hairymclary28 's review for:

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

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The first half of the book takes us up to the end of the Aeneid and the second half covers her subsequent life. In doing so, it fixed my biggest problem with the Aeneid, the abrupt ending. Lavinia has so much agency, but le Guin also does a really interesting thing where Lavinia knows she's a creation by "her poet" and muses on this. The characters are well-developed and compassionately portrayed, and in particular I found the relationship between Lavinia and her poet very interesting. The world is so vivid (though I admit this will have been helped by me reading the Aeneid immediately before this). I also thought the writing, as usual from le Guin, was beautiful. But overall I think it's a book of vibes and that could make it hit-or-miss for some. Personally I loved it.