god forbid a woman have hobbies

Oh my gosh, I raced through this book.  It's not super fast-paced but I just couldn't put it down.  Keetch paints such rich and vivid pictures of landscapes and characters.  I fell in love with the main characters, finding their way through a hostile, patriarchal world, instantly.  

I'm quite an Arthurian novice but still greatly enjoyed this retelling.

This book was a really heartbreaking view into what makes a villain, especially a villain in such a patriarchal mythos. The storytelling writing style was subtle but consistent, adding a kind of feminine touch to the narrative. And it covers probably the first 25 years of her life, but it never feels like you're getting lost in the time jumps. I also really enjoyed the femme friendships represented in this. I feel like if you're seeking out a retelling about Morgan Le Fay, then you're looking for sisterhood and this delivers in a few different dynamics.

As much as I enjoyed the book, I really didn't like how much we have to watch Morgan lose and stumble, and that's why it isn't a full five stars for me. She's constantly having to cave to some arm of the patriarchy, whether its an actual man or a woman reinforcing those systems. It makes sense that she has to lose sometimes, at the very least to make the conflict we know is coming later make sense. However, she doesn't really put her foot down until

the very very end of the book, and she doesn't do it for herself. She has to take on the role of 'mother' before she's able to step outside of the system. I have no problem with her being a mother, but I want her to do it for herself, not for her son. Taking the entire book for her to finally take that step made me feel cheated, honestly. Maybe we'll see more of it in future books, but it was a choice to have almost none of it in book one until the final 20 pages.

I was on her side long before that and it was honestly hard to keep reading at times.

I haven’t read the original text(s) here, so I can’t comment on the accuracy or skilfulness of the book as a retelling. 

As a story however, this was fun. I would possibly lean more towards 3.5 stars in terms of skill, but it was exactly what I was in the mood for and the vibes were just great, so an extra 0.25 for enjoyment.

This book is fluidly written. Morgan is relatable and vividly described, I especially loved her as a healer. I‘ll be interested to see how her journey towards darkness is pulled off. I was also very lucky to read this by the sea, and that was perfect - stormborn Morgan and Tintagel brought to life even better. 

Overall a solid debut and I‘m looking forward to the next one. 

Morgan’s character drew me in really quickly, and kept me hooked for the entire book. The book itself does a lot of world building and contextualising, as it’s the first of a trilogy (I think).

Covering about fifteen years, following Morgan from childhood to womanhood, her growth and the injustices she endures, this novel truly felt like a journey and a half.

As I was reading, the pages flew by and I felt very immersed in the story. But as I put the book down I didn’t really find myself reaching for it again, so it took me surprisingly long to get through it. Don’t get me wrong, disrupting and unexpected things happen that made me want to continue, but the pacing didn’t change very much: Something happened, then something else, and something else… and it’s not entirely clear where things were heading, so we’re mainly going along for the ride. That’s all right and well, but but maybe I would have hoped for a bit more intensity and higher stakes, all the while it was still interesting and well narrated.

The first couple of chapters gripped me off the bat, then I found myself a bit bored with the slightly dragged out (quite cliché but still well written) romance, before things stepped up a bit in intrigue and pace towards the last third of the book.

I would have liked to see certain people suffer a bit more at the hands of Morgan, but it was truly refreshing and empowering to see her grow into her own power. I enjoyed her as a fleshed out protagonist and the people she chose to place her trust in. I found the empowerment of women to be masterfully woven into this setting of formal courts and malign kings without making it into something overly feminist and unbelievable for the time period in which the story takes place.

Looking forward to reading the follow-up!

★★★★+