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amynbell's review against another edition
2.0
While I've loved all of Kate Horsley's other books and had counted her as a favorite author, this one was not impressive. The writing was fine, but I didn't care at all for the subject matter of a boy who doesn't know she's a girl being whored out to sexually promiscuous and sexually violent monks. Yuck. I might not read another Horsely after this one.
mayastone's review against another edition
3.0
The majority of this book is raw unrelenting pain and suffering. Grey is the eighth daughter of a goat herder and a peasant, before being born her father tells her mother that if she has another girl he will kill the baby. Mary, her mother, and the midwife come up with a plot to pretend that she’s a boy and so the story begins. The book follows her journey as a boy, a whore and finally a mother.
I reacted differently to each section. The parts of her being a young boy were interesting to read and really highlighted not only rural living but the perks of being born male. She was fed better food than her sisters and spent more time with her father. The highlight was when she went to the Manor and saw how the upper classes lived, this bit of fantastic writing really highlighted the financial divide.
The part of her being a whore, which began while she was still very young were the most uncomfortable for me to read. I will admit I had expected the priest to be the one to start abusing her not the visiting monk. Once at the monastery her exploitation and abuse was sickening, the cherry on that particular lump of despair was her inevitable rape. Her innocence and trust at the hands of an authority figure, a man of the cloister no less had bitter real-world reflections. I only hope both Bartholomew and his librarian “friend” succumbed to the plague.
Then came her pregnancy and her transition to being a mother, I both liked and disliked this section the most. I liked that this was the one part where she had a chance for some happiness but I disliked her obsession with her son, especially the weirdness after he passed. The Abbot was an asshole but Colin was so nice, I truly felt like she should have focused more on him and building a happy life.
I also didn’t like that the story ended with her obsessing over Henry, I would have liked to see her get over her grief, perhaps have a child with Colin and move on. Especially considering the midwife tells her that several children have come into the world with the Abbott’s scent. That ending left me quite annoyed.
The majority of the book is misery. Poverty, death, exploitation, unfairness, everything is here. In a way this book is a raw reflection of the real world, there are no heroes, and bad things frequently happen to poor people and those who are already struggling under the burden of existence. The only real equalizer is death. Religion features heavily in the book as well, so much so that I felt the author has her own issues with religion that she projected into the story.
3/5 - A depressing read
I reacted differently to each section. The parts of her being a young boy were interesting to read and really highlighted not only rural living but the perks of being born male. She was fed better food than her sisters and spent more time with her father. The highlight was when she went to the Manor and saw how the upper classes lived, this bit of fantastic writing really highlighted the financial divide.
The part of her being a whore, which began while she was still very young were the most uncomfortable for me to read. I will admit I had expected the priest to be the one to start abusing her not the visiting monk. Once at the monastery her exploitation and abuse was sickening, the cherry on that particular lump of despair was her inevitable rape. Her innocence and trust at the hands of an authority figure, a man of the cloister no less had bitter real-world reflections. I only hope both Bartholomew and his librarian “friend” succumbed to the plague.
Then came her pregnancy and her transition to being a mother, I both liked and disliked this section the most. I liked that this was the one part where she had a chance for some happiness but I disliked her obsession with her son, especially the weirdness after he passed. The Abbot was an asshole but Colin was so nice, I truly felt like she should have focused more on him and building a happy life.
I also didn’t like that the story ended with her obsessing over Henry, I would have liked to see her get over her grief, perhaps have a child with Colin and move on. Especially considering the midwife tells her that several children have come into the world with the Abbott’s scent. That ending left me quite annoyed.
The majority of the book is misery. Poverty, death, exploitation, unfairness, everything is here. In a way this book is a raw reflection of the real world, there are no heroes, and bad things frequently happen to poor people and those who are already struggling under the burden of existence. The only real equalizer is death. Religion features heavily in the book as well, so much so that I felt the author has her own issues with religion that she projected into the story.
3/5 - A depressing read
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