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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fabulous
Loved this book from the first page. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres when done right. And Gregory did it right. As usual the movie didn't do the book justice ans I'm glad I watched it first or it would not have been nearly as good. I will definitely be reading more of Gregory's works.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
4.5 stars, rounded up.
Been wanting to read this book for quite a while now. I ended up watching the movie before I read this book. I liked the movie, even though it felt a bit low budget. Anyway, I was pretty excited to read this book. I discovered it’s very different from the movie but I still ended up really liking it. (As a side note, you do not need to have read other books in this “series” to understand the book).
If you know anything about this period of time, then you will have a good idea of what this book is about already. The story is from the perspective of the rather passive Mary Boleyn, who comes to the English court at the mere age of fourteen and captures the attention of the King, Henry VIII with her beauty. Mary comes from a very ambitious family, who sees this as an opportunity to further their station. They ruthlessly push Mary into the king’s arms, and the two fall in love. But when Mary becomes pregnant with Henry’s child, they can no longer have one another as they usually do and Henry drifts towards Mary’s sister, Anne, instead. Henry thinks he’s fallen in love with Anne, but really, he is still falling into the Boleyn family plans.
Anne is completely different from Mary. Anne is strong-willed and self centered. While Mary resigns to the fact that she has lost the king’s favor, Anne fights tooth and nail to keep Henry’s interest as other noble families try to push their beautiful daughters forward. However, Anne is not satisfied with mere interest. She is probably the most ambitious Bolelyn family member and she is aiming for the highest rank — to become Queen of England. Thus Anne becomes a driving force behind Henry’s decision to break away from the Roman church so he can divorce his wife, Queen Katherine of Aragon, in order to marry her instead. As Anne rises higher and higher, Mary finds herself sinking lower and lower. However, Mary is the one who becomes truly happy whereas Anne finds herself isolated and sad.
I really enjoyed this novel by Philippa Gregory, though that isn’t much of a surprise; I tend to fall in love with all her works. As I say with all historical novels — if you’re really picky with historical accuracy in fiction then you probably shouldn’t read this book though, and go get a biography instead (really, I don’t understand people who read historical fiction and then complain that it was too fictional)! I personally enjoyed this book a lot, it was full of twists and turns, though compared to the other two works of her’s that I read (The White Queen and The Red Queen), I liked this one a little less. I’m not sure why; like I said, I really enjoyed it but there’s something about it that didn’t grip me in quite the same way as the other books. I think it says something that I read The White Queen and The Red Queen fairly quickly, but The Other Boleyn Girl was was spread over a week’s time. The latter half of the book, when Anne kind of took over the story, got a lot more interesting though and I plowed through the last 250 pages. Even though the story had little similarity to the movie, it made me want to watch it all over again.
The characters are a bit one dimensional, I admit. Mary is portrayed as a very kind and passionate girl who just wants love, but is used by her family members for the betterment of the Boleyn name. She doesn’t have much of a backbone and rarely stands up for herself. Anne is portrayed as, simply put, a bitch. She was bossy, arrogant and plain mean. I haven’t read enough history on these two figures to have a clear idea of what most historians portray them as, but I’m sure they were not as black and white as Gregory presented them in this book. It certainly made it difficult to feel sorry for Anne near the end of the story, if it was written with that intention. For me, the entire journey to the end had me thinking, “Well, I know Anne will get her just desserts in the end, so joke’s on her” because truly, her character was so unlikeable. As for Mary, I did wish her character happiness, though it was a bit half hearted on my part. I mean, I think I understand why they were both presented as such extreme characters; to highlight the differences between the two sisters … but perhaps it was just a tad overdone.
The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical novel about love and lust, loyalty and betrayal in the world of royalty. From the viewpoint of Mary, this book tells the story of two sisters who rise and fall in opposite directions. It is, overall, and exciting story and I imagine it would be especially so for those of you who don’t have an inkling as to what happened during this time period in England (although, if you are such a person, I do recommend educating yourself on the real historical facts afterwards — it’s really very interesting!) I wholeheartedly recommend this book to others!
Been wanting to read this book for quite a while now. I ended up watching the movie before I read this book. I liked the movie, even though it felt a bit low budget. Anyway, I was pretty excited to read this book. I discovered it’s very different from the movie but I still ended up really liking it. (As a side note, you do not need to have read other books in this “series” to understand the book).
If you know anything about this period of time, then you will have a good idea of what this book is about already. The story is from the perspective of the rather passive Mary Boleyn, who comes to the English court at the mere age of fourteen and captures the attention of the King, Henry VIII with her beauty. Mary comes from a very ambitious family, who sees this as an opportunity to further their station. They ruthlessly push Mary into the king’s arms, and the two fall in love. But when Mary becomes pregnant with Henry’s child, they can no longer have one another as they usually do and Henry drifts towards Mary’s sister, Anne, instead. Henry thinks he’s fallen in love with Anne, but really, he is still falling into the Boleyn family plans.
Anne is completely different from Mary. Anne is strong-willed and self centered. While Mary resigns to the fact that she has lost the king’s favor, Anne fights tooth and nail to keep Henry’s interest as other noble families try to push their beautiful daughters forward. However, Anne is not satisfied with mere interest. She is probably the most ambitious Bolelyn family member and she is aiming for the highest rank — to become Queen of England. Thus Anne becomes a driving force behind Henry’s decision to break away from the Roman church so he can divorce his wife, Queen Katherine of Aragon, in order to marry her instead. As Anne rises higher and higher, Mary finds herself sinking lower and lower. However, Mary is the one who becomes truly happy whereas Anne finds herself isolated and sad.
I really enjoyed this novel by Philippa Gregory, though that isn’t much of a surprise; I tend to fall in love with all her works. As I say with all historical novels — if you’re really picky with historical accuracy in fiction then you probably shouldn’t read this book though, and go get a biography instead (really, I don’t understand people who read historical fiction and then complain that it was too fictional)! I personally enjoyed this book a lot, it was full of twists and turns, though compared to the other two works of her’s that I read (The White Queen and The Red Queen), I liked this one a little less. I’m not sure why; like I said, I really enjoyed it but there’s something about it that didn’t grip me in quite the same way as the other books. I think it says something that I read The White Queen and The Red Queen fairly quickly, but The Other Boleyn Girl was was spread over a week’s time. The latter half of the book, when Anne kind of took over the story, got a lot more interesting though and I plowed through the last 250 pages. Even though the story had little similarity to the movie, it made me want to watch it all over again.
The characters are a bit one dimensional, I admit. Mary is portrayed as a very kind and passionate girl who just wants love, but is used by her family members for the betterment of the Boleyn name. She doesn’t have much of a backbone and rarely stands up for herself. Anne is portrayed as, simply put, a bitch. She was bossy, arrogant and plain mean. I haven’t read enough history on these two figures to have a clear idea of what most historians portray them as, but I’m sure they were not as black and white as Gregory presented them in this book. It certainly made it difficult to feel sorry for Anne near the end of the story, if it was written with that intention. For me, the entire journey to the end had me thinking, “Well, I know Anne will get her just desserts in the end, so joke’s on her” because truly, her character was so unlikeable. As for Mary, I did wish her character happiness, though it was a bit half hearted on my part. I mean, I think I understand why they were both presented as such extreme characters; to highlight the differences between the two sisters … but perhaps it was just a tad overdone.
The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical novel about love and lust, loyalty and betrayal in the world of royalty. From the viewpoint of Mary, this book tells the story of two sisters who rise and fall in opposite directions. It is, overall, and exciting story and I imagine it would be especially so for those of you who don’t have an inkling as to what happened during this time period in England (although, if you are such a person, I do recommend educating yourself on the real historical facts afterwards — it’s really very interesting!) I wholeheartedly recommend this book to others!
I've read/watched so many versions of this story,and I found that I had a hard time separating the show The Tudors from what was going on in my imagination whilst reading this book. I enjoyed it, but I didn't find it to be a page-turner like others have stated. It was good, but I'd like more grit. Best comment in the book was at the end, when Gregory suggests that the charges against Anne and the others say more about the fantasies of Cromwell than the actions of those charged.
I am obsessed with the Tudors. Elizabeth I is my favorite, but Anne Boleyn runs a close second. This book is about Mary Boleyn and told from her perspective. It's a mix of fact and fiction, but an excellent, well-paced yarn. (had to throw that in to honor the period!) :)
i read this book few years ago, and it was my fav book of all time. Cannot wait for the movie. :-)
3.5 stars
This had been on my To Read shelf for a while, so I was glad to finally get to it AND to be able to check off the 'Novel based on a true story' category on the PopSugar Challenge (yes, I know it's historical fiction, but it's still based on the Boleyn girls which we know were real people). This was told from Mary Boleyn's (Carey) perspective.
As with all of Philippa's books, she does take creative license with the story, but tries to incorporate as much verifiable history as she can. That being said, I have read & seen a lot focused on Anne Boleyn and I've never seen this version of her. She had always had the appearance of having been thrust into the spotlight by her family (like her sister Mary) and was forced to go after Henry, but in this version she is very calculating, sneaky, vendictive & cruel (even to Mary & George who stand by her no matter the abuse she heaps on them) and stops at nothing to get what she wants. If this version of her is even half true, then she deserved the fate that she got.
Going into this, I didn't know much about Mary Boleyn (Carey) other than she was the original Boleyn sister that was Henry's mistress, had his child and was then usurped by Anne. Again, if this is even half true, then she deserved so much more and I wish she could have had "happily ever after" long before she got it and for much longer than she had it. While she had a more central role than Margaret Pole did in the story surrounding Elizabeth of York & Henry VII, she was still a little on the periphery & I'm finding that I like their stories more.
Both women were thrust into the middle of the storms surrounding their respective kings & were forced to be ladies in waiting and all they really wanted was to be with their children & live quiet lives out in the country and away from court. It's a shame that Mary was used & abused so badly by her family (do not get me started on their parents or that horrid uncle of theirs!!). If they had let her live her life, it's quite possible that they could have been a lot more wealthy on their own & not in the King's pocket. When she was able to "escape" to the country, she showed that she had an aptitude for farming and a head for what would grow best & where and could have made them a fortune, if only they stopped telling her she was stupid and let her make her own decisions.
I know this was a different time & place (and yes, still partially fiction), but as a strong independent women in the 20th/21st century, I hate seeing women treated as cattle, being told what to say/do/think and men thinking they are superior and "knowing what's best for you" and that it still happens in this day and age.
I would say that it's interesting to see the rise & fall of both Anne & Henry, but it's more infuriating than anything else. It's hard to imagine what England (& the world for that matter) would have turned out like if Arthur hadn't died on Katherine & they went on to rule or if he still died, but she gave Henry living sons. Things would probably turned out differently if Henry hadn't been a spoiled brat of a child that turned into a spoiled brat of a man & King who thought that everyone owed him everything, but that's a story someone else needs to write & give us an alternate history.
This had been on my To Read shelf for a while, so I was glad to finally get to it AND to be able to check off the 'Novel based on a true story' category on the PopSugar Challenge (yes, I know it's historical fiction, but it's still based on the Boleyn girls which we know were real people). This was told from Mary Boleyn's (Carey) perspective.
As with all of Philippa's books, she does take creative license with the story, but tries to incorporate as much verifiable history as she can. That being said, I have read & seen a lot focused on Anne Boleyn and I've never seen this version of her. She had always had the appearance of having been thrust into the spotlight by her family (like her sister Mary) and was forced to go after Henry, but in this version she is very calculating, sneaky, vendictive & cruel (even to Mary & George who stand by her no matter the abuse she heaps on them) and stops at nothing to get what she wants. If this version of her is even half true, then she deserved the fate that she got.
Going into this, I didn't know much about Mary Boleyn (Carey) other than she was the original Boleyn sister that was Henry's mistress, had his child and was then usurped by Anne. Again, if this is even half true, then she deserved so much more and I wish she could have had "happily ever after" long before she got it and for much longer than she had it. While she had a more central role than Margaret Pole did in the story surrounding Elizabeth of York & Henry VII, she was still a little on the periphery & I'm finding that I like their stories more.
Both women were thrust into the middle of the storms surrounding their respective kings & were forced to be ladies in waiting and all they really wanted was to be with their children & live quiet lives out in the country and away from court. It's a shame that Mary was used & abused so badly by her family (do not get me started on their parents or that horrid uncle of theirs!!). If they had let her live her life, it's quite possible that they could have been a lot more wealthy on their own & not in the King's pocket. When she was able to "escape" to the country, she showed that she had an aptitude for farming and a head for what would grow best & where and could have made them a fortune, if only they stopped telling her she was stupid and let her make her own decisions.
I know this was a different time & place (and yes, still partially fiction), but as a strong independent women in the 20th/21st century, I hate seeing women treated as cattle, being told what to say/do/think and men thinking they are superior and "knowing what's best for you" and that it still happens in this day and age.
I would say that it's interesting to see the rise & fall of both Anne & Henry, but it's more infuriating than anything else. It's hard to imagine what England (& the world for that matter) would have turned out like if Arthur hadn't died on Katherine & they went on to rule or if he still died, but she gave Henry living sons. Things would probably turned out differently if Henry hadn't been a spoiled brat of a child that turned into a spoiled brat of a man & King who thought that everyone owed him everything, but that's a story someone else needs to write & give us an alternate history.
There were a lot of climactic moments in this book...almost too many. At some point, I really just wanted the book to end.