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A review by borchie
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
3.0
After having read [a:Rebecca Gablé|353685|Rebecca Gablé|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1289082041p2/353685.jpg]'s [b:Das Spiel der Könige|1629532|Das Spiel der Könige (Waringham, #3)|Rebecca Gablé|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1186091449s/1629532.jpg|40081023] I wanted to read more abou the Wars of the Roses and so The White Queen came in handy, being written from the Yorkist side in contrast to Gablé's Lancastrian Waringham series. So this review will also compare both books because the time period is so similar as are the protagonists we meet - thanks to Gablé I already knew most of them (and in greater detail than Gregory described them).
Back to The White Queen.
As you can see my rating isn't that high, but still there are bits I liked, e.g. the female POV. And the added magic was an enjoyable twist even though I'm normally not a fan of these things. But I couldn't take Gregory's book serious anyway... and here comes the negative:
I'm REALLY not a fan of first person writing style. And it made reading the parts that Elizabeth didn't see first hand weird. Also the usage of the present tense felt weird too. Overall, the writing sometimes felt a bit clumsy, with very repetitive sentence structues. This often made me wonder whether I'm reading a real novel with fleshed out characters or a summary of her life. Tbh, I don't think Gregory did a good job at bringing the characters to life. I didn't grow particularly attached to them.
In contrast Gablé's story was so epic, had rich characters and really got me to care for them. I even got to know Edward better in his few scenes in Gablé's book than in Gregory's book, I think.
Well, I'm probably gonna read the following books nevertheless because it's just a great idea to tell the story of the Wars of the Roses via it's main female protagonists. But so far I wouldn't really recommend these books. If you're German or at least speak German, than better read Gablé's books instead! You'll also get much more politics and history from them.
On a sidenote: I was looking forward to read about the 1470s up until 1983 that Gablé didn't cover in her book, but apparently these weren't that interesting because Gregory also didn't write much about these years up.
2.5/5
Back to The White Queen.
As you can see my rating isn't that high, but still there are bits I liked, e.g. the female POV. And the added magic was an enjoyable twist even though I'm normally not a fan of these things. But I couldn't take Gregory's book serious anyway... and here comes the negative:
I'm REALLY not a fan of first person writing style. And it made reading the parts that Elizabeth didn't see first hand weird. Also the usage of the present tense felt weird too. Overall, the writing sometimes felt a bit clumsy, with very repetitive sentence structues. This often made me wonder whether I'm reading a real novel with fleshed out characters or a summary of her life. Tbh, I don't think Gregory did a good job at bringing the characters to life. I didn't grow particularly attached to them.
In contrast Gablé's story was so epic, had rich characters and really got me to care for them. I even got to know Edward better in his few scenes in Gablé's book than in Gregory's book, I think.
Well, I'm probably gonna read the following books nevertheless because it's just a great idea to tell the story of the Wars of the Roses via it's main female protagonists. But so far I wouldn't really recommend these books. If you're German or at least speak German, than better read Gablé's books instead! You'll also get much more politics and history from them.
On a sidenote: I was looking forward to read about the 1470s up until 1983 that Gablé didn't cover in her book, but apparently these weren't that interesting because Gregory also didn't write much about these years up.
2.5/5