Book Review: The Pale Queen by Ethan M. Aldridge
September 26, 2025
We follow the story of a young woman named Agatha. who has always dreamed of life outside of her little valley town, but has no way of getting out and seeing the world. Instead, she learns what she can from the stars; studying their patterns and rotations. To make money for her family, she tutors a young boy in a wealthy family in the valley, the Garcias. While the young boy does not seem to care much about being tutored, she makes learning fun and playful. One day, after getting harassed by the shop boy, she stumbles her way home and accidentally steps on a nest filled with treasures, and a mysterious woman, with golden eyes, appears out of nowhere, saying she now owes her a favor. Agatha agrees, she stepped on, what this lady is calling, one of her homes, so it is only polite to repay her in some way. To repay her, Agatha must come to her at midnight. She wraps a witches stone around her wrist and leaves as instantly as she arrived. That night at midnight, the witches stone forces her out of bed and into the forest near her home that is said to be quite dangerous at night. The Lady reveals many magical things to Agatha, and she begins to feel like things aren’t so bad here in the valley, but when Mr. Garcia’s niece comes into town, and starts taking her attention away from The Lady, she gets jealous and her facade starts to crumble. Is this magical world as wonderful as it seems?
This story was filled with folklore and fantasy, and was a delightful read. I will say, I do feel like there are some plot holes, and I do feel like it could have been twice as long and I would have been happier with the amount of information. This is a bit of a spoiler so proceed with caution, at the beginning of the book, Agatha has some higher education pamphlets on her desk and her parents tell her that, not only can they not afford to send her to higher education, they need her there. Then, at the end, when someone is willing to help her with her payment to the higher education, they suddenly are able to do everything on their own without her help. Also, the romance feels a little rushed. Not that I haven’t felt like that in a lot of the books I have read this year, but this one felt rather rushed. I will say, though, I loved the illustrations - the art style was very brushy and organic, which I really love. I also really enjoyed the story, I just felt like there needed to be more of it.
Overall I would suggest it, just expect to feel like the end was rushed and not all the ends tied up.
