How do you know if you’re the hero or the villain of your story? Sigourney Rose certainly sees herself as the hero in Kacen Callender’s adult fantasy debut Queen of the Conquered, but by the end of the novel we’re not quite so sure. Remember this book? It was one of the ones I highlighted back in October in my Slytherin Season post about books with snaky covers and resourceful, ambitious protagonists. Well, Queen of the Conquered certainly delivered on that front.
Ever since Sigourney’s mother and siblings were brutally murdered by a coalition of colonizer families, her only goal has been revenge. As a dark-skinned islander, she knows she will never be fully accepted by the light-skinned Fjern no matter how much wealth and power she amasses, but if she can get the king to name her his heir, she can free her people and avenge her family. Luckily, she has a particularly powerful Craft that can help her with this goal: the ability to read and control minds. Using her Craft, Sigourney manipulates her way into an advantageous marriage and an invitation to the king’s island for the Storm Season. But her plans begin to fall apart when she realizes that the king may not be who he seems and that some unknown force is killing off her rivals to the throne. As Sigourney desperately struggles to hold onto her chance for power and victory, she begins to lose sight of what she had been fighting for in the first place.
The setting of Queen of the Conquered provides an excellent Gothic backdrop to this particularly dark tale. The sweltering, oppressive heat combined with the horrors of plantation slavery and the themes of hidden corruption and decay are reminiscent of Southern Gothic, though geographically the story is not set in the American South. Instead, Callender’s fictitious islands of Hans Lollik are clear analogs for the Danish West Indies. Sigourney belongs to the group of black indigenous islanders who have been enslaved by light-skinned colonizers from far off northern lands. But as the ruling kongelig parade about in their white dresses and sip too-hot lemongrass tea, it soon becomes clear that the society they’ve built is (both literally and metaphorically) rotting from the inside out. The book at times reads like a horror story as Sigourney deals with unsettling nightmares, creepy decaying mansions, and the very real threat of violence. But at its heart, the true horror of the story is slavery and the racist legacy of colonialism.
Sigourney is a particularly interesting protagonist to choose for this story. She is the very definition of an unreliable narrator, guilty of both lying to herself and misinterpreting the events around her. You would think the ability to read minds would make Sigourney difficult to deceive, but instead it only makes her more confident in her flawed perceptions. And she is most flawed in her perception of herself. Sigourney is morally ambiguous, exceedingly ambitious, and willing to manipulate and scheme her way to power—basically, the embodiment of every Slytherin trait. Other characters call her the “black snake” (as referenced on the cover), for her cunning social climbing. But while she plays the games of the colonizers, Sigourney risks becoming just as bad as them. Do the ends really justify the means? And will Sigourney actually be able to free her people?—Does she even want to? As Sigourney struggles with these questions, it becomes clear that she may not quite be the hero in this tale.
Curious to see how it all shakes out? You can find Queen of the Conquered on shelves now at your local retailer, or purchase it online and support The Gothic Library by clicking this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Let me know what you think of it in the comments!