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A review by lil_poundcake
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
1.0
This book was awful.
Philippa Gregory desperately needs an editor. Her motto seems to be "why not convey an idea in one sentence, when I can do it in three?" Whole paragraphs read as though she was being paid by the word, which would be tolerable, but she doesn't seem to review or fact-check anything. Her writing is as loosely organized as her perception of such abstract topics as history and the difference between truth and fiction.
I know that Gregory wanted to add a supernatural element to the story of the Plantagenets, which apparently manifested in a complete breakdown of the time-space continuum. At one point, she says that Elizabeth manages to have 3 children in a single year (none of her pregnancies are multiples) and that her daughter is 4, when she has been queen only a year and was not pregnant at her coronation. The next chapter -- which takes place a year later -- Elizabeth has only two daughters, the eldest of whom is only a little over a year old. The entire 432-page book is like this -- she even contradicts herself in her author's note, saying that this book is mostly fiction, yet it is largely factual. WHICH IS IT, PIPS?
Really, I'm irritated because the War of the Roses is a fascinating period in history, often overlooked in favour of the flashier Tudor era. I desperately wanted a fun historical novel about the Plantagenets. They deserve so much better than this drivel.
Philippa Gregory desperately needs an editor. Her motto seems to be "why not convey an idea in one sentence, when I can do it in three?" Whole paragraphs read as though she was being paid by the word, which would be tolerable, but she doesn't seem to review or fact-check anything. Her writing is as loosely organized as her perception of such abstract topics as history and the difference between truth and fiction.
I know that Gregory wanted to add a supernatural element to the story of the Plantagenets, which apparently manifested in a complete breakdown of the time-space continuum. At one point, she says that Elizabeth manages to have 3 children in a single year (none of her pregnancies are multiples) and that her daughter is 4, when she has been queen only a year and was not pregnant at her coronation. The next chapter -- which takes place a year later -- Elizabeth has only two daughters, the eldest of whom is only a little over a year old. The entire 432-page book is like this -- she even contradicts herself in her author's note, saying that this book is mostly fiction, yet it is largely factual. WHICH IS IT, PIPS?
Really, I'm irritated because the War of the Roses is a fascinating period in history, often overlooked in favour of the flashier Tudor era. I desperately wanted a fun historical novel about the Plantagenets. They deserve so much better than this drivel.