whatthedeuce's Reviews (1.39k)

I thought this novel was a steaming pile of crap, and not because it fucks with historical facts since I don't care much for historical accuracy anyway. I just found the writing to be reminiscent of the amateur material being submitted to my friend's intro writing course. I didn't give a rat's ass about Mary, like I should've, and was totally rooting for Anne despite knowing the shitty fate she'd meet. I think Gregory may have attempted to create some complexity in both characters, but if she did, I missed all of it. The two main characters came off to me as strictly representing good and evil, pretty much without any middleground. Mary's a sweet angel when she submits and even after she rebels while Anne's an opportunistic devil whore because she's relentlessly ambitious. Got it. Thanks. Is Philippa Gregory the queen of purple prose or something? If not, maybe someone oughta coronate her ass already. I know it's not her fault that the book is widely successful (well, yes, it is actually since she wrote the shit heap), but the hype over this just baffles me because I thought it was a tremendous waste of time. And I'm saying this as a fan of trashy drama who generally doesn't mind historical fact fudging! I probably will never read another of Gregory's books again unless I'm being paid to do so or having a gun held to my head because that's how damn awful I thought this book was. I admit that it got exciting in some areas (because well...sex), but overall, I almost couldn't stomach the writing. I cringe just thinking about it.