel. For sure. It's big. This lovely watered down textbook is about
Marie Antoinette, the infamous French queen that never actually said let them eat cake
but that's how everyone remembers her.

It's part of a series called Young Royals. It follows the bad queen Marie Antoinette
from the moment where she finds out she's betrothed to the future king of France to
the moment she dies and frankly it's, oh, it's a bore. It's awful. I love history! I love royal history.

I find it all very fascinating and this was
a slug. I only finished this book because I had nothing
better to do. It's like the author can't commit to whether
or not she wants to write a historical fiction novel or if she wants to write a textbook
and as a result, it doesn't fulfill either satisfaction. There's no satisfaction to reading this at
all.

Nothing, there's nothing satisfying about
reading this Bad Queen book at all. I mean there are constantly storylines that
are introduced and there's so much build-up to it. I would say this portion of the book is dedicated
to the fact that her husband won't sleep with her and make her a true wife. So you spend like this much of the novel going
oh when are they going to get laid? When are they going to get laid? I hope she gets laid soon.

And you know how it happens? You know how it happens? It's literally a sentence. Let me find the sentence for you. "What a triumph that I can finally write to
my mother and announce that I was -at last- a real wife and a real dauphine." That's it! And then we move on! It's not satisfying! I get it. That's the historically accurate version.

But it doesn't make it interesting. Textbooks would make that interesting. Textbooks would be like "Oh the king suffered
from this problem that we know about now because we're in the future and we know about these
things and we're not just sexist and assume that it's the woman's fault any more. No! We know this fact.

Here's a fact. There's a fact! It's interesting." And that, basically, is how the whole novel
goes. We're introduced to a new problem in Marie
Antoinette's life, we are treated to five chapters dwelling on that problem, and then
low and behold it's all solved in like one sentence or like a paragraph at the very most. It's not satisfying! If you're going to make us suffer for a solid
portion of the book on one of her little minuscule problems, at least make the conclusion to
it satisfying.

At least give us a reward for suffering through
her insolent little problems. So like maybe if it failed on the fiction
side, maybe it'll make up for it in the historically accurate side but it doesn't. Because the author has chosen to use the first
person perspective from Marie Antoinette we miss a lot of those details that are imperative
to a historically accurate re-telling. For example, Marie Antoinette's not going
to know why her husband cannot perform well in bed.

I mean we probably know now because we're
in the future and we probably had a lot of records that we can examine. But Marie Antoinette doesn't know that so
therefore the reader doesn't know that because Marie Antoinette's not going to tell the reader
what she doesn't know. And of course because it is from Marie Antoinette's
perspective, she's not going to villainize herself so we're not really going to understand
the real political aspirations. We're not really going to know the true reason
why all of France started hating her.

We're just treated to her pity party instead
of a historically accurate re-telling of why all of France wanted to revolutionize against
this bad queen. Why is she The Bad Queen? We don't know! Marie Antoinette's not going to villainize
herself. In fact, the only satisfying part of this
novel is when it switches perspectives and I HATE when novels switch perspectives. But it was like absolutely necessary for this
book because you know if you don't know the history of Marie Antoinette, very famously
she got her head cut off by the guillotine.

It was a very popular trend in France at the
time. So in like the months and years leading up
to her actual beheading, the perspective changes to her daughter and it was nice to finally
see Marie Antoinette from another person's eyes because again having her through this
much of the book just her whiny little spoiled brat pity party was not interesting. Finally being able to see some of her flaws
and being able to sympathize with her through another person's eyes, that was interesting. I wish the rest of the book was just done
in that kind of perspective, but it wasn't! Maybe the author just isn't that very good
at writing royals who do not have happy endings and I get that.

I bet that'd be tough knowing that the readers
know what happens at the end aka they die. So no worries, Carolyn Meyer. I forgive you. SIKE! I don't forgive you! Do you know why, Carolyn Meyer?! Because you wrote this! This is Doomed Queen Anne.

It's again a book about royalty who don't
make it at the end. Like you know they're not going to make it. It's about Anne Boleyn. Anne Boleyn is one of the six wives of King
Henry VIII had.

She's the mother of Queen Elizabeth, blah
blah blah. If you don't know who she is, google her. She's great. And who could've possibly written this book!? OH! It's Carolyn Meyer! It's a Young Royals book! These are sisters.

These are companions in the same series. And you know what was a super excellent read
that has stuck with me for years and years and years. This one! Doomed Queen Anne. This book was great.

It was phenomenal. I enjoyed reading every page, every sentence. This is another first person perspective. This is Anne Boleyn's perspective that we
are reading and it's still interesting.

It's still very historically accurate. And she does die at the end! Like that is a thing that happens. Just like in this book! But Carolyn Meyer made this book super super
more interesting than this book. She can write a good book where you know that
it's not going to have a happy ending.

This, there's no excuse for this. This is a watered down textbook that isn't
even interesting to read. I honestly wish I just picked up a textbook
from Barnes and Noble about Marie Antoinette because this posed a lot more questions to
me than what it should have satisfied. Which you know maybe that was the intention.

Maybe the author just wanted to get a lot
of people interested in Marie Antoinette, but she shouldn't have done it with this huge-what
is this?! This like a brick. See this length! This is great. This gets you just interested enough in Anne
Boleyn but still satisfies your fictional wants and your historically accurate wants
for a historical fiction novel. So to recap! If you want a good historical fiction novel
about royalty without a happy ending, Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer.

If you want a bad historical fiction about
royalty without a happy ending that kind of feels like a watered down textbook but it's
not that interesting still, The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer. This just goes to show that authors aren't
always perfect. They're not always going to write bangers
because if they did, I would've enjoyed The Bad Queen a lot more. The Bad Queen would not be bad.

But The Bad Queen is very bad. Doomed Queen Anne is very good. She's not doomed. It should be doomed Marie Antoinette and good
Queen Anne, except she didn't last that long.

She got beheaded as well. Alright so thank you for watching my book
review for The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer. Don't read it. It's bad.

I will probably be doing more of these book
reviews. I might move it over to my old BookTube channel
that I kind of put on hiatus. So if I do move these book reviews over to
Maddbooks, it will probably be pretty sporadic on that schedule. It's not going to be like every Monday and
sometimes Thursdays like on this channel.

It'll just be whenever I finish a book and
feel compelled to make a review video about it. So if I do revive Maddbooks, the link to that
channel will be down below and also on the end screen because I can do that now. Thanks, YouTube! So on that note, what are some good or awful
books that you want me to read or review or etc? I will read the bad books so you don't have
to because I just want you to stay safe out there, kids. Please leave your comments down below.

If you want to join The Maddness, all you
gotta do is subscribe to this channel and I will see you guys in the next video. *End theme* Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed it, feel free to subscribe
for more like it. You look like the kind of person that would
be interested in a slow paced historical fiction novel that is only marginally better than
a textbook. *Claps* NAILED IT!.