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aliteraryescape's review
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Sexism
luanagomes's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
What if we could see the story of Arthur through female lenses?
That's the premise for The Cleaving, by Juliet McKenna, which sets out to be a retelling of the Arthurian legend, giving its female characters the chance to tell their part in this saga.
The protagonist here is Nimue, and throughout the story, we also meet and learn from the tales of Ygraine, Morgana and Guinevere. We see through their eyes how Arthur took the stage while Merlin worked his magic from backstage, expanding the new king's power and reach.
The story follows somewhat the same line as the original story, but the twist here is that the main male characters, often in the spotlight for its virtues, are now in it for their failings.
While I liked the book fine, I felt it did not live up to what it set out to be.
It had a feminine gaze for sure, but not a feminist one - there was potential for including important discussions on gender and patriarchy, but they mostly did not happen or were very surface-level ones. I was also expecting some minor discussions on religion, as they were an integral part of the original story, but they were not present there as well, and that made the setting/world-building lacking to me.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but I would only recommend this book to readers that do not know much about the Arthurian legends and looking to ease into this journey. As it does not bring much political and cultural leanings, it really works best for beginners. If you have already read other materials, such as The mists of Avalon, for example, I believe this book would feel very underwhelmed to you.
Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for providing an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
That's the premise for The Cleaving, by Juliet McKenna, which sets out to be a retelling of the Arthurian legend, giving its female characters the chance to tell their part in this saga.
The protagonist here is Nimue, and throughout the story, we also meet and learn from the tales of Ygraine, Morgana and Guinevere. We see through their eyes how Arthur took the stage while Merlin worked his magic from backstage, expanding the new king's power and reach.
The story follows somewhat the same line as the original story, but the twist here is that the main male characters, often in the spotlight for its virtues, are now in it for their failings.
While I liked the book fine, I felt it did not live up to what it set out to be.
It had a feminine gaze for sure, but not a feminist one - there was potential for including important discussions on gender and patriarchy, but they mostly did not happen or were very surface-level ones. I was also expecting some minor discussions on religion, as they were an integral part of the original story, but they were not present there as well, and that made the setting/world-building lacking to me.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but I would only recommend this book to readers that do not know much about the Arthurian legends and looking to ease into this journey. As it does not bring much political and cultural leanings, it really works best for beginners. If you have already read other materials, such as The mists of Avalon, for example, I believe this book would feel very underwhelmed to you.
Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for providing an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
myadventurewithbooks's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
bookaddictjax's review
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ecrirejenesaisquoi's review
2.0
I don't know how I feel about this, which in itself should be pretty telling. Ok, I'll admit it: the cover was just too pretty to pass up, so this is partly on me. I also think the writing was fine, but "The Cleaving" isn't what it suggested it was in its blurb. It just wasn't super exciting to read. I think I would have enjoyed this, had I known what I was really getting myself into, so the marketing on this one was rather misleading.
thepurplebookwyrm's review
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
The Cleaving is presented as a feminist retelling of the Arthurian Legend. As a mythology nerd who loves the Arthurian Mythos in particular, and holds The Mists of Avalon as her favourite standalone fantasy novel of all time, I was looking forward to reading this new – significantly shorter – retelling. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by this offering.
Her version of the Legend has the (faerie?) sorceress/enchantress Nimue as her sole main character, starts before Arthur’s conception, and extends to the traditional ending of the tale.
1) Writing:
I don’t have anything that specific to note about the prose here. There was decent usage of setting-appropriate vocabulary, but nothing otherwise stood out. The narration, in first person, was very straightforward; there was nothing particularly poetic or inspiring about it. The pacing was relatively even throughout, and this despite a couple of time jumps – which were necessary given the scale of the original tale and the less-than 400 pages count.
2) Character work:
I found it rather weak and surface-level overall, especially where the main character, Nimue, was concerned: almost no background was actually given for her in the text. The same pretty much went for all the other main characters, female and male alike. With regards to the latter especially: whilst I found it an interesting choice on the author’s part to cast some traditionally positive main male characters in a negative (to very negative) light, I felt the potential for engaging theming around gender and gendered power dynamics through those characters was largely wasted. There wasn’t sufficient psychological or sociological development in the text to prop all of this up, and I was left with a rather bland, superficial “all the men are bad here because patriarchal society” vibe that could’ve been explored with more depth, and never was.
3) World-building:
I was seriously let down with both the fantastical and historical world-building. For one thing, there was historically inaccurate terminology used in the text that could have very easily been corrected without having to transform the story into actual historical fiction. The terms “Welsh, Scots, and English” are used in a completely anachronistic fashion, and I just could not get over that. The Britons of Logres would not have been speaking English at the time of the tale, and would not have called themselves English! The Kingdom of Alba had not yet been established, and the peoples of “Scotland” would not have identified themselves as a Scottish nation, etc… There was also absolutely no reference to a Roman past, or a pagan one, when “faeries” and Avalon are referenced, and Christianity is as well. The tension between fading paganism and rising Christianity is, to me, a staple of the Arthurian motif, and it felt strange that it was completely absent here. At the very least, if would’ve provided much needed narrative drive and tension.
As to the purely fantastical world-building, I also found it rather lacklustre, as nothing much is ever said of it. Since paganism as a religion or spiritual backdrop is completely absent, the world of magic could not be tied to it, and thus felt quite empty. Simply there without any explanation: Nimue’s people exist… and that’s about it.
4) Theming:
There are a couple of remarks dropped here and there about power dynamics between men and women, and about the fact women are treated like chattel, but beyond that? One cannot call this a feminist retelling in any real sense of the word. Especially not when something like The Mists of Avalon exists. Besides, and beyond that, I didn’t find there was anything particularly moving or thought-provoking about this retelling more generally. The story lacked drive, quite simply, and the ending of the tale felt incredibly weak to me.
Conclusion:
At the end of the day, I just didn’t really get the over-arching point of the story. Why the characters acted the way they did, why the story progressed the way it did. I really do believe this is largely because of the fact it is so detached from its original historical and socio-religious context and, like I said, the fantastical elements of the story didn’t compensate sufficiently for that.
I would only recommend this novel to younger/novice readers as an entry point into Arthurian fiction and Arthurian Legend retellings. But if you’ve already read, and loved, something like The Mists of Avalon, or Bernard Cornwell’s The Warlord Chronicles, this one will sadly not be worth your time.
The Cleaving is presented as a feminist retelling of the Arthurian Legend. As a mythology nerd who loves the Arthurian Mythos in particular, and holds The Mists of Avalon as her favourite standalone fantasy novel of all time, I was looking forward to reading this new – significantly shorter – retelling. Unfortunately, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by this offering.
Her version of the Legend has the (faerie?) sorceress/enchantress Nimue as her sole main character, starts before Arthur’s conception, and extends to the traditional ending of the tale.
1) Writing:
I don’t have anything that specific to note about the prose here. There was decent usage of setting-appropriate vocabulary, but nothing otherwise stood out. The narration, in first person, was very straightforward; there was nothing particularly poetic or inspiring about it. The pacing was relatively even throughout, and this despite a couple of time jumps – which were necessary given the scale of the original tale and the less-than 400 pages count.
2) Character work:
I found it rather weak and surface-level overall, especially where the main character, Nimue, was concerned: almost no background was actually given for her in the text. The same pretty much went for all the other main characters, female and male alike. With regards to the latter especially: whilst I found it an interesting choice on the author’s part to cast some traditionally positive main male characters in a negative (to very negative) light, I felt the potential for engaging theming around gender and gendered power dynamics through those characters was largely wasted. There wasn’t sufficient psychological or sociological development in the text to prop all of this up, and I was left with a rather bland, superficial “all the men are bad here because patriarchal society” vibe that could’ve been explored with more depth, and never was.
3) World-building:
I was seriously let down with both the fantastical and historical world-building. For one thing, there was historically inaccurate terminology used in the text that could have very easily been corrected without having to transform the story into actual historical fiction. The terms “Welsh, Scots, and English” are used in a completely anachronistic fashion, and I just could not get over that. The Britons of Logres would not have been speaking English at the time of the tale, and would not have called themselves English! The Kingdom of Alba had not yet been established, and the peoples of “Scotland” would not have identified themselves as a Scottish nation, etc… There was also absolutely no reference to a Roman past, or a pagan one, when “faeries” and Avalon are referenced, and Christianity is as well. The tension between fading paganism and rising Christianity is, to me, a staple of the Arthurian motif, and it felt strange that it was completely absent here. At the very least, if would’ve provided much needed narrative drive and tension.
As to the purely fantastical world-building, I also found it rather lacklustre, as nothing much is ever said of it. Since paganism as a religion or spiritual backdrop is completely absent, the world of magic could not be tied to it, and thus felt quite empty. Simply there without any explanation: Nimue’s people exist… and that’s about it.
4) Theming:
There are a couple of remarks dropped here and there about power dynamics between men and women, and about the fact women are treated like chattel, but beyond that? One cannot call this a feminist retelling in any real sense of the word. Especially not when something like The Mists of Avalon exists. Besides, and beyond that, I didn’t find there was anything particularly moving or thought-provoking about this retelling more generally. The story lacked drive, quite simply, and the ending of the tale felt incredibly weak to me.
Conclusion:
At the end of the day, I just didn’t really get the over-arching point of the story. Why the characters acted the way they did, why the story progressed the way it did. I really do believe this is largely because of the fact it is so detached from its original historical and socio-religious context and, like I said, the fantastical elements of the story didn’t compensate sufficiently for that.
I would only recommend this novel to younger/novice readers as an entry point into Arthurian fiction and Arthurian Legend retellings. But if you’ve already read, and loved, something like The Mists of Avalon, or Bernard Cornwell’s The Warlord Chronicles, this one will sadly not be worth your time.
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