A Magical Story

English Review!

Rating:
4 out of 5 stars

Summary:
In this novel, we follow the story of Elizabeth Woodville, later Elizabeth Grey and later again Elizabeth of York, as she becomes the queen of England.
Elizabeth’s first husband, Sir John Grey, has died and she needs a favour of the king, Edward of York. They meet and the spark immediately strikes! They marry in private and don’t let anyone, except maybe three people, know about this until Edward is back from war and they can announce their marriage properly.
After the announcement, Elizabeth becomes queen and the rest of the story entails all kinds of events.
One of the largest and noteworthy storylines in this novel is the one about Melusina. Elizabeth and her mother have descended from this water-goddess and they hold on to their believes strongly. The themes of magic and witchcraft are, hence, very prominently present throughout the novel.

Writing style & form:
I have read this novel twice in 2021 (since I’m writing my thesis on it, that is) and the writing style does not get boring whatsoever. The story is told from Elizabeth’s perspective and the main storyline is altered with pieces of the legend of Melusina. This way, the story itself and the references to Melusina in it can be tied together more and more and many connections can be made every time there’s a piece about Melusina.

The lay-out of the cover is very nicely connected with the lay out in the novel. On the cover of my version are golden plants and crowns and these plants come back within the chapters to divide between pieces.
These crowns on the cover, obviously, refer to Elizabeth as queen and the drawing on the cover shows Elizabeth with her veil in a medieval style of art. This is very fitting to the plot.
Furthermore, the beginnings of the chapters all have a nice, small drawing in the medieval style, which also ties in with the time period in which the story takes place.

Instead of having chapter titles or just numbers, the chapters are labelled with a date. Either a specific date, an event (like Christmas) or a year. I really appreciate that, since it emphasises more in what era this novel takes place.
Plot:
I have a lot to say about the plot, but most I will say in my thesis ;). I think the plot is very well written. The time and place in which it is set is well established and clear. There are many references to events happening in the time as well as the chapters that are named with dates. I do, however, think that the use of language is a bit too modern for the time in which it takes place.

Moreover, the characters, especially Elizabeth’s character, is very well written. I really like how we see everything from her perspective and do not have any general information from an omniscient narrator, but on the other hand, I would have liked some more information on the other characters that is not just Elizabeth’s opinion, but more factual.

And lastly, I really love the aspect of magic and witchcraft in the novel. There’s much to say about the content, but I would prefer to focus on the atmosphere it gives the novel. Witchcraft and the witch hunts were a very large theme in the late Middle Ages and this can be seen in the novel as well. The content is not always as believable as could be, but it mainly rules out stereotypes about witches we have now and it sheds a light on the theme in a different way than we’re used to and I really appreciate that.

Conclusion:
I think this is a great novel if you like history! There’s much information about historical events, but there’s also a large part of fiction in this novel and the combination of both makes a serious, but fun plot. Gregory really writes as if you’re in the Middle Ages with the characters, but at the same time, she writes a story about a woman becoming more and more strong and powerful (like a Bildungsroman) and it’s just a great story!