Book Review: ‘Queen of Faces’ Serves Magical Realness

Macmillan

“A mage can always surprise you. Make sure you’re the surprising one.”

Queen of Faces centers on Annabelle Gage, a young woman in the body of a man serving a mob boss in their home. After playing a mind trick on her boss’s guests during dinner, Annabelle is thrown, literally, into a world of body-stealing heists, serving at a magical school, and finding family in a mercenary group for the head mage at the magical academy called Paragon.

This beautiful story is a debut by trans author Petra Lord. She crafted a unique world with memorable characters and a compelling plot. The main character, Anabelle Gage (or Ana), was smart throughout the story and always thinking two steps ahead, especially with that ending. Girl. Her critical thinking constantly improved as she learned new magical abilities. My favorite character is Ori, a mentor at Paragon who stood up for Ana against someone who will definitely be the big bad in book 2, which was also my favorite scene in the story. Seriously, Ori is a real one.

The magical system is amazing because it’s powerful, mind-bending, and complex. But it’s not just magical beams shooting from your hands—It’s body swapping. While it’s not magic in this world technically, as there are some spells related to it, it’s still a part of the world and in tandem with the magic. One can swap bodies with someone as a romantic gesture, or swap bodies because they want to portray themself as them in a malicious way. It plays such a significant part in the story, and the author does a brilliant job of tying it in with all the characters, emotionally and physically, especially with that ending. Y’all, that ending was that ending.

The plot had me seated from start to finish, especially with the audiobook narrators. Dylan Reilly Fitzpatrick, E.A. Castillo, and Nicky Endres did a phenomenal job portraying the main, side, and background characters. From the petrified yet hopeful voice of Anabelle Gage to the annoyed yet loyal nature of Weston Brown, I have no complaints about the actors’ performance. Stunning. Absolutely stunning.

I do, however, have two complaints: the lack of trigger warnings and justice for my favorite character. At the beginning of the book, as well as the audiobook narration, there is a list of trigger warnings, which is helpful for those unable to look up the trigger warnings themselves. The real issue comes with the phrase “and more” after listing some of the warnings. “And more” doesn’t list all the trigger warnings of the book, and when exploring the text, the reader might find something triggering that wasn’t listed or warned about in the beginning. I hope Macmillan revisits this in the second book.

Another thing that bothered me was justice for my favorite character, Ori. While I won’t spoil what she does in the story, her character unfortunately starts so strong in the beginning, with my favorite scene, then flattens by the end. By then, she has few lines of dialogue and has the personality of wet cardboard. Again, I hope there is more development in Book 2 because this character is so important among all the other characters. So important. Book 2, please rejuvenate this queen with character development and galaxy makeup.

Despite my previous two reservations, I want to end on a positive note because I love this story so much. One thing Lord does extremely well is how she handles twists. They come out of nowhere, stay with the characters, and aren’t immediately forgotten. In fact, these twists continue to manifest and dwell in their minds as the story progresses, especially with what happened to Kaplan, a loving side character who aspires to be a baker. We love an iconic baker! Annabelle Gage, in particular, always strives to be better and finds ways to overcome any obstacle in front of her and her team. She wants to be better not only for herself, but also for those around her. Her values never waver; in fact, these twists empower them to aid her teammates and aspirations for a better world.

This is a story of how good is actually bad and bad is actually good. If you enjoy stories such as Wicked, you will eat this story up as I did!

Queen of Faces releases February 3, which is in two weeks, and I already preordered my copy. If you have been craving a story with a unique magic system, complex character dynamics, and character relationships that have you on the edge of your seat, then you need to pick this book up. I don’t make up the rules.