A review by the_mad_bird_diaries
The Cleaving by Juliet E. McKenna

Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.

So, I think that the marketing aspect is a little bit tricky for this book. 

It is described as "A new, feminist retelling of the Arthurian legends" and that's why I wanted to read it so much. I have a rather deep knowledge of these legends and wanted something new and fresh. 

 

When I hear the word "retelling" I think about new story elements, the subversion of tropes, changes in motivation, and reflecting on an old story with a modern mindset. 

 

That is what I expected from The Cleaving from the marketing blurbs. Especially because it was described as a feminist retelling.  

 

But it is not what I got from the book itself. 

 

The book follows the plot of the Arthurian legends as they are, and the only change, really – is the POV. Our POV is Nimue and we see the events through her eyes. But her position(as the position of other women in this story) is the same – she isn't a proactive character and the changer, but now we see much more suffering and research it deeper. But it doesn't change anything for the story.  

 

Reading original legend texts I already knew the fate of Ygraine, for example – and was horrified by it. But if in the original text, it was 5 pages, here it is 20% of the book. Did I need to see it? To explore this sad story deeper and get the same conclusion? I don't think so.  

 

So here we are – I think I'm not a target audience of this book. I know too much to be really interested in it. I think the perfect audience is readers who heard something about King Arthur and are interested in him but are not that familiar with the legends. In this case, this journey can be engaging, though still sad.  

 

The writing was nice and the characters have some depth, so I think this story has potential. But the key is to make the right marketing for it. I don't feel like it's a retelling, and it doesn't feel like a feminist story to me.  

 

I decided to DNF this book after reading the initial 40% - I think I read enough to be sure that this book will not work for me. All the events were as I know them from legends and the change of POV isn't enough to engage me in the story. 

 

I'm really grateful to  Angry Robot and Edelweiss for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.