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A review by daniel_faniel
Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kirstin Downey
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Read this in preparation for my trip to Spain and I’m glad I did.
I like how beginner-friendly this book is, in the sense of newcomers to Spanish history (me who knew basically nothing). She provides maybe too much context. I enjoyed everything and learned so much, but there were some parts where she writes about other people, which was necessary, but I just wanted to get back to Isabella’s life because she was so interesting.
Her portrayal of Muslims is also important to mention because the author specifically says that she’s writing in the perspective of Isabella during her time. Meaning, Muslims/enemies of Spain are written about as Isabella would’ve known them to be. This provided great context to understanding Isabella’s motivations and fears, but left much to desired in terms of a nuanced depiction.
Overall, Isabella’s life is super interesting and so much more globally and historically impactful than I realized. I really wanna learn about her children now.
I like how beginner-friendly this book is, in the sense of newcomers to Spanish history (me who knew basically nothing). She provides maybe too much context. I enjoyed everything and learned so much, but there were some parts where she writes about other people, which was necessary, but I just wanted to get back to Isabella’s life because she was so interesting.
Her portrayal of Muslims is also important to mention because the author specifically says that she’s writing in the perspective of Isabella during her time. Meaning, Muslims/enemies of Spain are written about as Isabella would’ve known them to be. This provided great context to understanding Isabella’s motivations and fears, but left much to desired in terms of a nuanced depiction.
Overall, Isabella’s life is super interesting and so much more globally and historically impactful than I realized. I really wanna learn about her children now.