Author: Anna Bright
Publisher: Harper Teen
Date published: 4th June 2019
Genre: Fiction, young adult, retellings, fantasy, romance
Pages: 429
Rating: 3/5
Note: This review contains mild spoilers.
Selah has waited her whole life for a happily ever after.
As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match, a partner who will help secure the future of her people. Now that day has finally come.
But when the night of Selah's engagement ends in an excruciatingly public rejection, her stepmother proposes the unthinkable: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic, where a series of potential suitors awaits—and if she doesn’t come home engaged, she shouldn’t come home at all.
From English castle gardens to the fjords of Norge, and even beyond borders of the dreaded Imperiya Yotne, Selah’s quest will be the journey of a lifetime. But as she searches for her future husband, she realizes that her stepmother’s schemes aren’t the only secrets hiding belowdecks… and the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending.
As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match, a partner who will help secure the future of her people. Now that day has finally come.
But when the night of Selah's engagement ends in an excruciatingly public rejection, her stepmother proposes the unthinkable: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic, where a series of potential suitors awaits—and if she doesn’t come home engaged, she shouldn’t come home at all.
From English castle gardens to the fjords of Norge, and even beyond borders of the dreaded Imperiya Yotne, Selah’s quest will be the journey of a lifetime. But as she searches for her future husband, she realizes that her stepmother’s schemes aren’t the only secrets hiding belowdecks… and the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending.
- From Goodreads.
The concept of The Beholder certainly had good potential. The alternative history setting was intriguing, but although some of the place names were the same and other countries had hints as to which countries they would be in our world, there were times when it felt confusing and it would have been nice to have a map at the front of the book to help situate myself in the story. It also could have been made clearer as to why some parts of the world and story seemed quite modern (for example Selah's school experiences and the uses of modern technology like radios and radio towers), while others seemed to be quite far in the past (like the ships and other transport, and the structure of some of the societies and cultures), and although there were some mentions of why it was this way, a little more explanation could have been useful and would have helped me understand the world more.
The pacing of the story seemed a little strange, even though the book basically set out what was going to happen, I still did not feel sure what the plot was leading up to. Her time with the princes was sweet and perhaps gave the chance for her character to develop a little but it did not feel enough for that time to be worthwhile. Especially since there seemed to be some hints that she would not end up with any of them no matter what happened.
On a related note, there seemed to be hints that Captain Lang is the true love interest, and if that is the case I think there could have been more groundwork laid for that potential relationship. He spent most of the book disappearing to mysterious places and whispering suspiciously with strangers. There were a couple of small moments between Selah and Lang, and since it is a series so there could be time to develop their relationship. As well as that, she was experiencing feelings for other characters at the time, but I think they needed a few more moments that lead to them meaning more to each other.
I also think Selah would have confronted Lang earlier than she did about the secrets he had been keeping and what everyone on the ship had been up to. It was so obvious something was going on and she did have other things to worry about too, but as the book kept going on it felt more and more ridiculous that she did not try to get involved and find out what was happening. She only confronted Lang at the very end of the book and while it made for a good climax, I still felt it should have happened earlier in the book.
There were other little things about Selah that kept coming up and frustrating me. Overall she was a sweet, kindhearted girl that I could root for, but there were some things that stopped me really loving her. I appreciated that she liked to go out and help the people of her country work, and I understood her frustration with Perrault, but I felt that with a role like the one she had as seneschal-elect she would, or should, understand that she had to go through lessons on more theoretical things and not just do all the practical jobs without going to any of the lessons she needed to. At the end she did seem to value Perrault a little more and perhaps had begun to learn a little more about why her political education was also important, and it is good that she had that character development. However there were points in the book where it became annoying that she would get angry about not knowing things and being left in the dark, while she threw away some of the opportunites actually given to her to learn. Overall, there were times when I quite liked her character, and then times when I did not understand her at all.
I am not sure yet whether I will pick up the next book. I am curious to see what will happen next in the story, but I am not sure if I am invested enough to continue. The concept of the story is really interesting but there was something about the execution of the idea that was a little disappointing.
