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mrs_ailurophile 's review for:

The Reckoning by Sharon Kay Penman
5.0

Updated Review 2022: 5 STARS
Original Review 2018: 5 STARS


UPDATED REVIEW
The second reading does not make this tale any easier to read or process.

I'm still crying. This is still beautifully written.

ALL THE DAMN FEELS!

ORIGINAL REVIEW
I cried. CRIED. CRIED. Pardon my language but holy shit that was intense.

I first read Here Be Dragons in 2014 but was unable to finish the entire trilogy until now. Just....wow. Wow.

Penman's writing was, as always, enthralling, beautifully written, and just totally breathtaking. Her descriptions are wonderfully detailed (some may say too detailed) but that just makes it all the more engrossing for me. Especially given the people she was writing of, the times in which they lived, and the choices and events that shaped them, her style is superb in every way.

And the ending! THE ENDING. I knew that this tale did not have a happy ending for Llewellyn The Great, his grandson, or their beloved Wales. But the simplicity of her writing conveys the emotion of those left behind so heartbreakingly well that I just couldn't help but cry. The final showdown was just that: the ultimate subjugation of a proud, glorious people in a land as harsh and beautiful as the times they lived in.