Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

[sarahmichelef]

*love*  I plowed through this faster than I've read anything since Wicked.  Review is not very coherent, for which I apologize.

I'm not Tudor/Eliz person, so I went into it sort of a blank slate, other than reading then entire book chanting "divorced, beheaded died; divorced, beheaded, survived" in my little head.  I loved Mary's perspective, her disenchantment with the court, the description of the change in Henry, her struggle with following her own desires versus her loyalty to her family.  In general, the central characters were very well-developed, especially (obviously) Anne and Mary.  I wanted to know more about William, but probably that wasn't so important to the story.  I would have liked to know more about George, for sure.  I really liked the way she set up the alleged incestuous relationship between and how Mary thinks that her siblings are being a little weird but shrugs it off and at least outwardly refuses to believe it even to the end (whereas a modern reader, even one who doesn't know that Anne was accused of adultery with her brother, will probably go "ewwww" right away).

So, yeah.  Fans of historical fiction of any period should read it.

Comments

[tashadandelion.livejournal.com]

Years ago I read a Philippa Gregory book that turned me off something awful. It was called The Wise Woman and it was fascinating and compulsively readable... until about halfway through, at which point the heroine became someone horrible and unlikable (obsessive, murderous, self-destructive, etc.), and finishing it was torture for me.

If that book was the unfortunate exception, I'm willing to try something else by her, but if this is pretty much her usual characterization arc, I'll avoid. Can you give me the skinny on that?

[alphasarah.livejournal.com]

I found Mary thoroughly likable through the whole book. Anne, not so much, but that's kind of the point. ;^)