Reviews

Requiem for a Knave by Laura Carlin

carolyn0613's review against another edition

5.0

Set in old England, Alwin is a young man on a quest to find out what his dying mother's last words mean. He leaves his rural home and travels to meet a group of other pilgrims. He gets caught up in terrible events. No-one is what they seem. Alwin can't tell who to trust and his innocence is stripped from him.

I loved this book. I have read a previous book by this author and liked that too, but I think I like this one better! It gets you thinking about men and women and how we view the different gender roles - very on topic. It's beautifully written with strongly portrayed characters, A very good read

livres_de_bloss's review against another edition

3.0

While the overall story was interesting, I got so bogged down in the painfully descriptive writing that, in the end, I came to dread picking this up. A good yarn dampened by being overly verbose.

windy_witch's review against another edition

4.0

This story follows young Alwin, a poor farm boy on his quest for the truth about his father following the death of his mother.

Alwin witnesses some terrible crimes along his journey for the truth all of which will haunt him for some time. The mediaeval times were certainly not for the faint hearted. A great read which focused on some great points around gender equality and politics.

sprinkledwithwords's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

 

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book especially when compared to the author's debut "The Wicked Cometh". The characters' reactions seemed unrealistic, the dialogue long (eg: "How long have I been here?" / "The moon is three nights older than when you arrived." - why not just say "three nights"?!), and the big revelation of the main character was barely mentioned.

 

jmatkinson1's review

3.0

When his mother dies Alwin of Whitaker is told to go on pilgrimage to Walsingham to find the truth about his parentage. After witnessing a horror perpetrated by a noble he teams up with his mentor, a priest, and a band of others, he travels forward. However as the women in the party are killed in unusual circumstances Alwin doubts everything he has been told and when the truth is revealed to him then Alwin has to make changes to live his life in peace.
The plotline of this novel is seemingly very dynamic with lots going on and some quite profound character trajectories. When reading, however, I found the book slight and couldn't understand why. It's not that it is not an enjoyable read, it's just a very easy read considering everything.

rebeccalong's review against another edition

3.0

3.5

th18's review

Too much misogyny 

geekylou's review

5.0

This book was so good. Set in medieval times with some shocking twists it's a favourite of mine in a while. The writing has a lyrical quality to it and just can't say enough about it. Brilliant.

circlesofflame's review

3.0

This is a historical fiction tale which shows the intersection between gender identity, gender politics, LGBTQ+ issues and religion in 1300s England, extending the typical journey narrative to religious pilgrimage in order to find oneself in terms of ancestry and spiritual nature. As a result, this had a lot of areas that I'm really interested in exploring through fiction... yet, I didn't love it.

Early on in the novel, it shows us a very intense scene

Spoiler

TW: nun rape

and it takes a while to diffuse that tension and get back into its stride. I'd even go so far as to say that it doesn't begin to get interesting until over a third of the way into the book. I know it's a journeying book and those stories are generally slower - I like slow books sometimes - but this is way too sedate. There's a lot of unnecessary description and time spent with characters doing humdrum things, neither of which advance the plot or provide required context - in short, there's a lot of filler text and I think the book could have had perhaps a quarter shaved off its length.

I personally didn't warm to our main character at all and stayed with the narrative for more interesting side characters and to see how some of their experiences interlinked. I guessed the main reveal about our main character pretty much from the start, but absolutely didn't expect the plot to take the sinister turn it did or for it to end where it did - I was surprised that I had thirty more pages to read!

Given that I've read two books by this author, both with slightly odd reading experiences, I can say that I love the themes the books explore, but I don't connect with Carlin's writing or characters very easily and it takes me a while to get into their books. Although I'm likely to read more from Laura Carlin, it's probably worth me knowing those things before I pick up more of their work.

annarella's review

4.0

I truly enjoyed this dark and engrossing story that is a mix of romance and historical fiction.
I was fascinated by the great style of writing and loved the well researched historical background.
The characters are fleshed out and interesting, the storytelling is excellent and the it keeps you hooked.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.