Book Review: Queen B by Juno Dawson

‘Queen B’ by Juno Dawson was released in 2024. It is a prequel novella which predates the events of Dawson’s ‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ series, which is due to conclude with the final book, ‘Human Rites’ due to come out in 2025.

This book was a surprise to me and various other fans of Dawson’s HMRC series, as many were expecting the 2024 book release to be the trilogy’s conclusion, myself included. Although I had been hoping to see this story finally come to an end, I wasn’t going to turn my nose up at the story of Anne Boleyn, the figurehead of the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven organisation readers knew from the main series.

This novella followed the immediate fallout of Boleyn’s execution at the Tower of London in 1536. The story, like the rest of the series, followed a split-narrative style, and had two timelines, not unlike the formatting of Dawson’s previous book in the series, ‘The Shadow Cabinet’, which was released in 2023.

This time, the story explored the heartbreak over Boleyn’s execution from the point of view of two witches in the original Royal Coven, Lady Grace Fairfax and Lady Cecilia De La Torre, from Spain. While both women were witches that ran in Boleyn’s inner circle, and both fell in love with women, they couldn’t be more different – and yet – so similar.

This story was so evocative; it explored themes of fertility, motherhood, kinship, and what it means to wield power, in both a tangible magical sense and in the way that mattered at the time – charisma and choosing your battles. Being liked was half of the battle among aristocrats, and using your status to your advantage was another fight entirely, especially in the tumultuous court of King Henry VIII.

This book cast a critical gaze onto the rampant misogyny that is considered part of history, and how the way women were perceived by men could protect them, or be their cross to bear. For example, Lady Grace Fairfax was considered exceptionally pretty, with white blonde hair and despite being quiet and keeping her head down, was able to find her feet in court. Meanwhile, Agnes Drury is described to appear like a witch, with an unpleasant face and broken nose. Feeding into the stereotype of a witch was like having a target on your back amidst the witch trials.

I found the context of the dawning of witch trials in a world where there was a witching community was incredibly poignant, it demonstrated the sheer scope of scapegoating, while also demonstrating the lengths that people would be willing to go to for those they loved, and the safety of their covens. It was a much-needed indicator of the historic value of the institution that is struggling in the current canonical timeline. It was enlightening to witness the blood that formed the foundation of the HMRC system that readers see in the main story. I really enjoyed it!

It was a great read, and despite my initial dismay that the final book in the original HMRC trilogy had been postponed, and we were getting a novella instead, any reservations I felt were quashed by the quality of Dawson’s evocative, and emotive storytelling. If anything, getting another book to accompany the series just made me more eager for the last one to come out!