A review by jessbc91
The Nightingale's Castle by Sonia Velton

5.0

The Hungarian legend of countess Elizabeth Bàthory comes to life in this fictional account of the goings on in the late 1500s, when Bàthory is supposed to have tortured and killed hundreds of servant girls in her employ. About 200 years after her conviction, the legend evolves to claim she bathed in the blood of her victims to preserve her youth. The author of this novel does a great job of honoring the available historical documents concerning the trial, accomplices, other relations, and politics at the time. The end does not provide a clean conclusion of the countess’s innocence nor guilt, rather, leaves the reader with the historical facts to contemplate and draw their own conclusions. Very well done. I did sometimes have a bit of trouble following the characters relations to one another, and following who the characters were since some of their names are very similar. And there is something about a witch and one of the noble girls at the end that I didn’t fully understand… but I really enjoyed this story. **The author also includes authors notes at the end that explain the history behind the story! Very interesting.