Queen B by Juno Dawson
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Three Stars
Best for:
Those who are already invested in the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Royal Coven) series.
In a nutshell:
An alternative telling of exactly how and why Anne Boleyn ascended to the throne and then was summarily removed.
Worth quoting:
N/A (Audio Book)
Why I chose it:
Audible recommended this to me as I’d already read The Shadow Cabinet this year.
Review:
We start with the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, then jump back and forth between the events years prior to her marrying King Henry VIII, and events in the days immediately following the execution. We are introduced to the idea that Boleyn was indeed a witch, and part of a coven that was interested in ensuring that a witch would be on the throne. As most of us know, that didn’t quite work out for her.
We don’t get any telling from Boleyn’s perspective, however. We mostly follow Lady Grace Fairfax, who is a married member of the Queen’s court, and Cecelia de la Torre, a witch who appears to have been behind the events leading to Boleyn’s execution.
Men feature in the book, but as usual, they are generally obstacles to be overcome, not fully fleshed out characters. They are caricatures, and I think that’s fine, because their stories aren’t the ones we’re interested in.
This isn’t a bad little novella. It’s probably 1/3 the length of the other books, and provides an interesting little prequel to the novels Dawson has written set in the 2020s. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite tell as much of the story as I was hoping for, though perhaps that was on purpose (maybe to leave room for more prequels?)
What’s next for this book:
N/A (Audio book)
