Empress of the World (Battle Hall Davies, #1)

Aug 24, 2007 A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, queerinterest, young-adult

As with pretty much everything I read, I found the ending to this a little unsatisfying, a little too contrived in too short a space, but the path to the ending was well worth it. Nicola, the narrator, is a sharp, funny, observant kid, even in her own confusion about her sexuality, and Battle is both a fantastic foil and a fantastic love affair for Nicola. The dynamics and the emotions in this one rang very true for me on all levels.

It pleased me to learn, just recently, that Sara Ryan has writt...more

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May 23, 2009 R rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-and-liked, ya

I have no idea what Nic supposedly did wrong. Hell, I over-analyze all the time! What's wrong with it? NOTHING. She was just asking a damn question, Battle! Shut your damn mouth!

Sorry. Sometimes I become somewhat of an advocate for certain book characters.

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Apr 30, 2008 Mielle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Empress of the world by Sara Ryan is a very moving meaningful story that deals with very touchy subjects. Such as love, friendship, and finding yourself. This book should have more exposed due to the fact that now a days teenagers have to deal with these kind of things more and more in todays life style and society which is so open and free to whatever. This country's youth should be more educated of these things.

Empress of the world is about two young girls and how they spent there summer at Si...more

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Jul 30, 2007 shana naomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer

so far i like it -- i was inspired after having read Bloom to try more YA, especially if they have good queer subplots or storylines. but all i found at first were the uber-boy ones, like Rainbow High. this feels more like a smart kid South of Nowhere so far.

now that i'm done: i liked it okay -- a nice unfolding of the story and teenage angst, a lot of kids who sounded like actual people and not marketing demographics. the end was kind of abrupt and overall just ended up feeling like a "one ti...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Christina (Reading Thru The Night) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, ya-love, lgbt

Know what would be really cool? If I could go back say twenty years and head out to a summer camp for gifted kids. Oh yeah, I could sign up for cool seminars on archeology, classical music theory, and other -ologies or theories. Which already makes this an uber cool book because that's exactly where it takes place.

Nicola ends up at Siegal Institute's Gifted program over the summer to explore her interest in archeology. She ends up making some friends while there, a pretty cool geeky group actual...more

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Mar 20, 2009 Bridgette Davis rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a lot better than I anticipated. The summer college program is represented well and I think would make most kids want to attend one. I also like the lack of certainty in the characters - very believable. The plot moves really quick (a little too quick for me) but at the right pace for student readers who are likely to become board.

I read this book in one night & didn't really put it down! It's a great little love story and the sequel should be good.

Nic is a girl who I definite...more

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May 14, 2013 Erica Brown-carter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be a refreshing story about young love. Although it was pretty slow for about half or a third of the book it got good though out the rest.
The characters were interesting and the way they socialized and were presented really made them feel real. This story isn't just about a summer fling or a love story between (oh man!) two girls; it's about navigating the world towards finding your self, self identity, friendship, angst, confusion, and the longing to b...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Kageashi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt-fiction

It may sound like a trope, but it's the touching story of a girl away at summer camp (okay - nerd camp) who finds herself questioning her identity as she unexpectedly falls in love with the beautiful dancer from North Carolina. Nicola's passion for archeology and learning about typology becomes an unintended catalyst for trouble, though, as Battle defies Nic's urge to analyze.

The story is well written, and while there are some interesting glitches in the Kindle Edition of the book (type substitu...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Kenlan rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book I am reading is called “Empress of the world”, written by Sara Ryan. It is a great book that I would recommend this book to other. I like this book because it’s a book about high school kids, boys, gossip, and crushes. One thing I do not like about it is the author tends to drag some of her stories on for a long period of time. But she adds good details to her stories and dialog.
I would recommend this book because it truly is a great book. It is emotionally, happy, and funny all at the...more The book I am reading is called “Empress of the world”, written by Sara Ryan. It is a great book that I would recommend this book to other. I like this book because it’s a book about high school kids, boys, gossip, and crushes. One thing I do not like about it is the author tends to drag some of her stories on for a long period of time. But she adds good details to her stories and dialog.
I would recommend this book because it truly is a great book. It is emotionally, happy, and funny all at the same time. I think if a high scholar were to read it they would really enjoy it like I did. Every girl loves a book about romance and drama between girls because they all go through it. Most girls have a summer crush or a high school love and that’s what “Empress of the World” is all about. I bet most girls that read this book can relate to what Sara Ryan wrote.
One reason why I do not like “Empress of the World” is because Sara Ryan tends to drag some of her stories on too long. For an example, when Katrina trips while hiking during a class field trip, she trips and sprains her ankle. It goes on and on about how it happened and it seemed like she made a big deal about it to make the story longer.
A reason why I liked “Empress of the World” is because she put a lot of detail in to her story. I felt like I was in the book there was so much detail. I also liked that there was a lot of dialog but not too much were you wouldn’t be able to handle it and get confused. In the beginning of the book she wrote it so that Nicola, the main character, made a list about all the characters at their summer camp she was currently staying at about how they looked, how old they were, and what the enjoyed doing.
“Empress of the World” is a great book written by Sarah Ryan. I would recommend to any of my friends. It’s about drama, boys, and other high school thing. There’s so much detail so you would ever get lost or confused. When you read this book you feel like you’re in it. Sometimes she drags her stories on but it doesn’t matter because her stories are so great.

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May 21, 2012 Acquafortis rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book in nearly a day. It has won various prizes in young adults category and reading it I can understand why. If you are a teenage and looking for a romance suited for your age then definitely go for it.
I'm not teen aged any more but can realise the appeal that this book can have for this very delicate age group. It is simple and straight forward where everything is all or nothing.
Everything revolves around a particular event. Everything is Important. Yes there is tomorrow or the f...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Carly Elledge added it

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Aug 27, 2010 Nathanael Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2010 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult-literature

In her debut novel, Sara Ryan creates a moving story of a high school teen, Nichola, better known as Nic,her summer of struggles and searching for her own identity while attending an Institute for excelled high school students. There she meets friends, one in particular, Battle, and they develop a rapidly close but confusing relationship. The novel takes you through their ups and downs while Nic struggles to discover herself.

A fairly well-written novel, Ryan could use some further character dev...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction, 2013-contemporary-challenge, 2013-debut-author-challenge, contemporary, detailed-reviews, excellent-ya, good-books-have-good-covers, quiltbag, saved-by-prose, why-is-there-no-hype, problem-novels

So. This is the second review in a row in which I did not have my thoughts completely together in the beginning of my writing it. Does this mean my opinions are getting more complex? Or does it mean that I'm getting bad at reviewing?

So, anyway, this was an overall cute, fun novel. It was one of the first to paint lesbians in a positive light, when these kind of novels were just starting to become more normal. I thought that I would have to remind myself constantly that parts of the novel weren't...more So. This is the second review in a row in which I did not have my thoughts completely together in the beginning of my writing it. Does this mean my opinions are getting more complex? Or does it mean that I'm getting bad at reviewing?

So, anyway, this was an overall cute, fun novel. It was one of the first to paint lesbians in a positive light, when these kind of novels were just starting to become more normal. I thought that I would have to remind myself constantly that parts of the novel weren't cliched when the book first came out, and although there was a little of that, there was little enough that I wasn't really bothered.

The writing was really good. Ryan's prose is descriptive and surprisingly atmospheric for a realistic fiction book that focuses on romance. For the most part, I bought that this was how Nic would speak - descriptive without ever being purple. That being said, I did think that the 'field notes' written by Nic that were sprinkled throughout the novel were a bit unnecessary - I didn't really see much of a reason for Nic to be writing them, as it didn't fit her personality. They sometimes conveyed interesting ideas, but they mostly felt unnecessary.

But speaking of Nic's personality, it was well-rounded and believable, as was Battle's. Both characters felt a little too perfectly molded into their rolls (more on that later), but that didn't stop them from feeling completely fleshed-out and real. Likewise, Katrina was a rather unique character, and very interesting. Issac was a bit underutilized, as he obviously had more personality than we were seeing, but he felt real in the few scenes he appeared in.

However... it took me a while to figure this out, but the characters were molded to fit perfectly into the wish-fulfillment. Because that's basically what this is - wish-fulfillment for lesbian teenagers. There's nothing wrong with wish-fulfillment as a concept - Parrotfish, for example, pulled it off almost flawlessly - but when it becomes everything in a story, it can often have unbelievable consequences. Here, the problem was the heroine (Nic) and her love interest (Battle). First, Nic felt blatantly calculated so that lesbian teens could relate to her. She doesn't think she's pretty, but Ryan makes it clear that she actually is. She's stated to be shy and not to have many friends back home, but she makes four friends immediately upon coming to the stay-away camp where the story takes place. She has a lot of interests that are traditionally 'geeky' (theater tech, art, playing the viola), but nobody gave a fuck where she was. (Incidentally, she seems to be incredibly good at all three - where she finds the time to do all that, I don't have a fucking clue.) Do you see the problem? There was nothing about her that would make me think she was actually as friendless and lonely as she was stated to be, because Ryan doesn't want her audience to think that there's anything like that about them. You're supposed to insert herself into her and share her feelings, but it doesn't work, because her feelings are so blatantly manufactured for that actual purpose. The only real flaw I could find in her - interior or exterior - was that she over-analyzed things (which bit her in the ass believably and interestingly), and even that was solved for her in the end.

Likewise, Battle was the perfect love interest. She didn't entirely have her shit together in terms of her relationship with her parents, which managed to keep her out of Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory, but damn, did she come close. She was a beautiful dancer, she was nice, and she was attracted to our heroine. Once again, it seems like this was written specifically to give lesbians hope - "you could meet someone like this one day!" Because of that, it never descended into something really believable for me.

But in spite of these problems, I still managed to enjoy Nic and Battle's relationship. It was sort of rocky, which managed to keep it out of wish-fulfillment territory so that I could appreciate how tender and realistic it was, even if the characters behind it weren't. The relationship was a slow-burning one, and Nic and Battle never quite knew where they stood with each other. Moreover, Nic's infatuation with Battle at the beginning, infused with her shock at being attracted to a girl, was perfectly and accurately rendered.

Another thing that was perfectly and accurately rendered was the effect that parents can have on kids - and in a book that takes place at a sleep-away summer camp, no less. Battle and Issac's parents played constant roles in shaping their personalities and character arcs. The subplots involving the parents were probably my favorite part of the book. Issac's parents had a very fighty relationship, and they divorced while Issac was at the camp. His reaction to this (accurately portrayed), along with the fact that his friends were kind of assholes about it without meaning to be (sad, but accurately portrayed) made the entire subplot moving. Likewise, Battle's dealing with her over-religious father and the mysterious disappearance of her brother (and naturally, Nic being an asshole about it without meaning to) felt poignant and altogether awesome.

However, I wasn't a big fan of the resolution of these subplots - or the lack of it, thereof. The only message I could draw from this was that if your parents are having a negative effect on your life, there's nothing you can do about it - you just have to put up with it and hope you turn out okay anyhow. The characters become happier people at the end, but it has nothing to do with their parents - they're happy in spite of them, instead of because of them. This does a huge disservice to anyone who has parents that they're unsatisfied with, and it kind of ruined the whole subplot for me.

As for the plot... well, not a whole lot happened in this book. It was mostly focused on character relationships. There was no real dramatic structure - things just happened, and they connected to each other, but not in the way a traditional plot would. Was this realistic? Hell yes. Did it make for an interesting read? I'm not entirely sure. I was only bored a couple times, but I still feel like Ryan could've done better with a real plot.

But as an LGBT novel, it does its job well, other than the wish-fulfillment aspects. It's surprisingly uncliched for a novel that supposedly set up the cliches in LGBT novels. There's no predictable coming out story, Nic never angsts about having a crush on a straight girl that's resolved when she finds a lesbian girl, and issues of homophobia are dealt with minimally and believably. Moreover, I liked how little time the novel spent preoccupied on giving the quiltbag characters labels. Nic spends a little time wondering if she's lesbian or bisexual, but she doesn't come up with anything definitive, nor did she really care to. Moreover, Battle's sexuality wasn't discussed at all - all we know was that she was romantically attracted to at least some girls. I felt like this dodged a huge bullet by not letting itself be predictable the way it might've, and by letting the character relationships take the center stage instead of angst.

So overall, this novel was a bit too heavy on wish-fulfillment and a bit too light on plot, but it had some lovely writing and character relationships. There are better LGBT novels out there, but there are also much, much worse ones. I decided on a 4-star rating, but I still think it might be 3. I'm not sure. But you can judge for yourself! Does this review tempt you to buy the book? Help me sort my thoughts out with my answer in the comments! Please?(less)

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Aug 01, 2012 Rachel Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, mainstream, romance, lgbtq

Two high school girls have a romance while they're taking college classes at a summer camp for gifted kids. The only way this could have possibly been more up my alley would have been if "gifted" was in the "Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters" sense.

Nicola, amateur artist and aspiring archaeologist, narrates the book in first person, with occasional excerpts from her diary, also in first person but with a different typeface and no capitalization. This may sound annoying, but it's actu...more Two high school girls have a romance while they're taking college classes at a summer camp for gifted kids. The only way this could have possibly been more up my alley would have been if "gifted" was in the "Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters" sense.

Nicola, amateur artist and aspiring archaeologist, narrates the book in first person, with occasional excerpts from her diary, also in first person but with a different typeface and no capitalization. This may sound annoying, but it's actually adorable. Here's an excerpt from her diary. The "angst crows" are Goths, and the context is that she's looking around campus to see if she can spot any other queer kids:

and there's another boy i've seen, i think he's in katrina's class, who often wears long velvet skirts and lots of black eyeliner. but i believe this to be a fashion statement rather than a declaration of sexuality, since i have observed him making out with various angst crows.

i suppose he could like boys, too, though.

i of all people should remember that.

Though the romance between Nic and the remarkably named Battle Hall Davies is the main plotline, Ryan spends a lot of time on an ensemble of new friends, their friendships and romances and individual character growth, classes and picnics and dances. The emotions are realistic and sometimes angsty, but the whole summer has a shimmery nostalgic glow. The book is also very funny. Ryan has a great gift for comic setup/payoff, of which one of my favorites, a small moment but one which made me laugh and laugh, involved a boy's attempt to bypass the disgusting cafeteria food by claiming to keep kosher.

On the one hand, this is a perfect little book. On the other hand, I wish it had been longer. Battle had a lot of stuff going on that I got, but would have liked to have seen explored more. Also, I just wanted to keep on reading.

It reminds me a bit of Maureen Johnson's The Bermudez Triangle, another very funny book which mostly takes place over a summer and involves female friendship, female romance, and the complexity of sexual identity. (less)

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Jun 26, 2009 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, glbtq

A solid first novel about young (queer) love with a minimum of angst.

Empress of the World is a fairly short book about teenagers at a summer institute for the gifted. I liked the lack of angst the teens showed about most stuff - it was there, but minimized - the interplay of one character trying to "figure out" the other one, and the setting. It was realistic without being boring.

I wasn't sure why the characters had to be super gifted. They didn't seem particularly smarter or more precocious tha...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

After finishing another young adult novel exploring the LGBT spectrum, I was looking forward to this one. I had heard about it previously and was expecting to enjoy it more than I did. I found that the writing was done well and the actual layout and idea of the book was fine and didn’t discourage me as much as the actual plot or exploration of the idea did.

Character arrives at a camp for ‘gifted’ students (a camp that, in my opinion, needed more explanation). Character falls for another girl. Ch...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, deliciousness, my-lesbianism-let-me-show-you-it, ya

There's not one thing that makes this book good. It's a bunch of smaller things that I really liked that made it into a book I'd recommend.

Nicola, the main character, is a likable character and certainly relatable. She's knows she's not gay, she knows she's not straight, but she feels uncomfortable with the bisexual label. She gets bullied because of her relationship with the Battle. She has a lot of different interests and talents- theatre, music, art, a touch of science. She has friends but n...more There's not one thing that makes this book good. It's a bunch of smaller things that I really liked that made it into a book I'd recommend.

Nicola, the main character, is a likable character and certainly relatable. She's knows she's not gay, she knows she's not straight, but she feels uncomfortable with the bisexual label. She gets bullied because of her relationship with the Battle. She has a lot of different interests and talents- theatre, music, art, a touch of science. She has friends but no real 'friends' friends. She is definitely someone I could see myself knowing.

The friends she makes at camp (is that the right word? I don't know) are a little more one-dimensional, particularly Katrina. But Nic admits that maybe she didn't get to know all of them as well as she could have. I liked Isaac the most, if only because I got the feeling he just wanted to have a girlfriend, and it didn't matter if it was Katrina or Nic. Again, realistic.

Battle I had the most problems with. Firstly, her name. Now, those of you who follow my reviews closely (har har) will know names matter a lot to me. 'Battle' just seems way too bizarre for her parents to have chosen. We didn't really get to know her at all. She was just there, very aloof. I also got the feeling she didn't care at all for Nicola. She struck me, unfortunately, as one of those faux-bis- lead a girl along to get a guy's attention and to say she's been with a chick. And what's the deal with making out with Kevin? Low blow, Battle, way to break the budding lesbian's (?) heart.

I understand Sara Ryan wrote a sequel to this book, so I hope some of Battle's characterisation issues were worked out.

I also felt that Nic and Battle's relationship moved way, way too fast. It spanned only two weeks and already there were declarations of love and heartbreak and cheating and adultery and oh my! I'm of two minds about this: one, it can be read as realistic. Teen relationships can move very fast. But on the other hand, I like my novel relationships to tread a little slower.

So having mused on all this as I've written my review, I believe the reason I'm rating this book four stars is because of our main character, Nic. She's just a believable person to read about. She has her flaws, yes, and she has also has a couple of informed flaws that I didn't really see. I didn't see her over analyising her situation with Battle at all, which Battle (and Katrina, quietly) accused her of. I thought she was just wondering why Battle liked her- a fair thing to wonder about. Nic, as far as I can tell, never had a mutual crush on a girl, and she wanted to know how Battle felt. That's a fairly realistic thing to want. So yes, Nic is the reason I like this book, I think.

There's also a shout-out to Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat series for all you FLB fans. Nice!(less)

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Mar 17, 2011 Alice rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: girl-lit

I forget what made me add this to my ‘To-read’ list, but I did. I usually stay away from teen novels, preferring to stick with the slightly-full-of-itself “Literature” genre (as opposed to the low-brow “Fiction”) or YA fantasy like Rick Riordan.

Some of this struck a bit too close to home relationship-wise and with some personality traits of the main character, so it made me uncomfortable for a lot of it. I don’t think I can review it in an unbiased way, but I guess one never really reviews a boo...more I forget what made me add this to my ‘To-read’ list, but I did. I usually stay away from teen novels, preferring to stick with the slightly-full-of-itself “Literature” genre (as opposed to the low-brow “Fiction”) or YA fantasy like Rick Riordan.

Some of this struck a bit too close to home relationship-wise and with some personality traits of the main character, so it made me uncomfortable for a lot of it. I don’t think I can review it in an unbiased way, but I guess one never really reviews a book in an unbiased way. But the uncomfortable feeling colored my perception of the writing, the plot, etc, so it might be great, but I can’t see that. At least not until the ending, where Ryan sort of pulls it together in a nice-but-not-final way.

I guess I liked that it showed relationships are complicated beyond the ‘they meet, they fall in love, they’re together, bam.’ And that you can love someone and just not work as a couple because of your differing ways of dealing with/seeing things.

There was a line where the main character’s thinking her situation’s like a soap opera, but then thinks ‘except that no soap operas would have a love affair between two girls as a storyline.’ I guess it’s good that that line seems dated now, what with Olivia/Natalia on Guiding Light, and what I presume were others after that. So...yay progress? I was also slightly disbelieving that guys at her gifted summer camp program would openly mock her for being gay, but I think living in a city, you assume everyone thinks the same way regarding that kind of thing (erm, not to condescend to those in the country or say everyone in cities is pro-gay, but it’s an overall trend). I’m also probably out of touch with how high school boys act. Which is a good thing.

So, to read or not to read. It’s extremely short, so it’s not terrible if you read it and don’t like it. And I think it does have something to offer, if only the aforementioned ‘love can be there but not work’ concept. Oh, and Sara Ryan’s sense of humor is fantastic. That gets the book another point.
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Feb 10, 2012 Miss Anderson rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a lesbian love story.

The story here is classic girl-meets-girl. The setting is the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, housed on a college campus. Nicola Lancaster is a theater techie studying archeology, and she meets a fun group of kids who instantly become her summer pals: computer chick Katrina, beautiful Battle, music-obsessed Kevin, and sweet Isaac. Like nerd kids do when then finally find themselves with their own kind, this quintet start developing feelings for each...more This is a lesbian love story.

The story here is classic girl-meets-girl. The setting is the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, housed on a college campus. Nicola Lancaster is a theater techie studying archeology, and she meets a fun group of kids who instantly become her summer pals: computer chick Katrina, beautiful Battle, music-obsessed Kevin, and sweet Isaac. Like nerd kids do when then finally find themselves with their own kind, this quintet start developing feelings for each other. But Nicola finds that her feelings are for Battle.

I really, really want to like lesbian love stories. No, I take that back. I really, really want to LOVE lesbian love stories. Instead, I end up just liking them. Lesbian love stories are eternally in my friend zone. Unfortunately, Empress of the World ended up in the friend zone, too. Don't get me wrong -- friends are great! More friends are even better! But I'm still searching for that great romance that works as both a great read AND a great lesbian love story.

Where this one fell short was in the characters. I never got attached to Nicola as narrator, and I never got attached to Battle as a love interest. I kept comparing the characters to the kids from Anna and the French Kiss, and the characters in that story were far more developed. I wish Ryan had put a little more character development into the story so that the actual plot would make sense. I had trouble understanding Nicola's motives and Battle's reactions and why they even fell for each other in the first place. Ditto for the secondary characters of Katrina, Isaac, and Kevin. Normally I complain about books being too unnecessarily long, but this one was unnecessarily short.

Final Grade: C Here's a book that solidly earned a C, and I quickly assigned it the grade with no waffling. A C is a good grade. Average. But I wasn't blow away. It's a quiet, sweet little book that would be worth reading. While I won't run out and buy a copy, I'm glad I read it. It is middle school appropriate (I'm pretty sure these girls were having sex, but it's only alluded to and an "innocent" kid would probably not catch on to that), so I would recommend it to kids that seem to have an interest in lesbian literature or romances.

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Oct 10, 2008 Alarra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gblt, ya

Lovely, bittersweet novel about Nicola, a gifted student who goes away on a summer camp for kids like her, and meets Battle, who she falls in love with unexpectedly. There's some predictability about a novel set at camp with a motley crew of teens who may or may not be attracted to each other, but it's intelligently and well-written, and doesn't read like a PSA, which a lot of GLBT YA novels tend to feel like.

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Jan 26, 2013 Harmony Valdoz rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've developed this habit of avoiding any summary or sneak peek of a book; not even the flap or back part. I say it gives a certain amount of mystery or surprise, if the book is any good. So I picked this book up thinking it's just another coming-of-age puppy love YA novel that I'm kind of in the mood for. My eyes only had to glimpse the review that goes "It made me cry..." *A sticker hiding the the rest of the line from view* And that was good enough for me.
So imagine my surprise when this turn...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I "read" this book on audiobook, and I really liked the reader.

As for the story, it was interesting. While I knew it is a common title in the LGBT lists for teens, I thought it was more honest and emotionally tough a book than I expected. It has a lot of ups and downs in the plot, and I felt that even in the "happy end," the end was only happy from some perspectives. All the same, I could identify with the main character Nic, and I felt the same feelings of nervousness, confusion, emotional pain...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Abby rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really did enjoy this book. You can really relate to the main character, Nicola, and other minor characters associated with her. It's basically about teenagers going through high school. Trying to fit in, trying to find a relationship with someone, etc. Except in this case, Nicola falls for a girl. They go through many things and this book will leave you in a bit of a shock as to what they have to over come.

I believe many kids my age, especially girls will enjoy this because of the drama and...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Colleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ryan, Sara. The Empress of the World. New York: Viking 2001. Ages 13 & up.

Teenagers Battle Hall and Nicola Lancaster realize their budding love for each other through fantasy and role playing while they are away at a summer camp for gifted students. The girls’ use of fantasy to realize their feelings is often counterbalanced by Nic’s need to focus on science, and her compulsion to dissect emotions. Ryan depicts their role playing and fantasy as a safe way for their romance to grow, whether i...more Ryan, Sara. The Empress of the World. New York: Viking 2001. Ages 13 & up.

Teenagers Battle Hall and Nicola Lancaster realize their budding love for each other through fantasy and role playing while they are away at a summer camp for gifted students. The girls’ use of fantasy to realize their feelings is often counterbalanced by Nic’s need to focus on science, and her compulsion to dissect emotions. Ryan depicts their role playing and fantasy as a safe way for their romance to grow, whether it’s when Battle performs a puppet show to explain her complicated family situation to Nic, drawing them ever closer or when Nic and Battle recreate a medieval scene of an empress and her lady in waiting as Nic cuts off Battle’s hair in a classic act of rebellion or during a formal dance that has Nic dressed up as Prince Valiant and Battle as Tinker bell, as they explore normative gender roles as well as their roles in their relationship with each other. The same romance, however, when viewed through Nic’s need for scientific explanations, stalls. The author weaves a similar tension throughout the entire plot, in which events move along at a comfortable, even rate. Yet the story takes a slightly unexpected twist when Battle leaves Nic to start dating Kevin, who is an underdeveloped character in a cast of mostly distinct, likeable ones. Nic’s emotional and intellectual confusion comes to replace her initial certainty about who she is and why she is at camp; especially given her initial hypothesis that “taking an actual class in archeology will serve to confirm Nicola Lancaster in her lifelong dream of becoming an archeologist.” The topics of identity as well as other ubiquitous teenage issues, such as friendship and parents, unfold through Nic’s first person narrative. The events take place over 8 weeks, which is a realistic timeframe for the girls to meet, suss out their feelings, break up briefly and then reunite before they head their separate ways as summer camp draws to its end. Memorable emotional scenes, handwritten text from Nic’s notebook, plus unanswered questions in the middle which more or less resolve into a well done conclusion, make this worthwhile read.
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May 22, 2012 Tanya rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: coming-of-age-teen-fiction

I wanted to love this book. I really did, but it left me wanting. The teenagers in this book are realistic in that they are insecure and confused and scattered, but they also seem a little shallow. I don't mean in a self centred way, but in a they have no depth way. The relationship between Battle and Nic should be overflowing with the warmth of new discovery and exploration. But it fell flat. So much of the relationship is told by Nic's journal writing that it doesn't feel genuine. You almost b...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Quincy rated it 5 of 5 stars

A remarkable debut novel Empress of the World by Sara Ryan, experiences the life of an innocent, curious, yet naïve teenager who looks for friendship but finds an unusual relationship. The debut fiction novel was published in 2001 and goes inside a young girl and the situations she encounters trying to find herself. Some of the main issues, or themes, Ryan describes in Empress of the World are homosexuality, teenage relationships, finding yourself, and bisexuality.
Sara Ryan presents these themes...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Jacqueline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: glbtq, teen

I originally read this book seven years ago and distinctly didn't like it. At the time, I thought that I didn't like the ending, and that the story was stilted.

When one of my daughter's friends was looking for books featuring glbtq individuals, I did some research and saw this book popping up on a lot of lists and decided to give it another try. I am so happy that I did.

The reason that I didn't like the book the first time was that the main character is so much like myself! I am sure that readin...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Nora rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt, read-2012, read-in-2012, romance, teen, teen-romance

I had wanted to read this book for so long, for its good reviews. So it was surprising to me that when I started reading this book, I found myself skipping paragraphs, the book has too many unnecessary details. And it wasn't until i was 30% in the book, that the romance between Battle and Nic started.

The characters weren't interesting, part of why I found it so hard to keep reading, they seemed unrealistic to me, so I couldn't get lost in the story. Maybe it was due to Sara Ryan's style of writ...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review originally posted at Books Worth Remembering

I should probably start of by saying that I borrowed Empress of the World from my local library, although I had seen it in there previously. The first time I saw it was a good couple of years ago, after reading the blurb I instantly put it back – Why you may ask. Because in my younger and more vulnerable years I was an idiot. I didn’t read many ‘issue’ books, especially about sexuality because at 13, I was stupid and thought that by reading some...more Review originally posted at Books Worth Remembering

I should probably start of by saying that I borrowed Empress of the World from my local library, although I had seen it in there previously. The first time I saw it was a good couple of years ago, after reading the blurb I instantly put it back – Why you may ask. Because in my younger and more vulnerable years I was an idiot. I didn’t read many ‘issue’ books, especially about sexuality because at 13, I was stupid and thought that by reading something about lesbian/bisexual characters I would somehow become one. I got over that not that long after I saw this book, but hadn’t seen it until now. So if you are one of those people who don’t want to read this because of the sexuality of the characters, just read it and you’ll find an amazing story about self – discovery.

So after I got over the humiliation/embarrassment of my younger self I quickly devoured Empress of the World, it’s just over 200 pages which just flies by. I loved how Nicola’s ‘field notes’ were interspersed throughout the story, which added another dimension to what she was thinking/feeling.

The characters! They were felt so real – I know that gets said A LOT, but it is true. They weren’t perfect, they got on your nerves sometimes but after another couple of pages were making you smile and laugh (And by laugh and smile I mean that literally, there were so many scenes that were hilarious and I loved the frequent use of topical references and humour) Making them all feel like real friends. They were also diverse and I couldn't help but love them all; Battle, Isaac, Katrina and of course Nicola all brought something different to the story and I also liked how they were kind of a band of outcasts.

Another thing that felt real was Pruncher Hall, where the story takes place. I love how different places represented different things, like the hill and the lake – I also liked how most of the emotional scenes took place outside, how when the characters were out in nature they were able to show their true selves.

Another theme, besides nature, that I loved was the wheel of fortune, which was pretty apt for most of the ups and downs of the story. I also loved Battle’s mantra of ‘words don’t always work’ which I find incredibly true.

With all of these things Empress of the World reminded me of another of my favourite books – Looking for Alaska by John Green. Not only because it’s set in a boarding summer school but because of how real it feels, how similar I find Pudge and Nicola’s narration and how they both idolise these people, Alaska and Battle (who both have unique names) respectively and can’t believe when they accept them. I think it’s the realism and realistic voice that reminds me of Looking for Alaska, so if you’re a fan I definitely think you’ll like this book.

The plot, whilst more emotionally driven was enjoyable, and you may be sitting here thinking that it’s an ‘issue book’ but it wasn't. It was simply Nicola discovery of who she was and being open to the idea that she could be more than one thing. I also loved how instead of making it about choosing what sexuality you identify as it was more about getting rid of labels – anti – labelling and pro – individuality.

My only problem with the story was the use of the term of ‘dyke’ not only is it a derogatory term but I just don’t like the word in of itself. Also, probably the biggest issue I had, maybe this is just because I’m English but I’ve never heard someone called that. Being in high school I’ve obviously seen many people labelled or assumed as being a lesbian but they’ve only been called gay. So every time I read it, not only did it make me angry, it made me cringe.

I loved Empress of the World; it’s simplistic but simply amazing. I definitely think there need to be more books with LGBT characters so that maybe what I had when I was younger wouldn’t be so common.

So if you love good, realistic and relatable contemporaries that will make you laugh, cry and leave you feeling optimistic than Empress of the World is for you. (less)

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My Story Book Club: Book Trailer for Empress of the World	1	3	Sep 05, 2012 05:19pm
My Story Book Club: Creative Writing Contest for September	1	5	Sep 05, 2012 05:12pm
What's The Name o...: Possible YA with college girls [s]	3	98	Oct 14, 2011 09:12pm

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Empress of the World (Battle Hall Davies #1)

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