Half Sick of Shadows Review

Half Sick of Shadows

By: Laura Sebastian   

Released: July 16th, 2021  

Pages: 448

My Rating: 3/5 

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Everyone knows the legend. Of Athur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But tElaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come--for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future.

On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends--countless possibilities, almost al of them tragic.

When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle. 

As visions are fulfilled and an inevitable fate closes in, Elaine must decide how far she will go to change fate--and what she is willing to sacrifice along the way. 

My Review:  

I was very nervous going into this book because I knew next to nothing about the tale of King Arthur. I knew the gist of it but not anything in depth. I did not even know who Elaine of Shallot was, but when I read what this was going to be about on Book of the Month I was very intrigued and it gave me major Cierce vibes (which I loved). I chose this as an add on book to my subscription and here we are...

I flew through the first 100 pages of this book with no struggle whatsoever. I was happy to find out that I did not need an extensive (or really any) knowledge of King Arthur prior to reading this book. It was very easy to follow along with and I enjoyed it. The first 100 pages were spent getting to know the characters and seeing where they live and what their goals are. 

After the first 100 pages I fell into a bit of a reading rut. It's not that this was a bad book by any means it just felt like the middle was so heavy on details and it felt like it took us forever to get from point A to point B. It would not have been as bad if the characters were doing different things but there is about 150 pages dedicated to one task and they just dragged on for me. 

After that "slow" part it does pick up pace again and the ending was very well done in my opinion. Now, I will say, since finishing this book I looked up reviews and saw many people complaining that it deviates from the original tale of King Arthur (which duh if you read the epilogue!), but that is the point of this, so please do not let that deter you from picking this up (unless you are a King Arthur elitist or something like that). This was a fun read and I believe if you enjoy retellings of legends from a feminist perspective this is a great book to scoop up.

Catch you later,

Molly