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A review by phoenix53
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
slow-paced
2.75
'All the York family are a bloodthirsty lot, born and raised on the battlefield.'
That quotation might lead you to believe that this will be a fun book, but it's actually very long and very dull. The biggest problem is the main character.
In this telling, Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort of Edward IV, dresses beautifully, sits in rooms doing embroidery, and waits for her husband to come back from war. (During the first half of The White Queen, there are an interminable number of scenes of the King saying 'Goodbye my love, I must go off to battle again.') Unfortunately, most of the time, Elizabeth is the point-of-view character. She doesn't experience anything interesting herself, so all the exciting events take place off-screen. She is so passive that Philippa Gregory has to bring in witchcraft in order for Elizabeth to have a glimmer of agency through casting spells.
When the author occasionally leaves Elizabeth and goes off with Edward, the novel comes alive: Gregory can write the hell out of a battle scene.
Elizabeth comes more into her own in the second half of the novel. She starts playing a more active role in shaping events. But now, the problem is that she's unlikeable. Her motivations are power, greed, spite and vengeance. (Again, this makes the novel sound more fun than it is. The pacing is super slow.)
In the last section, Gregory explores several possible explanations for the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, and once again this slows down the story terribly. She should have picked a theory that explains Elizabeth's very odd behaviour better than the others, and run with it. This is fiction, not a history book.
Ending the novel before the Battle of Bosworth is also a poor narrative choice. Of course it sets up the next book in the series, but it renders this first instalment incomplete and unsatisfying.
That quotation might lead you to believe that this will be a fun book, but it's actually very long and very dull. The biggest problem is the main character.
In this telling, Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort of Edward IV, dresses beautifully, sits in rooms doing embroidery, and waits for her husband to come back from war. (During the first half of The White Queen, there are an interminable number of scenes of the King saying 'Goodbye my love, I must go off to battle again.') Unfortunately, most of the time, Elizabeth is the point-of-view character. She doesn't experience anything interesting herself, so all the exciting events take place off-screen. She is so passive that Philippa Gregory has to bring in witchcraft in order for Elizabeth to have a glimmer of agency through casting spells.
When the author occasionally leaves Elizabeth and goes off with Edward, the novel comes alive: Gregory can write the hell out of a battle scene.
Elizabeth comes more into her own in the second half of the novel. She starts playing a more active role in shaping events. But now, the problem is that she's unlikeable. Her motivations are power, greed, spite and vengeance. (Again, this makes the novel sound more fun than it is. The pacing is super slow.)
In the last section, Gregory explores several possible explanations for the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, and once again this slows down the story terribly. She should have picked a theory that explains Elizabeth's very odd behaviour better than the others, and run with it. This is fiction, not a history book.
Ending the novel before the Battle of Bosworth is also a poor narrative choice. Of course it sets up the next book in the series, but it renders this first instalment incomplete and unsatisfying.