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4.5 stars.
This is one rare time where a cover selection worked well in my favor. Based on the cover, this is NOT the story I was expecting, but it was still fantastic. I don't know why, but something about it (I assume the title and my brain's automatic association with Keanu Reeves as a result) made me think this would be a sci-fi. Welcome to, hey...read the synopsis idiot. Guess what...it's medieval historical fiction. I could NOT have been farther away.
Good news though...I like historical fiction. In fact, I particularly love historical fiction about England/France...mostly the Tudor/Plantaganet era. So...this just about nailed it in that regard. The story is centered around Marie de France, a semi-mysterious historical poet who is envisioned as the illegitimate sister of Eleanor of Aquitaine for this novel.
The writing is gentle and feels casual with great historical context and the construction of a character in Marie that I just found fantastic. She is strong and brave and takes on the...matriarchy? (it's a matriarchal society under Eleanor, but let's be real...it's still men being chauvinistic for the most part). I found her interesting and inspiring and I WISH that all of this was historical fact. Because this Marie is awesome, though she has little in common with the historically documented one overall.
The historical context outside of Marie's character is really well done and I loved the atmospheric content to the writing. The book felt realistic in that regard (though let's be honest, I'm no scholar on the 12th century so my opinion here is really unfounded). The narrative can be a bit languid and there is a bit of a literary feel to the book in that regard, but I still really enjoyed my experience reading this and I will ABSOLUTELY be reading more Lauren Groff in the future.
Side note: There is some good commentary on fat shaming and the judgement of women's physiques that I found well handled and realistic even for today's society.
Moral of the story: Some cover buys work out great, just not in the way you necessarily thought they would and the word Matrix isn't always synonymous with choosing between the red and blue pills.
This is one rare time where a cover selection worked well in my favor. Based on the cover, this is NOT the story I was expecting, but it was still fantastic. I don't know why, but something about it (I assume the title and my brain's automatic association with Keanu Reeves as a result) made me think this would be a sci-fi. Welcome to, hey...read the synopsis idiot. Guess what...it's medieval historical fiction. I could NOT have been farther away.
Good news though...I like historical fiction. In fact, I particularly love historical fiction about England/France...mostly the Tudor/Plantaganet era. So...this just about nailed it in that regard. The story is centered around Marie de France, a semi-mysterious historical poet who is envisioned as the illegitimate sister of Eleanor of Aquitaine for this novel.
The writing is gentle and feels casual with great historical context and the construction of a character in Marie that I just found fantastic. She is strong and brave and takes on the...matriarchy? (it's a matriarchal society under Eleanor, but let's be real...it's still men being chauvinistic for the most part). I found her interesting and inspiring and I WISH that all of this was historical fact. Because this Marie is awesome, though she has little in common with the historically documented one overall.
The historical context outside of Marie's character is really well done and I loved the atmospheric content to the writing. The book felt realistic in that regard (though let's be honest, I'm no scholar on the 12th century so my opinion here is really unfounded). The narrative can be a bit languid and there is a bit of a literary feel to the book in that regard, but I still really enjoyed my experience reading this and I will ABSOLUTELY be reading more Lauren Groff in the future.
Side note: There is some good commentary on fat shaming and the judgement of women's physiques that I found well handled and realistic even for today's society.
Moral of the story: Some cover buys work out great, just not in the way you necessarily thought they would and the word Matrix isn't always synonymous with choosing between the red and blue pills.