Edited:
It's not that terrible, I just hate pregnancy and giving birth in books, which happened 4 times in this one.

Original review:
All of this was my immediate impression during and after I read the book. Kind of spoilery. Also, tw for child sacrifice and human trafficking, among other things

Sapphic rep, lots of politics, though women, betrayal, and blood. The story takes place over multiple years and follows multiple characters. There was a lot of describing and less dialogue. The beginning was very hard to get through and I almost dnf'd this. After my initial struggle, I did come to quite like it however it still kept occasionally throwing some weird fertility/sex/impregnation/birth stuff, that made me uncomfortable, into my face. I'm not a fan of how the author decided to construct her matriarchy. I was hoping for a functional harmonious society, not a flipped patriarchy where men are the ones who have to fight for equality and are used only for siring children and as lovers. The personal relationships between the men and women felt shallow. Women either discarded them or they themselves left because they were neglected/dissatisfied.

In this world, there are five queendoms. Scorpica - warriors, Bastion - scholars, Arca - magic, Sestia - religion or something, Paxim - diplomacy. Girls and women are valued while the men are deemed weak and useless. Newborn boys are sold or traded (at least in Scorpica). Girls stop being born which is a catastrophe especially for Scorpica because men aren't allowed to be warriors. (One does show up and asks to be one but the queen just kills him.) In fact, girls are so needed the scorpican queen decides they will take them from elsewhere (and declares them her daughters because she's love/attention-starved.) and causes a war to start brewing.

The characters:
• previously mentioned scorpican queen and her new daughters
• a girl with all-magic (which makes her a threat to the queen of Arca. Something about having a claim to the throne) who was in hiding with her mother and some buff woman who had decided to take them under her protection
• the queen of Arca and her daughter
• the previous scorpican queen, her daughter, and her advisor best friend
• a sorceress who wants to take over all the queendoms

This was mostly the first half. I did add details after finishing the whole thing but didn't summarize the 2nd part because I got lazy. It wasn't clearly explained why the girls had stopped being born. Some magic?

Arc provided by publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this.

netgalley gave me permission to read this one early, SO I CANNOT WAIT TO BEGIN

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thank you to netgalley for this arc.

scorpica is an incredible book full of world-building, character development, and plot twists.

what i loved most about this book was the matriarchal society, and how even in all of these queendoms, the women can be as cutthroat as the men. in this world, men are only used for a few things, and women are held to the highest regard. they are the leaders of their world. giving birth to a woman, especially in scorpica, is of the highest honor, as they are the ones who become warriors. boys who are born are cast out and sent to the bastion, where intelligence and research is prevalent. then there is arca, where magic is practiced, and paxim, where laws and government are valued. then there is sestia, where "religion" is valued above all.

there is not a ton of dialogue in this book, but that does not matter to me. i enjoy description and setting and tone more than unnecessary dialogue, and macallister gives me just enough.

this book read similarly to game of thrones, but the descriptions are not as long and heady. they are, in fact, rather beautiful and give you just enough to imagine what the world looks like. we are also left to wonder about some of the characters, and i believe they will be making their appearance again in book two.

i am very glad this will be a series, because i just cannot get enough of these women and what they will do next.