Holy gorram gosh-darnit. Oh boy. This was glorious. Heavenly, sexy, badass, emotional glory. Kick-ass and smart and I’m gonna use the word sexy again, like designers use it in that annoying way to objectify an already object existing as an object. Rat Queens is good.
Admittedly, I did not think Rat Queens was something I would enjoy – it was only after a trusted recommendation that I gave it a second look. Even then the title “Sass and Sorcery” seemed crude and try-hard. Furthermore a lot of the reviews focused on the fact that the four main characters are all women. I was afraid it would be just another “Strong female character”-trope where the woman was strong like a man, cursed like a man and did everything a man does, but with sexy exposed sexy boobs-sex.
Instead I received this glory of a perversion, a fun story with strong women who love cursing, fighting and sex, unapologetically. And while this might, on paper, sound like the strong female character to a tee, it just. wasn’t. Betty, Hannah, Dee and Violet felt like real people with universal story arcs of love, family, identity and friendships. And sure, they are sexy, but they are sexy in an aspirational way. They are real-sexy.
It’s an easy story to jump into, too. The universe is loosely based on role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, but even just a pop-culture cursory knowledge is sufficient to enjoy the jokes and the battles. The book starts out with a seemingly mundane quest. Betty the stealthy midget, Hannah the elven spell-caster, Dee the healer-lady and Violet the sword-wielding dwarf accept the quest. But as the quest start they quickly realize something is very, very wrong…
And then it gets violent, it gets quippy, it gets complicated, fun and kick-ass. To say more would spoil the pleasure of the book. You should read it, I know I can’t wait to read it again.
Read more of my stuff over at ladyscribble.com!