Review: Queen of Faces (Queen of Faces #1)

Queen of Faces, Book 1 in the Queen of Faces Series by Petra Lord

Published By: Harper Collins
Publication Date: February 3, 2026
Date Read: September 12, 2026
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 432

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A desperate girl at a cutthroat magical academy faces a choice between life and death: become an assassin for the enchanted elite or watch her decaying body draw its last breath.

Anabelle Gage is trapped in a male body, and it’s rotting from the inside out. In Caimor, where the magical elite buy and swap designer bodies like clothes, Ana can’t afford to escape her tattered form. When she fails the entrance exam to the prestigious Paragon Academy, her last hope of earning a new body implodes. As the clock ticks down to her last breath, she’s forced to use her illusion magic to steal a healthy chassis—before her own kills her.

But Ana is caught by none other than the headmaster of Paragon Academy, who poses a brutal ultimatum: face execution for her crime or become a mercenary at his command. Revolt brews in Caimor’s smog-choked underworld, and the wealthy and powerful will stop at nothing to take down the rebels and the infamous dark witch at their helm, the Black Wraith.

With no choice but to accept, Ana will steal, fight, and kill her way to salvation. But her survival depends on a dangerous band of an impulsive assassin, a brooding bombmaker, and an alluring exile who might just spell her ruin. As Ana is drawn into a tangled web of secrets, the line between villain and hero shatters—and Ana must decide which side is worth dying for.

Queen of Faces is a book that I have seen around the bookosphere a lot, but before picking it up, I honestly didn’t really know a lot about it. I remember it being promoted a lot at YALC last year, and as the author is attending YALC this autumn, I thought it was the perfect time to pick it up. Honestly, I’m left not really knowing how I feel about this book. It has a fantastic premise and there was a lot about the world that I loved but I found a lot of this book really confusing.

Queen of Faces is set in a world where magical people can choose to change bodies. This way, they get to stay young, beautiful and powerful indefinitely. Our FMC, Anabelle is trapped inside a male body that is dying. She is desperate to attend a magical academy and learn magic, and maybe get a better body in the process. However, when she is caught stealing she is offered the chance to become a spy killer for the headmaster. If she does it, she can attend the academy. But all is not quite as it seems in this school.

Let’s start with what I really enjoyed. I liked the premise and the idea of being able to just switch bodies. It was really intriguing and I loved the talk about how Anabelle felt stuck in the ‘wrong’ body. When I discovered the author is actually a trans author, I loved this element even more. I think it was a really cool way to take something real and incorporate it into a magical world. I genuinely loved this idea.

My issue with the book is it becomes very confusing, especially when there’s multiple POVs and most of these characters are swapping bodies at least once if not more throughout the book. I personally was listening to this on audiobook, and I do feel like that was detrimental to my enjoyment. I really wish that I had read this physically, as I feel like I may have enjoyed it more. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the narrator. She did a fantastic job of bringing these characters to life. But, for me, the complexity of this book needed me sitting down with it, and having the time to think about it. There was so much going on, with so many different POVs and so many different bodies that I was just so confused. There were moments that I was a bit like: I have no idea who this even is anymore. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt like that if I had read it physically, I don’t know.

Queen of Faces had a lot of great potential, but for me it just really fell flat. It was confusing and I found myself losing interest in it sadly. I probably won’t be picking up the second book. If you’re interested in this book, I do think it’s worth a try, especially considering the premise was really strong. However, I would recommend reading it physically rather than on audiobook.