Review: The Bloodless Queen - Joshua Philip Johnson

Genre: Fantasy

Published: DAW Publishing, July 2025

My Review: 4.5/5 stars, rounded up because I love Joshua Philip Johnsons creative approach to the fantasy genre and the unique worlds he crafts.

"The truth, made obvious every equinox, was that the fae were neither sages nor children, neither holy mother nor holy father. They were nothing human and every poetic metaphor and comparison that attempted to slot them into some stratum of human experience misunderstood the fae at grave risk."

The Story:

On an alternative version of our Earth, a Lovecraftian cataclysm in 1987 changed humanity forever. On a single day every year, the autumn equinox, people don’t die, but transform into something strange and unrecognizable. They call it “turning fae”; a warping into something undying, wretched and distinctly unhuman.

Large sections of the earth have been fenced off, turning them into huge nature reserves where these fae can be contained to keep the remaining human population safe. The borders of these “Harbors” are patrolled by Fencers; government-employed humans whose magical powers help them in their defense against the aggressive fae.

We follow two of such Fencers; Evangeline and Cal, as they try to balance their dangerous job with the raising of their young daughter Winnie. When the next autumn equinox approaches and tensions rise, find themselves thrust into a vast conspiracy with ultimately deeply personal consequences.  

What I loved:

In a landscape saturated with generic fantasy, I love how this author manages to take familiar concepts and turn them into the truly fantastical. His concepts and worlds are truly some of the coolest I’ve read recently: I still randomly think about his world where magical ships sail an ocean made of prairie grass (with an entirely different ecosystem on the ground level, completely hostile to the humans!), and it’s been 4 years since I’ve read that book!

The Bloodless Queen lives up to that same level of creativity. The world is vivid, the magic-system unique and the lore in-depth. It strikes the perfect balance between familiar and fantastical to transport you into its world, without overwhelming the reader.

I’ve seen people critique Johnson’s take on “fae”, saying these have nothing to do with the fae from our worlds folklore, and he should’ve picked a different name for his creatures. I highly disagree and actually think this take is more lore-accurate than your average romantasy… Fae have always been a representation of “the strange”. They’ve always been a mix of ethereal, uncanny and alien. Johnsons interpretation of them as humans morphed into almost Lovecraftian, incomprehensible creatures feels far more true to that spirit than your average handsomely brooding love interest…

This uncanny, ungraspable quality to the fae and their influence translates into some very effective horror elements that’s always particularly effective on me.

While in parts this is a high-fantasy story of fae, people with superhero-like abilities and wild and untamable landscapes, at its core is a very human base. Our protagonists Cal and Evangeline carry the story, and their devotion to their family adds a deeper layer of emotional weight to the events that follow.

I didn’t just enjoy this book whilst I was reading it, but I feel like I will be chewing on its world and concepts for a while to come.

What I didn’t love:

Having read all three of this author’s published works, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern of feeling like his pacing could do with a bit more tweaking. Specifically, I think Johnson struggles with the infamous “second-act-sag” in his three-act structure. There’s a very noticeable drop in pacing between the 30% and 70%-mark, where the novel spends a lot of time developing backstories and lore without actually progressing the main plot. On the one hand, I understand why this was necessary, as the emotional ramifications of the later events just wouldn’t have had the same impact without it. On the other hand, I think this part simply was too long, and could’ve achieved the same effect with less repetition.

To give a spoiler free concrete example: the equinox functions as the story’s midpoint break. It signals the end of the “fun and games” and turns the story in a direction that’s more personal to the characters. Yet it doesn't happen at the “midpoint”, but at the 70% mark… For all that time, we’re waiting and treading water, and I fear that some readers will DNF before this point, which is an absolute shame.

Many thanks to DAW Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.