January 6th, 2010
Being a fan of both fantasy and the Tudor dynasty, I picked this book up thinking it would be a fun read.
This book was most definitely intended for Young Adults, and possibly a grade or two below. The writing style is one which I would have enjoyed more around the time I was devouring Ella Enchanted than now, when I regularly read Austen and Steinbeck.
The chronology had a tendency to become fuzzy. I was unaware until the ending that Mary was 18, as for most of the book she had been 16. There were also some nitpicky historical problems, such as the descriptions of people and the lack of proper Elizabethan speech – most especially the lack of the royal “We.”
The book definitely evolves with the reader, growing up as the pages turn. The ending was more adult and less fantastical, while simultaneously encompassing a more refined writing style. In a way it reminded me of the Harry Potter books, condensed. What begins as a children’s book ends as the upper edge of YA.
Overall, I couldn’t quite be satisfied with the book as it doesn’t really resolve any of the problems it sets out to and, in fact, creates a whole other set at the ending. I felt disappointed and a little frustrated by the ending, though that may have been because there was no real way to end it happily.
I, unfortunately, have to give this book a 4/10 because of all the above, plus some other less-definable reservations. It was really a book meant for someone a decade younger, but even then I would have my doubts.
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