Beneath the Keep, to be published 2/2/21, is a prequel to Erika Johansen's Queen of the Tearling series (three other books are in the series, The Queen of the Tearling, The Invasion of the Tearling, and The Fate of the Tearling).

This book traces the history of the Tearling as a kingdom crushed by famine, feudalism, corruption, greed, and unrest--which spurs on some citizens to attempt to shift the kingdom toward becoming a land with strong new hope and opportunity. Meanwhile the fabled True Queen is said to be poised to save them all. Is Princess Elyssa the one they've all been waiting for? Elyssa recalls that the history shared by her tutor Lady Glynn was made up of:

"...tales of good, but much more of evil, of humanity‘s vast suffering, of suffering that could have been averted at so many turns if only there had been someone of true heart, of good intent…. If only that person had stepped forward at the right moment…"

The Tearling kingdom is (literally) built upon an actual underground warren (the Creche) of tunnels housing a commercial system based on degenerate activity, the opportunity to act upon cruel whims, and insufferably atrocious exchanges of money, drugs, and paid-for rape in various forms.

"...Crèche babies, likely sold in their first weeks of life...had each learned the great lesson of the tunnels: in a world where brutality was a constant, it was infinitely better to be the one holding the whip.”

Beneath the Keep is absolutely steeped in the darkest imaginable and shockingly widespread depravity: trafficking in children and adults; vulnerable people used as slaves for sex; brutal fighting to the death; and various other horrors. There's extensive page time spent on ghastly monstrousness.

Some of the characters I loved from the rest of the series (I'm looking at you, Mace, and also the Fetch--side note, that nickname always reminds me of the very off-topic movie Mean Girls) are star players within this dystopian period of Johansen's Tearling world.

Childhood bonds and shared difficulties are heavily featured and are shown to be enormously important to shaping the book's characters and their life paths (for example, Christian and Maura; Brenna and Arlen; Aislynn and Liam); these bonds are similarly key in the final book of the series, The Fate of the Tearling (in that case, with Katie and Row and Katie and Jonathan). Another common theme between this prequel and the final book in the trilogy is the widespread suffering (and significant effect on the plot) caused by the actions of bitter, unacknowledged heirs (Row; Arlen).

I loved Aislynn's attempts to achieve upheaval in the wake of her life horrors, and her renewed, fierce desire to seek justice. Yet as in The Fate of the Tearling, populist movements are cruelly crushed, along with hope for a better world for all. Beneath the Keep sets up a scene of sweeping societal despair and its flip side: an opportunity for new beginnings to take place in The Queen of the Tearling. But the events in Beneath the Keep are almost universally bleak, with so much lost, so many horrors, so many instances of depravity and pure evil, good generally losing out to bad, and endless terrible impulses wreaking havoc on individuals and on society as a whole. A corrupt church and faulted religion are presented as contributing to broad destruction and greed.

Throughout the series there is a dark undercurrent that serves as either a motivator for warped debauchery or as inspiration for change. But in Beneath the Keep the evils are intensely detailed and constantly explored. It was really difficult to read a book with so much page time spent on abuse and violence.

I first mentioned this book (along with The Loneliest Girl in the Universe and The Unwilling) in the Bossy Bookworm Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 1/28/21 Edition.

For my full review of this book on The Bossy Bookworm, or to receive all of my Bossy reviews and Greedy Reading Lists as soon as they're posted, please see Beneath the Keep.

I received a prepublication copy of this book courtesy of Dutton Books and NetGalley.

Rating 3.5 still don't know what I want to give it. But leaning towards that rating.

Ok gang - if you read the other three books - you knew this would be dark. You knew we'd have to travel deep into the Gut so we could learn about Lazarus's back story. It was hard to read, but it was worth it. The Mace was always my favorite character so I knew I wanted to read this story the instant I heard about it. I still would like to know what happens in the 17 years before Kelsea comes back - but this was great.

I'll still trying to wrap my mind around some of the things that came to light what they mean for the rest of the series. It's kind of like matching up Star Wars with the rest of the movies once the prequels came out. Sometimes it makes sense right away - sometimes you're like - does this still hold up?

It has always been odd to read quotes (at the beginning of each chapter) from "future" writers when you know that that particular future didn't ever really exist...but that was in the other books as well.

I really enjoyed this, as hard as some parts were to read. The uprising seems a little pointless but I understand that it highlights the unrest in the land and how bad they were waiting for the "True Queen".

I will probably read any book that explores these stories because I am just such a huge fan.

Há uns anos li a trilogia do Tearling da autora Erika Johansen e lembro-me de ter ficado completamente fascinado pelas suas personagens e história. Mesmo tendo ficado desiludido com o desfecho, não há como negar que as escolhas da autora foram bastante fora da caixa e certamente transversais a vários généros, não se restringindo apenas à fantasia.
Em Beneath The Keep, prequela, acompanhamos algumas das personagens secundárias mais enigmáticas da trilogia original e ficamos a conhecer o o seu background, assim como algumas novas ou que já tinham sido mencionadas, à medida que se desenvolvem eventos que levaram ao ponto da situação em que se inicia The Queen of the Tearling.
Ao contrário de outras prequelas que apenas se limitam a satisfazer as saudades dos fãs com algumas curiosidades menores, aqui não só faz isso como acrescenta uma nova dimensão à história que já conhecemos, inclusive modificando algumas das respostas que pensavamos serem definitivas. No entanto, só deve ser lida após a trilogia original, visto que contém spoilers.
É também de destacar novamente a riqueza da escrita, que, ainda sendo fluída e fácil de ler, tem uma dimensão muito verosímil.
Esta prequela só veio confirmar o que já suspeitava: o reino de Tearling ainda tem muito que dar de si.

It got very graphic about SA against children

I was beyond excited for this book to come out, but it did not quite meet my expectations. For starters. I wish I had re-read the series before starting this one because at times I knew certain names were familiar, but for the life of me, I could not remember who they were. I thought the writing was well done overall, but I struggled to connect with any of the characters. Despite a lot of people seeming to love Elyssa's narration, I couldn't reconcile how Kelsea would talk about her mother with the woman on the page, and the eventual explanation for why Kelsea thought of her this way just seemed weak and didn't really explain why the Mace would defend her in later books since not even he really ever met the so-called "true" Elyssa. Speaking of the Mace, I didn't find Christian's chapters especially compelling either and preferred him significantly as a supporting character instead of our main narrative. The other two main narrators, Niya and another girl I can't remember the name of, were somewhat interesting and definitely added to the overall world-building of the Tearling and its economy more than anything, but their characters itself seemed a bit one dimensional sometimes, with Niya being a bit more complex. I found the second half better than the first since it had more of a specific plot versus just a lot of vague sadness and descriptions of some really horrible things. On an unrelated note, the Gareth/Mhurn situation made sense to some extent, but it felt weird to basically contradict the original trilogy to some extent. There were some really beautiful and heart-wrenching moments in the series, but it was less immersive than the rest of the series and none of the narrators were quite as interesting to me as Kelsea was.