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A review by slime
Sins of the House of Borgia by Sarah Bower
3.0
Sins of the House of Borgia is the story of a young Jewish girl who, after fleeing prosecution in Spain, becomes a handmaiden for Lucrezia Borgia. Originally named Esther, she is eventually renamed Violante and falls in love with Cesare Borgia.
For the most part, I liked the book. It was really interesting to read about the Borgias, especially Lucrezia. While the author took some artistic license, there were a lot of historical details, and it seemed well-researched. The writing was very good; however, one thing that really bothered me was all of the sentence fragments. They're ok. Except when there are too many. Like this. Then it's annoying.
The title of the book isn't all that accurate. Yes, there is much written about both Lucrezia and Cesare; however, the rest of the family seems to be added in as an afterthought. Pope Alexander is hardly even mentioned, even though he is arguably the heart of all of the family's corruption. Also irritating is the main character herself. Violante, who used to be Donata, who used to be Esther... throughout the whole book, she never really does anything. She just allows things to happen to her, and hardly ever takes an active role. In fact, none of the characters are particularly sympathetic, though I guess that may have been the point of the novel.
All in all, I would read the book for the history, and not the story.
For the most part, I liked the book. It was really interesting to read about the Borgias, especially Lucrezia. While the author took some artistic license, there were a lot of historical details, and it seemed well-researched. The writing was very good; however, one thing that really bothered me was all of the sentence fragments. They're ok. Except when there are too many. Like this. Then it's annoying.
The title of the book isn't all that accurate. Yes, there is much written about both Lucrezia and Cesare; however, the rest of the family seems to be added in as an afterthought. Pope Alexander is hardly even mentioned, even though he is arguably the heart of all of the family's corruption. Also irritating is the main character herself. Violante, who used to be Donata, who used to be Esther... throughout the whole book, she never really does anything. She just allows things to happen to her, and hardly ever takes an active role. In fact, none of the characters are particularly sympathetic, though I guess that may have been the point of the novel.
All in all, I would read the book for the history, and not the story.