A review by withlivjones
Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Katherine J. Chen

adventurous challenging hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Some books are sprints, and you can power through at least 100 pages a day. Some books are marathons. This is one such book. It took me nearly three months to get through it, when it would usually take me less than a week to read another book of the same length. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is often very good, particularly the sections where the narration goes into Joan’s internal monologue and she thinks an entire speech that she can’t say out loud because she’s a woman. But the book is so incredibly slow-paced and dense that it takes an awful lot of brain power to take in the prose. It got interesting around two thirds in, but it shouldn’t take two thirds of a book for it to get interesting. It’s a good book, but I would have definitely rated it higher had it been about 100 pages shorter. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings