First of all a big thank you to NetGalley and the author, Capes, for this ARC copy. What attracted me to this book was its cover, and the story did not disappoint me either.

The story is set on an island, called the Island, which runs on the magic present in the blood of the Royal family. When the time is right, in every generation, the Island chooses one of the Royal children to become its Heart. However, calamity strikes the Island when the current Heart becomes Unburied, and the Island loses its source of power. A conspiracy blooms on the Island, the Royal children get murdered, and Loon escapes with her childhood friend Nomor to find safety.

The story is beautifully penned. There are subtle hints at how Nature is all-powerful and how we humans are only deluding ourselves into thinking that we can be her master. At the beginning, I was a bit disappointed by the size of the island, but then I rationalized that it is a small and secluded island, where magic can bloom. The world building erased my disappointment, though. The author does a superb job here. The characters are equally well designed, but I would have really liked it if they grew with the story.

I liked the characters of Kala and Nomor, especially. The character of the mage Slugs was an absolute beauty. Loon herself comes off as a weakling, but I later realized that that was indeed her strength. It was her nurturing nature that made her suitable to be a Heart. I did wish, though, that her weakness was explained better in the book. I liked many of the side characters as well. It was a pleasure to find enough representation of lgbtq+ as well as physically handicapped communities throughout the story. However, it seemed that the only purpose of the Royals was to find a spouse and procreate, and they didn't even get the pleasure to raise their own children, because the children were raised in anonymity. That was a turn off for me. I would have liked it better if they were trained to rule in a just fashion, and their duty to become a Heart took a backseat. I realize that was an important aspect of being a Royal, but that cannot be the sole purpose of one's existence!

The story kept me riveted throughout. As the story progressed, it went on explaining many of the mysteries, and introduced new ones, which kept the intrigue of the story intact. It introduced new ideas and side stories. I really liked how Nomor questioned the theological beliefs of the Island's community, and would have liked if this was examined further.

The ending was another turn-off for me. No, Loon becoming the Heart and relinquishing her family and friends did not make much sense. I wished there would be a twist at the end that would have given the story the deeper meaning it deserved.

However, apart from that and the other minor details that irked me, I absolutely loved the story. The author's penmanship is fluent, subtle and I find some of his ideas and descriptions pretty poetic. I wish the book went through a tougher editorial process though. That would have trimmed the rougher edges and made it into a great book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Capes for giving me an eARC of this novel! This review will contain spoilers.
Considering the length of this book I completed it very quickly once I picked it up- which I think says a lot about how I feel towards it! This book was very unique, and I’m leaning towards that being a good thing. It felt a lot more high fantasy than what I’m used to reading, but didn’t find it had the complicated world building (snore) that a lot of other high fantasy books have and instead felt more character driven. I also felt like the character interactions were real- I mean the amount of swearing in this book had me chuckling to myself because it’s exactly how me and my closest friends interact. I especially loved Loon and her best friend and how their relationship was represented (almost like the idea of having multiple soul mates- not all of them necessarily being romantic).

I didn’t give a full five stars because towards the end I didn’t quite get the emotion I wanted to get and expected after these characters going through a multi year journey together. I didn’t get that sadness from Peter dying, nor the sadness from Loon becoming Heart. I just didn’t get that gut wrenching emotion I would have expected from Kala losing two of the people closest to him.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an ultimate otherworldly experience!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley based on a description that piqued my interest. Partway through the book, I was so involved in the plot and characters, I started to panic that it might end on a cliffhanger, but it didn’t. This is a complete story, and what a story it is! I don’t even know what to compare it to (although there were certain aspects that made me think of Cloud Atlas—the book, not the movie).

The characters in this book are basically human, with some supernatural qualities, primarily related to their connection with the Earth, which, in this case, is the Island. The Island is a world all its own, essentially its own universe, complete with supernatural monsters and a deep connection to the land and their ancestors. The Queen descends from a long line of royals in which one royal from each generation is called to the Pond to sacrifice themselves and become one with the Island. From here, they feed the Island, and consequently all of the inhabitants of the Island. When the Queen is unexpectedly “unburied” or pulled from the Pond, it is something that has never before happened and the mages have all kinds of hypotheses as to why it occurred. They are not in agreement, and one, in particular, decides to lead a revolution to eliminate all remaining royals, making them into scapegoats. Everything is thrown into disarray and the Island comes close to complete devastation as easily fooled people hunt down the remaining royals to kill them all. Meanwhile, Loon is the last royal and needs to avoid capture while waiting for the Pond to call her.

The places in this story are so well described, I could clearly envision them. The characters were so relatable that I was sad when some died and anxious for the success of others. The plot kept me guessing until the very end, and although it wasn’t a completely happy ending, it was a hopeful one. This book is a masterpiece of fantasy fiction and one I highly recommend. I am excited to read more from this author. I even signed up for her mailing list.

This is the most realistic fantasy novel I've read in a long time. It still has the fantasy feel, it just seems like it could be happening in our world regardless of the world building. I liked our characters and the world building. I didn't love love this book and I can't quite put my finger on why. It was a solid read and a good book. Thank you to the publisher and author for the opportunity to give my opinion on this book.

Nature gives life and takes life. But what if nature was sentient? What if the earth was alive? This very unique world and fantastical story felt eerily real. It is set on a magical, sentient island that gives life to an entire ecosystem and civilization, but also depends on sacrifices of people from each generation to survive. Despite being steeped in fantastical magic, the island and characters are complex, imperfect, and heartbreaking real. The deep and long-lasting friendship between Loon and Normer captured my heart from the beginning. Normer is a rare example of a strong deaf woman given serious character development and her own plot lines. I fell in love with each character, right down to Peter’s drunken wisdom. The mysteries of rebellion plots, magical anomalies, and the nature of the island kept me guessing and reading till the end. There were rotating perspectives, parallel plots, and time jumps that surprisingly suited the story well. The characters, plots, and world had enough dark edges to feel real. The author doesn’t shy away from the messy parts of life and death, moral grey areas, or characters that make mistakes. The ending and resolutions to the mysteries were satisfying and rung true. Things weren’t wrapped up excessively neatly enough to feel artificial. While this story was clearly very well written and compelling, it was too dark and had a little too much graphic violence for my personal taste. (I’m somewhat squeamish.) That’s the only thing that kept me from falling completely in love with it. Instead I’m just 80% in love with it. I’d recommend it for anyone a bit less squeamish than me. Thanks to NetGalley and Capes LLC for a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

It was an interesting fantasy. It was a concept I’d read before, but not an overcrowded one, which made it feel refreshing. The writing wasn’t all the way there, but it was pretty good. I quite enjoyed it.

I gave this story 3 out of 5 stars. Whilst it spanned a number of years and was detailed most of which had relevance to how the story ended, I didn’t like the confused feeling I had at the beginning. It could have caused me to DNF the story but I choose to stick with it and I am glad I did. It leaves you with some questions at the end which I think is part of its charm.

What a strange sort of book. Imagine the whole world contained in an island. That island is maintained by a carefully balanced system of magic, all of it coming from the Heart and being distributed across the island through water, blood and the three main Mages and their Apprentices.

First I would like to say that I was a bit misled by the title: the actual unburied queen is not in fact an active character in this story but rather a catalyst for it. The people in this tale would have led very different lives without the queen being unburied.

The world building is lush, gorgeous, rich and beautiful. There is a lot of emphasis on smells as part of the description of people and places, making this quite a smelly book, in a very good way.

Where the book falls a bit flat in my opinion is the characters. I found it difficult to care for them, even to make a mental image of some of them. Some of their reactions appear to come totally out of the blue. It's not an "ooooh I didn't see this coming" kind of thing, more of a "why the heck is he/she doing this when he/she just said he/she'd never" sort of reaction. The time jumps between chapters is annoying and does not help consistency.

The book is not overly long, but it took me longer than usual to finish it. Maybe because I found the story a bit unsettling and didn't quite know how to feel about it. You could take it as a story of people that are unwilling to rebel against a fate that will cost them everything. But you could also take it as a tale about people willing to sacrifice for duty and for the good of others.

It was a strange read, and for that it was a memorable one.

The Unburied Queen is a unique story, I’ve never read anything remotely similar to this; Capes, the author deserves points for originality but, originality is not everything that a book needs to have in order to succeed. Overall enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Netgalley and Capes for the eARC for this book. This was a very unique story but fell short in execution. The cover is beautiful and I had high hopes but I could not really relate to the characters and they were quite honestly not memorable. I definitely think this could be reworked for a better experience for the reader

The Unburied Queen by Capes was such an imaginative story and I loved every moment of it! it was so original and interesting.

I had to put this one down pretty early in. I just wasn't liking the characters or the writing enough to keep going. I really liked the world Capes builds and the plot was interesting, but I don't care about the characters and I'm not meshing with the writing style. I do like that Capes incorporates a deaf community into her story and I think that's something we need to see more of in Fantasy (and Sci-Fi).

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While the novel started out really well, this unfortunately ended up being a DNF for me at the 40% mark. I think the author introduced a really interesting world, however the mechanics of it weren't well explained (at least not in the section I read).

The cast of characters were also just generally meh - while my favourite was perhaps Nomor, I didn't really care about any of them enough to want to know what happens next in the story. Especially the main character, Loon, to whom things happen but who herself doesn't really do much. I didn't like the insta-love between her and Kala either.

I was also put off by the number of mistakes - I think the book needs to be proofread carefully before publication.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Capes for providing me with an ARC of ‘The Unburied Queen’ in exchange for an honest review.

When I first requested this title, I didn’t really understand what Capes meant by a metaphysical fantasy, all I knew was that the blurb was intriguing and that I wanted to read it!

Whilst, admittedly, it took me a few chapters to really get in to it, once I had, I couldn’t stop reading. The reader is fully immersed into the beautiful yet dangerous world that Capes has created. From the Forest of Gems (that are enticing to look at but dangerous to touch) to Loon’s lemon orchard, the reader is transported and gets to fully experience the world of the characters’ through each character’s own unique perspective.

Told from the point of view of several crucial characters, this book is certainly well-written when it comes to character building. From Loon, to Kala, Peter, Nomor, Slugs, and even Moses, each character is unique in their own right and thoroughly developed. With each time jump, the reader begins to feel like they truly know the characters - their allegiances and motivations - which is crucial when it comes to the dangerous and deadly climax of the book.

I think what stands out about this book is that not everything is clear cut - everyone is flawed in some way and every story has more than one side to it and you truly get to experience that.

**Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**
"The Unburried Queen" by Capes is a high fantasy story about a secret royal in an island full of magic.
Sadly, I had to DNF this story at around 50%, as I just couldn't motivate myself to keep going.
The first thing I noticed when I started the book was how much un-subtle exposition it had, and yet it still took me a while to figure what was going on and what the rules of this island were. I didn't understand the magic system or the size of the island. It felt like I was thrown into the middle of a series and had to figure out for myself what was explained before.
age.
The characters were also secretly underdeveloped, more like archetypes than characters themselves, especially Groog's son, who has an interesting story behind his name but it just makes him feel like an extension of Groog.
I did like, however, how one of the cities seemed to have a language exclusively in sign. It was an interesting, original, and inclusive detail.
Overall, I give this book 2/5 stars.

This book was hard for me to follow. There was too many different POV’s and I found it a little hard to follow each of them every time. It was very hard for me to get fully into the book. The characters didn’t really develop and there was too much information too quickly.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. I tried really hard and for a really long time to read through this one but it just wasn’t for me.
I felt like it was a bit of an info dump. A lot of tell, and not a ton of show. Loon, to me, seems very….passive (as another reviewer put it!). She doesn’t seem to be a very active character in her own story.
I found the idea of the world/the idea of the plot to be really fascinating but it was the execution of it all that did not vibe with me.
Also, fair warning, this is a particularly long book, so keep that in mind if you want to read it!

I finished this in a day!

It's a unique story, unlike anything I've ever read before, and that made it even more enjoyable - a breath of fresh air.

I'm usually really good at seeing plot twists coming, but I couldn't figure this book out - it was a mystery. I loved the characters, I loved the world, I loved the feel this book has. I loved knowing why the characters did what they did, I loved how realistic it felt, I loved how I could actually relate to fantasy characters for once, rather than it all being too surreal. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

The idea of this book was so good. I had high hopes for The Unburied Queen. It just wasn’t there I couldn’t fully get into the book. I do like the way the author wrote the book though.

The Unburied Queen is a tale of struggle, survival, and the Island. This new adult (almost) high fantasy novel, presents an unique fantasy world and an intriguing plot.

There's a lot of good things about this novel. There's a main character who communicates through sign language, and a cast of interesting characters. There's the main character, Loon, who is an anonymous royal. Nomor, Loon's best friend is a force to be reckoned with (& the aforementioned character who uses sign language). Kala is an orchardist turned assassin. Peter is Kala's best friend and town charmer. Tetra is a mage's apprentice and Kala's older brother. Slugs is an Oracle & Mage, who recently gained slugs as hair. This cast was a really unique combination, and I wish the focus was more evenly distributed amongst them.

All in all, this was a decent read, but it just didn't work for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Capes, & Capas LLC for an eARC of The Unburied Queen! I really appreciate the opportunity to read this!