Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Hild

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Hild by Nicola Griffith

3 reviews

third_bookworm's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was very good. A+ fictional sibling relationship between Hild and Hereswith.

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

This book has been in the back of my head for a while. I saw it somewhere, possibly a bookstore when it first came out, and the idea stuck in my head. I'm not sure if it was the idea of a fictionalized story of a saint's childhood, or the idea that it was set in a place and historical period that I know nothing about but is far enough back to be interesting to me, or the concept of a young girl in a very man-centric society gaining power and influence through her own cunning. Or possibly it was the cover, which is not all that spectacular but for some reason grabbed me. Whatever it was, Hild has been lodged in my thoughts for a long time, and when it finally resurfaced again I decided to give it a shot.

It took me a long time to get through this book. Not because it was slow or boring or anything, but because it's long and dense with detail, and also because I read it as an ebook which is not the best format for me to actually get through books quickly. I didn't realize before picking it up that it was written by the same person who wrote Spear which I DNF'ed last year. But I think my issue with Spear might have been format-related, because Hild is told in an almost identical style - straightforward and unadorned, heavy on telling over showing - and I enjoyed this book so much.

I normally am not much for historical fiction because I usually find it boring. But a lot of that is because I just don't find the time periods from the 1700s-ish on to be all that interesting - I much prefer ancient history. The British Isles in the 600s was far enough back to find interesting, and Nicola Griffith clearly did her research. I easily got wrapped up in the day-to-day of life in this world, which was richly detailed, fascinating, and not really what I would have expected. Though it wasn't a central conflict of the book, there was always a simmering undercurrent of struggling against the land and weather for survival, which I suppose might have been an accurate feeling for the time period.

I know that this is a novel and therefore it's hard to figure out the line between "accurate to research" and "made up for a better story" and therefore probably not accurate to say that I learned something. But in addition to being absorbed in a good story, I do feel like I learned something. Whether or not the wars and political machinations are true to history, and even if the details weren't necessarily how things would have happened, I feel like I have a sense of what life, on the whole, might have been like in this time and place. And that was really cool.

I've been going on about the world for a while now, and that's because everything that happens in this book is grounded in the reality of land and geography and the peoples who inhabit it. But what really made this book sing for me is Hild herself. She's both an interesting, engaging character in her own right and a type of character that I really love to read about. It starts with her as a very small child, suddenly the only heir of a threat to the throne, being guided (or some might say manipulated) by her mother into a very specific role. But she is clever and observant and carves out a place for herself in the seer role. As the reader, I got to see inside her head and her thought processes and I know that everything she "sees" is just a prediction based on other patterns she's observed. But even from her own point of view she comes across as a strange and uncanny child and young woman, and even though I know there's no magic involved, I completely understand why others call her a witch. She inhabits the strange space of a child who had to grow up too fast, who is always in danger and must stay three steps ahead of everyone else to protect her life and the lives of those she loves, and who therefore acts and reacts in ways that someone on the outside might describe as strange and fey.

I think what I loved so much about this book, though, is that it covers so much. There's not particularly a central plot. Hild's driving goal is to keep herself and her loved ones safe from all the dangers the ever-shifting alliances and machinations of the power players of the day. She claws out as much agency as she can under the circumstances, but the context in which she acts is within the court of Edwin Overking, whose goal is to be king over all the kings of the land that will eventually be known as England. There are conflicts and challenges and small periods with defined goals, but overall it unfolds much as life does - piece by piece, event by event, with little in the way of a structured plot.

But the story opens with Hild as a young child, maybe five, and ends just as she blooms into an adult. And through it all, the world changes around her, and she grows and changes - from a child working hard to fit into the seer role and please the king to a young woman with her own agenda. I loved her grow into her role and then beyond it, pushing the boundaries. I loved her for her in-between-ness, a woman taller than most men, deft with healing herbs and spindle and equally deft with the war dagger she wears at her hip like the king's fighting men. I loved her for the way she refused to take anything sitting down, determined to understand what had happened and what might happen, taking every opportunity she had to turn the situation her way.

This review is already absurdly long and I haven't even touched on everything I could say about this book. It's very long but it's exactly as long as it needs to be. It is rich and atmospheric and so steeped in something undefinable and deeply engrossing that despite everything happening being completely earthly, there's a mystic feeling that gives the whole story an air of being some kind of fantasy. I didn't know going into this that there was a sequel, but there's space for one and I want it. This book was so good and so much; I want to see where Hild directs the world next.

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

When I first received an Advanced Reading Copy of this book, I was in high school. The beautiful cover art appealed to me, and I have always been interested in history, even as a kid. Yet sat on my shelves for 10 years, survived many collection weedings and two moves. The size intimidated me. I'm sad I didn't get to it sooner, but I also think this was the perfect time for me to pick up this magnificent behemoth.

Hild is an epic and sweeping historical fiction novel full of some of the most captivating language I've ever encountered. Nicola Griffith truly unlocked her word-hoard in this one (haha). The turns of phrase and descriptions brought me to a halt numerous times and the highlighter was put to work. I read the lines over and over again, enchanted. Ways to describe feelings, colours, sounds in such inventive and uncommon ways. Not the first, second, or third way you'd think to illustrate the image, but something uncanny and magical. I was struck by Griffith's skill and feel that she is a writer of exceptional talent.

It is a book to be savoured. The pacing is slow which gave me a chance to savour the language and bathe in the rich worldbuilding of this dynamic historical landscape. The scale and culture of this time took shape as the novel progressed, like watching the construction of a building day by day. The atmosphere felt authentic and the way she wrote setting was sensory and palpable. Their lives fleshed out and their desires and goals came into view on the horizon. I lived in their skin and experienced their emotions. It's expansive in its spread and I got comfortable in the sprawl of the story. Griffith didn't show and tell all the details, there was some of the story that remained a wondrous mystery, a hint of the past and the fantastical beliefs without it being too much. A concealed and secretive delight to feel in the dark with a character, wondering as they do what's happening and what's true.

I could write a novel myself about my love of this beautiful beast, telling all about the natural, positive queer rep, the fascinating history of Christian influence on early British pagans, the outstanding cast of secondary characters that fill out the scenes. But the treat for me was learning all this for myself when I finally chose this arc off the shelf and fell hard for <i>Hild</i>.

This is for fans of the complex and delicate political intrigue of A Song of Ice and Fire and Wolf Hall, the queer historical feminism of Groff's Matrix and Gornichev's The Witch's Heart, and the compelling, shrewd, and gifted heroine of Katherine Chen's Joan, but it's also not quite like anything I've read before. A set of sparkling carnelians held up to the sun that dazzled my senses and kept me engaged for hundreds of pages.

With Menewood coming in just a month, I'm diving straight into the advanced copy I was sent by the publisher who thankfully hasn't given up on my ability to read and review arcs (much better turnaround than last time...)

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