I am become grief. Not since watching the documentary “Dear Zachary” years ago have I been this emotionally wrecked, nay, emotionally destroyed.

If I had to guess, the author has lost someone very, very close to him. I’ve never seen grief displayed so perfectly on pages. The characters are crafted so well that I grew to love them, and their losses became mine.

I wept throughout the last quarter of the book, and I outright sobbed for about ten minutes after finishing. The characters felt like my own family.

If you only read one book this month, or even year, read this one. It is utterly unique in a way that is difficult to explain, but essentially it mixes fantasy and science fiction in a manner that just WORKS. To be fair, the first part of the book is a slow burn, but it is giving you both backstory and important clues that you have to piece together to understand *why* the characters do what they do later on. The author even quotes from a book written by a minor character, and all of the footnotes can be found at the end. Everything is explained in even greater detail there.

You might be wondering how someone can craft a beautiful world where mathematicians, fae, religious sycophants and superheroes collide, and all I can say is:

READ THIS BOOK.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and DAW for the advance copy. I am writing this review entirely voluntarily.

This took me a minute to get into, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. I am obsessed with the magic system based on prime numbers and how the fae in this world aren’t quite like your usual fantasy fae. This world is a semi-futuristic Earth that is this way because of the fact that on one autumnal equinox, everyone who died became a fae creature. It is easy to get sucked into the political intrigue between the fencers, the ones who have the prime number based powers and protect the world from fae, governments, and a weird religion that is built around worshipping the fae queen.

This story will take you to some unexpected places and leave you lost in your feelings.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

In 1987, I was seven years old, eating burritos and rocking out to the movie The Chipmunk Adventure. In Joshua Phillip Johnson’s alternate history, 1987 played out very differently. In this world, people who died on the autumn equinox didn’t stay dead. Instead, they became fae—inhuman and dangerous beings who maim and kill anyone standing between them and the protected areas of the world known as Harbors.

The story is set in the present day and follows Evangeline and Calidore, a married couple who serve as fencers in the Midwest Harbor. Fencers are essentially government-sanctioned superheroes, granted unique powers through prime number tattoos that mysteriously appear on their skin. The smaller the prime number, the greater the power. Evangeline and Calidore juggle the looming threat of the equinox with the recent death of Cal’s father, the challenges of raising their nearly seven-year-old daughter Winnie, the rise of a cult-like, Fae-worshiping religion called the Church of Always Giving, and the politics of defending a world that doesn’t fully understand the danger they face. Public opinion is shifting, with many believing fencer funding could be better spent elsewhere.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Bloodless Queen. The fencer powers were original and memorable—not your standard superhero fare. I also appreciated the alternate history elements, particularly the excerpts from in-world history books. Instead of skipping over them like I sometimes do in other books, I found myself looking forward to each excerpt.

The narrative is told in third person but focuses primarily on Evangeline and Calidore. I liked both characters, though I especially connected with Calidore—probably because I’m a book nerd too. Their love and devotion to each other and their daughter was touching, even if it occasionally felt a little over the top. The pacing started off slow for me, but once the story picked up, I was hooked. By the time the climax arrived, I found myself missing the earlier, quieter moments I initially thought were too slow.

I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy. While there are sci-fi elements, the story leans more into the fantasy genre. Be aware that grief and death are central themes. Calidore’s struggle with his father’s death is a key emotional thread, and the Church of Always Giving glorifies death and suicide. The fae are terrifying, and those who die on the equinox become one of them. This book doesn’t shy away from emotional weight, so go in prepared.

One last (mild) spoiler: the dog lives.

Many thanks to NetGalley and DAW Books for the ARC. This review reflects my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and DAW for sending this ARC. This review is voluntary; all opinions are my own.

For a book not actually that long, The Bloodless Queen took me longer to read than I would have predicted. I have a few theories. It certainly wasn’t for lack of interest - the premise hooked me right from the beginning and I enjoyed every second of the read. It did boast an impressive vocabulary that occasionally I had to look up, and I also liked to Google the poems referenced to refresh my memory on their thematic offerings. But I think what really slowed me down was how intelligent this work was and, relatedly, my desire to savour it.

Now, that being said, there were several points where I had to stop reading and go do something else just to give myself a little breathing room. I am, admittedly, a bit of a wimp, and there was one scene in particular where the fae in the book - what I would compare to Lovecraftian or Eldritch-style horrors if I were slightly more knowledgeable in that realm - freaked me out so badly I had to distract myself with other things for a few hours. Once my heart rate calmed down again, however, I dove headfirst right back into the book because I couldn’t stand not knowing what happened next.

The blurb describes The Bloodless Queen as “part ecological Orpheus and Eurydice myth and part gothic thriller” and I have to admit, once I finally realized where the Orpheus and Eurydice comparison was coming from, I had a deep, visceral reaction (aka I started swearing up a storm). And still, the book had its hooks dug so firmly into me, I couldn’t stop reading by that point even if I’d wanted to.

I just can’t get over how beautiful and smart the writing in this book is. It intelligently blends the fantasy, sci-fi, and gothic genres; draws poignantly from folklore, mythology, and poetry for worldbuilding and thematic contexts; and assuredly uses the writer’s craft to evoke imagery and emotion, build tension, and get your heart pounding. My favourite writing choice was the run-on sentence that lasted several pages, masterfully heightening the anxiety, panic, and dread of the scene.

I think any fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, or gothic horror fan would greatly enjoy this book. I know it’s going to be stalking the back of my mind for a long while, that’s for sure. It’s a must-read!

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the digital ARC for “The Bloodless Queen” by Joshua Phillip Johnson.

Starting at the beginning intro chapter, I did appreciate that faeries were not being romanticised as I’ve been seeing with more recent fantasy novels.
I really loved getting a glimpse into the family dynamic in some of the chapters. The treasure hunt with clues for Winnie reminded me of the treasure hunts with clues my parents would arrange for me when I was little. Even the pizza and game nights were incredibly wholesome. These little moments give you a glimpse of life outside of working for the government organisation. The family bond did play a huge role.

This book had such a slow start. Over 50% of the book was a glimpse into the behind the scenes of the government program, and not what I was expecting. At around the 60% mark things finally started happening once the equinox occurred, and we got a little bit of action with the organisation against the fae. For a book that's tagged sci-fi/fantasy/horror I felt kind of let down. It was more of a fantasy that touched on loss and grief, nothing in here felt like horror to me.

Side note: I felt like the book contained a lot of filler, and was unnecessarily descriptive at times. Structurally I also noticed quite a few paragraphs (9+ lines) that were just one sentence connected by commas. This exhausted me as a reader.

I enjoyed the last 40% of the book, and any of the bits with Cal, Evangeline, Winnie, and Tennyson… but the majority of it just wasn’t for me.

3/5

The opening scene of The Bloodless Queen is electric, full of fun action in a world wondrously and horrifyingly strange. Frustratingly, it quickly becomes lost in details.

Led by Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s, the entire world set aside nature preserves, now known as Harbors. These became the domain of monstrous Fae, and each autumnal equinox everyone that dies transforms into a Fae, wreaking havoc before they join their brethren in the harbors. Fencers, people granted magical powers at the same time the Harbors came into existence, are the only people who can stop them.

It's an ideal premise for a thrilling, fast-paced plot. The Bloodless Queen contains this plot, but so much of it is told rather than shown. Every fantasy book needs to provide world-building and backstory to propel itself forward. The Bloodless Queen goes overboard, stopping so frequently mid-scene to recount lore or personal and important events that the scenes become vehicles for information rather than the backstory supporting the action. It’s understandable, the world is creative and carefully thought-out, but with so little time spent in the moment, the novel struggles to maintain momentum.

For me, the problem was driven home with the reveal of the conspiracy at the novel’s center. There is nothing wrong with the conspiracy itself, it’s clever. However, the protagonists haven’t actively uncovered much of it, simply lacking key connecting details to put it all together. Instead, many clues come in info-dumps or descriptions of scenes elsewhere, with a few only being mentioned with the reveal itself. While still satisfying, the reveal isn’t nearly as effective as it could be.

The Bloodless Queen is better as it goes along with less details to fill in, the writing expertly and evocatively capturing the horrible strangeness of the Fae (even if it can sometimes be repetitive). The ending, with the plot to the fore, is moving. However, I would hesitate to recommend the novel to anyone other than those readers who are big fans of world-building.

The Bloodless Queen did an amazing job blending fantasy elements into a world that feels familiar and real. I’ve never read from this author before, and I was very impressed with how well the world was set up early in the story. There is a bit of a slow point through the middle, however I feel this still ended up delivering on expectations as well as surprising me to warrant rounding up to 5 stars.

Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars, rounded up because I love Joshua Philip Johnsons creative approach to the fantasy genre and the unique worlds he crafts.

"The truth, made obvious every equinox, was that the fae were neither sages nor children, neither holy mother nor holy father. They were nothing human and every poetic metaphor and comparison that attempted to slot them into some stratum of human experience misunderstood the fae at grave risk."

What I loved:
In a landscape saturated with generic fantasy, I love how this author manages to take familiar concepts and turn them into the truly fantastical. His concepts and worlds are truly some of the coolest I’ve read recently: I still randomly think about his world where magical ships sail an ocean made of prairie grass (with an entirely different ecosystem on the ground level, completely hostile to the humans!), and it’s been 4 years since I’ve read that book!
The Bloodless Queen lives up to that same level of creativity. The world is vivid, the magic-system unique and the lore in-depth. It strikes the perfect balance between familiar and fantastical to transport you into its world, without overwhelming the reader.
I’ve seen people critique Johnson’s take on “fae”, saying these have nothing to do with the fae from our worlds folklore, and he should’ve picked a different name for his creatures. I highly disagree and actually think this take is more lore-accurate than your average romantasy… Fae have always been a representation of “the strange”. They’ve always been a mix of ethereal, uncanny and alien. Johnsons interpretation of them as humans morphed into almost Lovecraftian, incomprehensible creatures feels far more true to that spirit than your average handsomely brooding love interest…
This uncanny, ungraspable quality to the fae and their influence translates into some very effective horror elements that’s always particularly effective on me.
While in parts this is a high-fantasy story of fae, people with superhero-like abilities and wild and untamable landscapes, at its core is a very human base. Our protagonists Cal and Evangeline carry the story, and their devotion to their family adds a deeper layer of emotional weight to the events that follow.
I didn’t just enjoy this book whilst I was reading it, but I feel like I will be chewing on its world and concepts for a while to come.

What I didn’t love:
Having read all three of this author’s published works, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern of feeling like his pacing could do with a bit more tweaking. Specifically, I think Johnson struggles with the infamous “second-act-sag” in his three-act structure. There’s a very noticeable drop in pacing between the 30% and 70%-mark, where the novel spends a lot of time developing backstories and lore without actually progressing the main plot. On the one hand, I understand why this was necessary, as the emotional ramifications of the later events just wouldn’t have had the same impact without it. On the other hand, I think this part simply was too long, and could’ve achieved the same effect with less repetition.
To give a spoiler free concrete example: the equinox functions as the story’s midpoint break. It signals the end of the “fun and games” and turns the story in a direction that’s more personal to the characters. Yet it doesn't happen at the “midpoint”, but at the 70% mark… For all that time, we’re waiting and treading water, and I fear that some readers will DNF before this point, which is an absolute shame.

Many thanks to DAW Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

That ending was so despicable dude.

On a (?)lighter(?) note, I LOVED THIS!! The worldbuilding was amazing, and Johnson's writing was so descriptive and it felt really... fluid? Idk how to describe it correctly but it felt like I was just flowing along with the story.
The characters were very well developed, though I do feel the first half of the story lagged because of the amount of character-building that was happening. I promise I cared about Evangeline and Cal (and ofc Winnie!!) from like at most page 20. However, it wasn't entirely a deal-breaker because I liked living in their heads for a long while, I just also think maybe the while was a bit too long lol.
Now let's discuss the worldbuilding! I thought it was really well done! Everything had a reason and it was clear Johnson thought about all the implications and impacts that the fae and the Harbours would have on the real world (i.e. religions, surveillance, protests, etc.) and he definitely has a good grasp of how people/society would react to this sort of thing.
I loved the undercurrent of horror that was in this because I felt very unsettled throughout the novel, and after about the 60% mark (aka the start of the Equinox) I absolutely could not put it down despite my feelings. And I was obviously very attached because after a certain phone call my stomach actually dropped. Like I'm not joking. The dread that crept in was wild.
The ending.... we must discuss it unfortunately. I'd rather not think about it, but I do understand why the choice was made, it was just heartbreaking! I thought I knew what was going to happen but I was horribly wrong :(
Overall I absolutely loved this book, though I felt a bit too much time was spent on character-building when the author could have (and should have!) trusted that we already loved the characters, and I do think a couple parts of the lore could have been explained further.

3.25*
Thank you to the author and publisher who gave me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What I liked: The concept is extremely inventive. I thought the themes of religious battles, government conspiracies, and the otherworldliness of the fae were so great. The magic system was unique and original. You can also really tell this author loves language and the power of the written word, both in the prose and in the way he describes Cal's relationship with reading books and poetry.

What I felt had room for improvement: I thought we would get more of a purpose behind the fae and the Queen; more substance from the Arthur Miracle character, and why the Sylvans want to become fae. The book spends so much time describing Cal's grief and anxiety, to the point where it gets redundant, but we still don't know some details I thought were key, like why does all the action happen on the equinox? What's the titular Queen's story? What exactly happened to Winnie; does she have memories of her time as a faery? For that matter, how did the Riparian come to be and what's like, his deal?

I thought the first 3/4 had a slow start after a banger of an intro, a very compelling escalation of the action on the night of the equinox, and then I was PRIMED (haha, get it?) for the conclusion to be sublime, and it just...fell flat to me. Overall I still liked the story, and will check out more by this author.

The Bloodless Queen wasn’t for me. I appreciated the ambition and eerie atmosphere, but the pacing dragged and the worldbuilding, while inventive, felt overwhelming at times. I found it hard to connect with the characters or stay invested in the story’s many layers of lore.

It all started with a book, The Last Thylacine. It is said that the book would destroy modern civilization. The world as we know it has changed drastically. There are people called fencers who keep humans and fae separate in their own Harbours. Every year on the fall equinox, anyone who dies will become Fae. Some believe it is a gift to be chosen by the mythical Bloodless Queen, others not so much. The fencers must protect human kind, but there is always a cost.

The Bloodless Queen is full of intrigue, shady government officials, magic, fae, religion, and politics, which makes this book so delightful. It touches on so many topics that the readers can connect with and its complex characters. The world building is very precise and deep. I enjoyed it a lot, I hope we get another book where we learn more about the Queen and her origin.

Thank you, Netgalley and DAW, for this ebook-Arc. All opinions are entirely my own.

I enjoyed this quite a lot. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I was a little worried that the premise of this book would not go as hard as it seemed like it would, but I was not disappointed. Johnson does a really good job of making the fae seem Lovecraftian (or at least Lovecraftian-adjacent). The fencers feel the same; the powers in theory are interesting, even if I think that the execution could have been a little better. I do want to know if there are transgender implications around true names. The lore around the Sylvans was really fun too. This was likely not the point, but I was compelled by their worship spaces and how they were an insane combination of Mormonism and Scientology. I fucked with it. I similarly fucked with ex-English major Calidore; that is some shit I would do.

On a more negative note, the pacing felt a little off. The ebook that I read was 370 pages, and 150 of those pages were somewhat cloying set-up to the thriller bits. I am not a parent, and maybe this hits differently if you are a parent, but after awhile, I just didn't care. I already cared if Winnie lived or died, I didn't need this many scenes to establish that their family is happy, especially when I'm begging for the action stuff they're talking about doing to happen. This book also gets so weird about the government to the point where I find it a little camp. I'm simply not sure if I believe that in the United States of America everyone was cool with this level of transparent government interference in people's lives. Surely there are some weirdos who have formed a militia to wage war on the fae with AR-15s from their mountain compound.

Anyway, good book, the power of love always gets me.

The Bloodless Queen is a beautifully written and eerie fantasy that really stuck with me. Joshua Philip Johnson has created a dark, atmospheric world that feels both fresh and unsettling. The story is full of tension and quiet dread, and I found myself totally immersed in the setting and the strange, haunting tone. Something in the pace didn't work for me at 100%, but it's a minor flaw and overall I did not mind it, because the mood is consistent and 100% DAW style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
To be honest, this story was not for me. I felt that the story was a bit all over the place and I just didn’t enjoy this characters.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

The Bloodless Queen by Joshua Phillip Johnson is a third person multi-POV alternative history contemporary fantasy. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, his wife was given a book on the Faerie Queen that changed the course of history, creating Harbors where half the earth would be returned to nature. Cal and Evangeline are a married couple who are also fencers, keeping an eye on the Harbor borders while raising their daughter Winnie. But Winnie might be in a danger they could have never predicted.

There are strong themes of religion and traditional ideas of fairies in the book. The Harbors latch onto names and fencers actually not only take new names but there are entire organizations devoted to wipe the memory of a fencer’s true name from everyone who has ever heard it. Only the fencer is incapable of forgetting. Cal and Evangeline gave each other their real names as wedding presents but don’t use them because of the danger it poses for them to do so. The religion aspect comes from a faith that rose up in response to the Harbors called the Sylvans and they worship the Faerie Queen. While Cal and Evangeline believe something is happening in the Harbors, they do not believe the Queen is anything more than a myth.

This moves at a fairly slow pace as it explores the world and the conspiracies as fully as possible. There are excerpts after each chapter that add even more texture to the world and story, with many of them having been written in an academic paper in 2027. I don’t know if this is necessarily world-driven like some other books I’ve read are or if the book just takes a more explorational direction that is also very deep in the character POVs and explores their relationships to the world.

I would recommend this to readers who love complex worldbuilding and fans of alternative history fantasy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars!

The bloodless queen was by far the most interesting thing I’ve read in a long time. This book takes a lot of classic folklore of the fae (sharp teeth, bargains, true names being used to control you), combines it with a zombie like outbreak and creates a dystopian world that is genuinely sinister and terrifying.

What I loved in particular:
- I liked the contrast between Cal and Evangeline’s work as superhero-like fencers with their calm home life with Winne, it made it all the more devastating when that was disrupted.
- I liked the use of Senga’s PhD thesis as a tool for world building. It really helped to understand the complex world even if things like Cal’s grandmothers reaction at his father’s funeral didn’t click for me until several chapters later.

This book made me pretty emotional, it made me grateful for my family and heartbroken for some of the characters. I was left with a load of questions though, in particular about how fencers are chosen and how their primacies work. I hope the author revisits this at some point to tell us more of the background story.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was really enjoying the book until a character was (randomly and irrelevantly) mentioned to be Israeli. Considering this character was not super important for the plot and that her nationality didn't even need to be mentioned (and for that nationality to be none other than Israeli), this feels incredibly intentional. In our current political climate, where the Palestinian people are being murdered and bombed relentlessly in cold blood at the hands of zionist colonizers, and after suffering from an ongoing occupation for the last 75+ years, to go out of your way as an author to not only mention a character's nationality (when it is, quite frankly, irrelevant) but also to make them Israeli, is very clearly serving an agenda I do not support at all.
As someone who stands against genocide and zionism, I decided to not finish reading the book and thus I will refrain from writing a "proper" review.

I cried.

I'm probably not going to be able to explain why reading this book is so important. I loved everything about it, yeah it was slow paced and i'm not used to it but it was worth it, every single detail of this world and its quirks and strangeness was beautiful, it made me jump right in even if i was going to die (probably). Calidore and Evangeline are the most wonderful couple I've read in a while, so understanding, and caring, you could feel the way they loved the other, and their daughter Winnie, deeply and I understood why, and even if it was an established relationship they would still grow. I'm literally short of words to describe why i loved them so much, all three of them really.

Now, the world building was exquisite in this one, I could feel myself in there, all the history and the hows and whys being always investigated, the world reacting like it would in this circumstances, the religion, the government, etc. I needed so much more time in there, I hoped to know everything about it; what the Survivre et Vivre's book said, where to the primes come from, what happened to Arthur after he left the harbor, the list could go for hours. My actual rating is 4,5 rounded up, and this is because i made the mistake of searching for the book description on other site and there was a spoiler, so i spent the entire book up to 75% more or less waiting for it to happen and it ruined my experience a little, so i would check the description book on Fable. Also, the ending broke me.

This book is packed with history, facts, and an incredibly detailed timeline. There is so much detail that is crucial to the story that the pacing can be a bit longer than usual. But, that helps answer any potential questions later in the book.