Interior art by Rovina Cai
184 pages
Published 2022
Read from May 5 to May 7
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
I’d heard so many good things about this book — it’s a finalist for the Nebula for best novel, after all — but hesitated to read it because Arthuriana doesn’t really appeal to me. (The one-word title, reminiscent of so many paint-by-numbers YA retreads, didn’t encourage my interest.) But finally I took a chance on it, and I’m so happy I did.
This book is magnificent, a beautiful and queer and bloody love letter to the complicated multicultural realities of Early Medieval Britain. Griffith’s prose is enrapturing, pulling us in with delicately observed details of nature and intimate magic, before flooring us with human feeling. I’m in love with the setting, which mingles archaeological knowledge of post-Roman Britain’s culture and diversity with the fae bewilderment of the Tuath Dé. This is a book I’ve wanted to read (without knowing it) my whole adult life.
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