Q: Do you like retellings? What is one you haven’t seen you wish would be done?
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Half Sick of Shadows
Laura Sebastian
#arcreview
Pub Date: July 6, 2021
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“Maiden, Mother and Crone”

This is a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend. The young Arthur, Morgana, Guinevere, Elaine and Lancelot as they grew up in Avalon with the Fae and formed their relationships.

Then returned home to Camelot where magic was outlawed other than Merlin each of them having some power to hide other than Arthur. Arthur has to prove himself and LET the quests begin! 

All the while Elaine the seer is seeing multiple endings for all of her friends, her found family. She’s trying to make the right decisions to set them on different paths not knowing if she’s solidifying the right or wrong path. What a very significant and heavy gift to wield. 

To be able to see how many different ways your heart will break but still choose love is bittersweet.

I love reading the authors note at the end it usually gives you a look inside why they shared this story with you. And this book was started when the author was 14, which we also learned from the foreword, but from reading Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott and connecting it to the images of her in the tower.

This retelling giving Elaine all of the power and the one who made all of the decisions to lead the fiercesome five into legend.

Thank you berkley pub and net galley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review. 

This was also my Book of the Month choice for last month. 

2nd pic: magnetic bookmark from @alicia_marks_it on IG – I just love these little book stacks. Have you read these books? I’ve read them all! I adored them all for different ways.

Synopsis:

Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come–for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future.

On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends–countless possibilities, almost all of them tragic.

When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle.

As visions are fulfilled and an inevitable fate closes in, Elaine must decide how far she will go to change fate–and what she is willing to sacrifice along the way.

The Lady of Shalott reclaims her story in this bold feminist reimagining of the Arthurian myth from the New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess.