Reviews - The Pretender | The StoryGraph

277 reviews for:

The Pretender

Jo Harkin

4.14 AVERAGE

ktdid21's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Although it is slow, the writing of Seminal/John/Edward was fabulous from a funny bumpkin, to love struck teen, wronged young man, to adulthood was a great journey to go on.

thestarrfish's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

It’s been a while since I have read historical fiction focusing on this time/place, I really enjoyed it and in many ways it reminded me of the books I liked to read as a kid. That said, much grittier, dealt with harsh realities much more hands-on, and was a bit queerer as well (all positives in my book!). Lambert is super compelling, it is odd to find a like child royal/spy for the king of England so sympathetic.

jcbateman's review against another edition

4.25

dark funny sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

anna__b's review against another edition

4.25

I read Harkin's first book back when it first came out, and enjoyed it enough to keep an eye out for her next one. Tell Me An Ending is a Black Mirror-esque exploration of an imaginary technology, so I was really surprised to see she was following it up with this very realistic historical fiction. Overall, I think it turned out as a success, and I'll definitely continue to follow the author's career.

Where this book really shines is the characterization of its protagonist, who I'll call Simnel for efficiency's sake. Following him on his journey from a naive farmer's son to a reluctant teenage king to a jaded and hopeless adult was very compelling. Harkin has a way of writing Simnel's thought patterns, especially when it came to his journey with religion, that just made him feel very real and very sympathetic. The side characters weren't nearly as deeply developed, but at least with the key players, you did get a good sense of their personalities and quirks from a relatively small amount of description. I also thought she did a good job of capturing the historical atmosphere, although she did sort of fall into the trap of relying too much on sex jokes/"bawdiness" to make the people of the past seem more relatable. (But I'll admit there were some scenes that really made me laugh.)

Where it suffered a bit is the pacing. And yes, to be fair, this is tied to real-life history so there's only so much you can do with the timing of events, but we're already taking a lot of liberties with what little is known of the real-life Lambert Simnel. The middle could've been sped up a bit, especially the part in France, but it was the ending section after Simnel joins Henry's court that really dragged on for me. Overall though, this was an engaging and emotionally compelling read, that taught me a decent amount of English history to boot.