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naomi_k's review
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Misogyny
Moderate: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Sexual content
Minor: War and Classism
angelofthetardis's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
This jumped to the top of my TBR queue by accident. I watched the Netflix series a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed it, and then when I was scanning through my library's ebook catalogue I happened to spot this as available. Having looked into it, I understand that the book was commissioned as a companion piece to the series, rather than the series being based on the book.
I therefore find it incredibly odd that the book doesn't cover nearly so much ground as the series. The book barely gets you to the half way point, and the majority of the sub-plots are missing. Essentially, this is the most stripped back telling of the classic trope of a 'commoner' falling for a Prince, and suddenly being shocked at the changes to their life but putting up with it for love. And if it doesn't compare well the series it's based on, it certainly isn't up there with the best of this type of tale. Most of the scenes from the book are recognisable if you've seen the series, but they lack the depth, emotion and narrative meaning that are conveyed in the visual form. I only really cared about what was going on because I've seen the show, and that influence means I can at least recommend this as a 'cliff notes' version of the series. While the uncomfortable moment of Elisabeth's 'innocence inspection' is certainly the most vivid part of the book, it still fails to garner the sympathy and horror that the acted scene conveys.
The writing meanders from flat and lifeless to gushing and overly-romanticised, but in the opposite places to where you would expect. The scenes with Franz and Elisabeth getting closer, and starting to head towards intimacy are painfully wooden; he puts his hand here, she touches his chest there. There's no spark, flow or heat the draws you into the belief that they are desperate to be together. And yet small moments that are not capitalised upon (as perhaps they are in the series), such as Maxie talking to himself about how to explain his feelings to Elisabeth, have much more oomph behind them but are totally out of character and so feel wasted.
There is also a lot of telling, rather than showing. The biggest example of this; you are told the colour of EVERYTHING. The descriptions of rooms aren't necessarily long, but they're included in what feels like every scene and they're quite precise, so your mind is too busy trying to conjure up this incredibly detailed backdrop rather than focusing on the action. There's a similar issue with the outfits (particularly the dresses, but it happens with the men's uniforms too); the colour of every layer is noted more often than I can count. It just felt like useless information overload, and by the time I got a good way into the book, I just had to roll my eyes and try to drown it out.
The narrators did a good job with the material, but again it felt like a half-hearted effort by the producers, and a strange mish-mash of neither straight narration, nor graphic audio. Burgess would narrate the scenes told from Franz' point of view, and Boswell those told from Elisabeth's. But she would also then narrate the chapters told from Helena's perspective, and both would voice the opposite characters in their own chapters. It feels like they should have either hired a third actor to narrate Helena's POV to truly separate things out (even though there aren't a huge number of chapters for her), or gone more down the audio play route and had each person 'voice' their character throughout, with a narrator reading the description. There also a few pronunciation issues at various points which caused a small amount of annoyance.
I know nothing about the real life Elisabeth and Franz, but I learned far more from the Netflix series than I did from this. While there are of course some historical inaccuracies (it is historical fiction after all), after doing a bit of Googling on the subject I think the show far more powerfully depicts at least a version of the truth. The simplicity of the book barely scratches the surface.
Seriously, go and watch the show. It's far better and a better use of your time.
I therefore find it incredibly odd that the book doesn't cover nearly so much ground as the series. The book barely gets you to the half way point, and the majority of the sub-plots are missing. Essentially, this is the most stripped back telling of the classic trope of a 'commoner' falling for a Prince, and suddenly being shocked at the changes to their life but putting up with it for love. And if it doesn't compare well the series it's based on, it certainly isn't up there with the best of this type of tale. Most of the scenes from the book are recognisable if you've seen the series, but they lack the depth, emotion and narrative meaning that are conveyed in the visual form. I only really cared about what was going on because I've seen the show, and that influence means I can at least recommend this as a 'cliff notes' version of the series. While the uncomfortable moment of Elisabeth's 'innocence inspection' is certainly the most vivid part of the book, it still fails to garner the sympathy and horror that the acted scene conveys.
The writing meanders from flat and lifeless to gushing and overly-romanticised, but in the opposite places to where you would expect. The scenes with Franz and Elisabeth getting closer, and starting to head towards intimacy are painfully wooden; he puts his hand here, she touches his chest there. There's no spark, flow or heat the draws you into the belief that they are desperate to be together. And yet small moments that are not capitalised upon (as perhaps they are in the series), such as Maxie talking to himself about how to explain his feelings to Elisabeth, have much more oomph behind them but are totally out of character and so feel wasted.
There is also a lot of telling, rather than showing. The biggest example of this; you are told the colour of EVERYTHING. The descriptions of rooms aren't necessarily long, but they're included in what feels like every scene and they're quite precise, so your mind is too busy trying to conjure up this incredibly detailed backdrop rather than focusing on the action. There's a similar issue with the outfits (particularly the dresses, but it happens with the men's uniforms too); the colour of every layer is noted more often than I can count. It just felt like useless information overload, and by the time I got a good way into the book, I just had to roll my eyes and try to drown it out.
The narrators did a good job with the material, but again it felt like a half-hearted effort by the producers, and a strange mish-mash of neither straight narration, nor graphic audio. Burgess would narrate the scenes told from Franz' point of view, and Boswell those told from Elisabeth's. But she would also then narrate the chapters told from Helena's perspective, and both would voice the opposite characters in their own chapters. It feels like they should have either hired a third actor to narrate Helena's POV to truly separate things out (even though there aren't a huge number of chapters for her), or gone more down the audio play route and had each person 'voice' their character throughout, with a narrator reading the description. There also a few pronunciation issues at various points which caused a small amount of annoyance.
I know nothing about the real life Elisabeth and Franz, but I learned far more from the Netflix series than I did from this. While there are of course some historical inaccuracies (it is historical fiction after all), after doing a bit of Googling on the subject I think the show far more powerfully depicts at least a version of the truth. The simplicity of the book barely scratches the surface.
Seriously, go and watch the show. It's far better and a better use of your time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: War and Animal death
Minor: Child death, Death, and Suicide attempt
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