To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

To Kill A Kingdom
Alexandra Christo
Pages 358
Rating ★★★★

This dark YA fantasy is the catchy and compelling debut novel of Alexandra Christo. (I cannot wait for what Christo will have in store for us in the future!) It is a retelling of the little mermaid but as a contrast, the girl is not a mermaid damsel but a siren “monster” and she shares the lead with a human prince.

This story follows the siren princess of Keto, Lira. Lira has seventeen human hearts in her bedroom. Hearts she has clawed from seventeen princes’ chests. One from each year, she has been alive. “In one move I plunge my fist into the prince’s chest and pull out his heart.” But just before her eighteenth birthday Lira defies her mother, the Siren Queen, and as a punishment, Lira loses her siren song and is transformed into a human. She now has to take the heart of prince Elian, a famous siren killer, without her siren abilities.  
Elian is the heir to the throne of Midas but prefers to be captain of his ship, the Saad, where he and his crew hunt and kill sirens.“Technically, I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.” One day Elian and his crew discover a girl drowning in the ocean. She speaks the tongue of sirens but she also promises to help Elian destroy the sirens for good.

As I have already mentioned To Kill A Kingdom has two main characters and two protagonists; Lira and Elian. And I really liked this, it worked really well! To read this story through both Lira’s and Elian’s eyes were really enjoyable. Every time the point of view changed I got really excited to see what would happen next with the character and to know them even better.
Due to these point of views, I didn’t take a someone’s part. I was rooting for both characters evenly. And of course, I shipped Lira and Elian from the beginning (forever the romantic)! And how could I take a stand with just one of them? They were both killers, both good and bad. There wasn’t an obvious good or bad guy (well, in the end, the Sea Queen was the obvious bad guy, but never mind). For me, this complexity was one of the things that made this book special and different.

I loved Lira she was an untraditionally ani-heroine. She was both a princess and a “sea-monster”. She does not marry any prince – she kills them, ripping out their hearts while they are still breathing. Among the humans, she is known as the Prince’s Bane. They fear her and I think that was quite cool! Generally, she was a badass; brutal and straightforward – qualities which are nice and unlikely to see in a heroine.

Elian was also really cool. He seemed loyal and independent, qualities I worshipped. Elian placed greater importance on loyalty and friendship than power, which I also found refreshing and cool. I also loved Elian’s relationship with his crew on the Saad. The crew and his close friends were really cool and fun. Particularly the girl Madrid (she too was badass and she had a feministic side which was inspiring and contemporary) but especially Kye was entertaining. His way of protecting Elian and how he so strongly was against Lira at the begging, but later accepted her, was a fun and a great development.

One of my favourite parts of the story is in fact when Lira prooves her worth, and becomes a part of the crew. But the best was the constant teasing comments between Lira and Elian. I found them really cute and funny. However the romance was a very slow build and there was not that much of it FYI, but it was there and I loved it.

I have tried to think of things that I did not like but could not come up with anything really. If I should say something, it should be that there could have been a bit more action in the middle of the book. But then at the end, you get plenty of action 😉

Lastly, I hope this book continues to be a stand-alone. With so many fantasy series nowadays it is nice for a change!

Nicoline <3

Have you read To Kill a Kingdom? What were your thoughts? What is your opinion on retellings do you prefer them or not?