I love the Tearling trilogy, and was excited to read this prequel and it did not disappoint. To see how it all started was a great insight to the future novels.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to it before it was archived but will review in full when I do.

To be completely honest with you, I kinda hate read this book. The Queen of the Tearling is one of my favourite books, but the last book in the trilogy ended terribly (if you know, you know). I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the events in this book, because they literally do not matter. I will say that Johansen is a skilled writer. Her writing pulled me in and did not let me go. I wish she used her creative powers to write something other than this book.

‘Beneath the Keep’ by Erika Johansen is the standalone prequel novel to her Tearling trilogy, the first of which was excellent, the second good, the third disappointing. ‘Beneath the Keep’ is every bit as good as the first novel, if not better. If you haven’t read the trilogy, read this first. It’s a rollercoaster ride, a dystopian story of a country at war, the rich denying the poor, drought, famine, rebellion, cruelty and the hope of a True Queen who may exist at some time in the future. Many names are familiar from the trilogy, many are completely new.
Christian is twenty. An orphan, he was born in the Creche, the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Tear’s capital city New London. The Creche is only one layer of the underground and it is not the worst, in some dark places unimaginable horrors take place. Since he was a small child, Christian has been a fighter. Now he is a legend, unbeaten, still alive unlike the many he defeated. It is a deadly game of kill or be killed. He cares only for one person. As small children he and fellow orphan, now prostitute, Maura were sold together into slavery, together they learned how to survive. Christian is pragmatic, Maura dreams of going ‘topside’, to see the sky and the stars.
Princess Elyssa is heir to the Tear throne but she has a problem. She dislikes her mother Queen Arla and her politics, struggles to perform her royal duties and pay homage to the Church which she believes to be corrupt. Elyssa becomes sympathetic to the secret resistance group, Blue Horizon. As they give food and tools to the poor, Blue Horizon spreads the word about the coming of a True Queen. But as Elyssa becomes outspoken she becomes dangerous, not just to her mother but to a group of criminals including a white witch who can read and control minds.
Meanwhile in the rural Almont, harvests are failing and landowners try to recoup their losses by demanding more money from their tenant farmers. One young woman fights back, and so a rebellion is born.
The climax is a fantastic set piece bringing together all the story strands. I sat up late at night to finish the book. Yes some of it is back story for the trilogy but there are so many twists and turns and new character insights that I surrendered to the ride. If you’re reading it knowing nothing of the Crossing, the Tearling and the mythology of the series, I envy you the discovery of this absorbing chronicle.
In ‘Beneath the Keep’ Johansen shows us the underworld of the trilogy. Underground, it is dark, terrifying, dehumanising. She gives us hope while also showing the horror.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I absolutely loved the Tearling trilogy. Unfortunately, this prequel wasn't for me. I didn't connect with the writing style, and it felt like a different world altogether. However, although this book wasn't for me I will still check out the author's future work!

This is my favourite Tearling book so far. Ever since I first read Queen of the Tearling I have been facinated by Mace. I love that this book starts out as a origin story for him but it actually contains the whole back story that leads up to the start of the Queen of the Tearling.
Whether you start with this book or read the other three first, you are in for a gripping and fantastic read.

📚r e v i e w 📚
beneath the keep - erika johansen
when i finished the tearling trilogy at the beginning of the year i was somewhat bereft that the story was done. i think i even tweeted about how much i wanted more from this world, specifically more about the mace and about the fetch.
fast forward to a few months ago and what do i come across on @netgalley? this! a prequel to the trilogy featuring the mace’s origin story! i mean, the sensible bit of me knows that erika johansen was clearly working on this for some time, but there is a part of me convinced that i manifested this by putting my thoughts out there. anything is possible, right?!
beneath the keep is just as engaging and complex as the rest of the tearling books, erika johansen has created a truly incredible world with a rich history and there is so much scope for more stories from the tear - not that i’m hinting at more spin offs or anything…
if you’ve read the trilogy, you’ll already know a lot about the creation of the tearling and the events leading up to kelsea becoming queen, so in that regard, this didn’t add too much information, though it still managed to surprise me in places! it did answer a few questions i had left over from the ending of book 3 and gave some insight into the prophesy surrounding kelsea. 🤞🏻for a never ending stream of these books!
much like the rest of the series this is a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read - just be aware that there are some c\w including sexual assault, death, child abuse and violence - though if you’ve read the trilogy, you’ll be well aware of how dark this world can be.
thank you to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for the early copy. sorry i took so long to read it!

I found the first half of the narrative a bit choppy and disjointed but once I got used to the style, I really enjoyed this. The world is fascinating and I am now eager to read the original Tearling trilogy to see more. The plot was pretty dark and some of the characters were extremely unpleasant, so I hope there is some payback coming in the original trilogy.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I am a huge fan of the Queen of the Tearling series so i was over the moon to find out that there was a book focused entirely on one of my favourite characters.
This is definitely a lot darker than the original trilogy however i really enjoyed the context it gave to Mace's story.

I could have enjoyed this book more if I had been reading the previous books of the series. However, despite that it was a fast paced, well-written novel and I especially enjoyed the darker elements of this book.
Sadly, the fomating of my ARC was totally off which made reading it really difficult.
I am going to check out the series and probably get back to this book once again afterwards, because I will be able to profit from that reading experience, at least I hope so.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was just what I needed after finishing the original trilogy. It gives you the background on some major characters and more insight into the world itself. Will definitely look out for more from this author.

I give up. I wanted to love this book because The Queen of the Tearling series was a slippery slope which desperately needed a strong revival. But this has just made the incline even steeper.

It comes down to one very simple thing for me. The first novel in the initial series was so successful in my opinion because it had an incredible dynamic between its characters. Over time, that became lost in the mess of the world building and pacing issues, and instead characters became dry and uneventful in their interactions; it basically lost its heart.

This novel was a unique opportunity to inject that back into the series, but it just didn't. It introduced new characters, many of which were also flat, and it attempted to provide some history to a series we know so much about. The ending of the initial series, without spoilers, essentially unpicks the world we thought we knew though and, in doing so, it means that I'm not really clear whether this story actually even logically makes sense anymore!

Regardless, if we consider this purely as a standalone, it sort of works. Erika Johansen writes compelling stories because her writing style is just compelling in itself. But the problem for me, as a character driven reader, is that if I don't care about the characters or in fact even like them (as is the case here) then the story is long dead in the water.

So, whilst this had the potential to salvage the series for me all it did was serve to solidify my choice not to revisit it.

Unable to review as document was not download in time and sent to my kindle.. Really sad as wanted to read, however have added to my wish list!

Thanks for the opportunity and approving me in the first place.

This is a very dark read at times, I loved the Tearling series and I loved this too, but it just needs a warning. To me you can’t read as a stand-alone as it’s a prequel, I think you really do need to read the originals to have a sense of what’s going on. But I loved how involved I got, how I felt like I’d never left this world. with its amazing characters, the political scheming, the unanswered questions from Queen of the Tearling feel finally answered, I love this so much. Definitely recommended

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

As you guys know, I really liked the Queen of the Tearling trilogy and have, for years, been saying I will reread the trilogy. But I always keep putting it off for one excuse or another. So when I discovered this, a prequel of the trilogy, by sheer fluke (I have heard NOTHING about this. No news of Goodreads, from the publisher or anyway. It wasn’t hidden, but there has been no noise or advertising), I jumped on requesting this and then, because I decided to close my Audible account (for now), used my last credit to preorder this.

Set around 20-25 years prior to the events of Queen of the Tearling, we follow several characters who have roles to play in the Tearling’s current climate of the rich protecting the rich and the poor suffer. The Tearling is on the edge of a rebellion with the rebellion group, Blue Horizon, whispering of a prophecy. A prophecy of the True Queen, rising up and saving them all.

We have Christian, a young boxer in the Creche, the kingdom’s sinister underworld, Princess Elyssa, whose mother is doing nothing to help her people who are dying due to the ongoing drought, Niya, Elyssa’s handmaiden who is not who she says she is, and Aislinn, a young farmer’s daughter who starts a rebellion.

As each of the character’s four stories head towards a collision course, we see answers to questions hinted at in the original trilogy, and we discover the events that happened that lead to a Queen’s Guard, the Mace, coming for the Tearling’s new Queen, Kelsea, and taking her out of hiding at the start of Queen of the Tearling…

The Queen of the Tearling trilogy is a marmite trilogy. You either really like it/love it, or you really don’t. There is not much middle-ground. Plus, when a prequel is written at the series is done, it’s tricky as you need to make it be a standalone and yet, make it fit in the series and the world as a whole. We’ve all read prequels that either hit that balance really well (for example: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman or Clariel by Garth Nix) or misses the mark really badly (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, for example). It’s a hard act to balance and I have read many reviews on Beneath the Keep where readers can’t agree if this book succeed or failed in that balance.

Now, before I go further into this, I must point out that this book is dark. While the original trilogy had strong crossover appeal, this is very adult. I can’t decide whether to class this as a grimdark fantasy or not as the contents in this book are dark. Triggers include drug abuse, swearing, violence and murder, actual and attempted sexual abuse and exploitation on men, women and children, overdose, possession/brainwashing, genocide, and a ton more, so when I warn you that this is dark, much darker than the original trilogy (which, let’s be real here, dear readers, was dark in itself), I mean it. Hence why I am wondering if this is a grimdark political fantasy.

But I really liked it. I got sucked into this world with its characters, the political and emotional climate, the truths I that I from Queen of the Tearling and the questions from he original trilogy being answered, adding layers to things we knew and didn’t know in the original reading of the trilogy. And Erika’s writing - she has grown as a writer

And I want to give this five stars. I have on Goodreads, but not on NetGalley. It’s 4.5ish stars. I warned you guys about swearing in my triggers, mainly b because there is a ton of swearing. I’m not a prude, I can handle swearing, but there was multiply times where a character or the narrator wouldn’t swear and it’s jars. Badly. The same goes with the misery. Like I’ve said, this is dark but, on one or two occasions, things happened and it felt like misery was put onto of misery, just for misery’s sake. Not to add anything to the story.

Small note about the audiobook. Not a big thing, but there were one or two occasions when the narrator, Mandy Williams, stop loudly or shouted, her voice echoed. Now, I know this was probably recorded during tight Covid-19 restrictions and in a soundproof room, so I will forgive this, but other audiobook readers might not…

But as someone who really enjoyed this series, I adore this prequel and I hope we have more stories set in this world and, maybe, maybe, this will get my rear in gear and reread Queen of the Tearling like I hope. But, like I have said, this series is dark and this prequel is very dark and, because of that, readers will enjoy really enjoy/love this world of the Tearling or downright hate it.

I really, really wanted to love this book. The Tearling series is a favourite of mine, however I found this story to be lacking. I really couldn't find myself relating to the characters in any way, and wasn't invested in the revolution or the royal side of the story. I'm also unsure if this was supposed to be YA or adult. The characters veered towards the ya end of the spectrum, whilst the events and story line definitely felt more adult. I DNf'd this at 35%.

DNF’ed at 33%

Simply too violent and harsh for me to read at the moment though I love the writing and the introduction to characters who hold massive roles in the series.

dnf at 70 pages

trigger warning
<spoiler> slavery, gore, child prostitution, child rape, torture, drug abuse </spoiler>

The people are restless. Their queen is above petty things such as human rights, and there are high hopes for the reign of the crown princess, which creates tensions between mother and daughter.
Meanwhile, a slave fights for his life in an illegal fighting ring again and again.

Initially, I requested this arc because I read the first book of the Tearling series ages ago and remember I quite liked it, but after reading this, I don't think it would hold up upon re-read.
This is the prequel to aforementioned series, and it's quite a bland 08/15 fantasy series about a court in trouble. A revolution feels imminent because of all the suffering while the nobles play their fancy games. Important themes like the merrits of communism are woven into the plot, but not explored in any meaningful way. It's more like the necessary backdrop for the gratuitous violence you see on every page, and I am kind of waiting for rape as a plot device because it's that kind of book.

I feel like my time is better spend when I just re-read the Name of the Wind to get the vibes and the important themes.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

I wasn't able to finish 'Beneath the Keep' as I didn't connect with it. This means that I won't be posting a review on Goodreads, Amazon or on here. I also tried to listen to the audiobook but didn't get on with that either which is a shame as I loved the original trilogy.

I've always loved the Mace, and this new book from Erika Johansen - a prequel to her Tearling trilogy set in the period just before Queen Kelsea's birth - gives us his origin story, from a childhood in the Creche to years in the ring as a child fighter and then his introduction to the Queen's Guard. At the same time, we get to see Kelsea's mother's descent into madness, and all the evil machinations of the high-born classes and the desperation of those forced to live below them.

In her author's note, Johansen makes it clear she is making a political statement about the haves and have-nots, and many times I appreciated when she made a sly dig at the recent US political turmoil.

As with the other books in the series, I must state that, although categorised as YA fiction, the subject matter really isn't for children or for the fainthearted. Paedophilia and rape are ongoing themes, and there are some very gory, stomach-churning descriptions. Scenes in the Creche just broke my heart and I could picture them clearly because of Johansen's amazing writing.

Many fans were upset at the ending of the third Tearling book, but with this prequel I see an exciting new beginning and very much hope we will see more from the time of Kelsea's childhood.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them for inviting me to review. ***