A review by alexisdpatt
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

“Innocent Traitor” by Alison Weir ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Innocent Traitor” tells the story of Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554), known to history as The Nine Days Queen, and the dynamics and strings behind how she became queen in the first place and her tragic death at the scaffold. 

This was such an intriguing to read. Although Weir succumb to usual historical fiction tropes, this being Weir’s first fiction novel was an interesting choice. Most of her novels are written in third person limited. With this, however, Weir decided to write Jane’s story through first person narration through the eyes of several different people who play a major role in Jane’s story: her mother Lady Frances Grey, Katherine Parr, John Dudley, and Lady Mary just to name a few. Since Jane only lived to be 16, by spreading out the story this way, Weir is able to show all of the pieces and how they played out. 

As the novel went on, it brought me back to Nicola Talis’s nonfiction on Jane that I read a few years ago. The way that Weir depicted her really reminded me of how Talis talked about her and I’m very happy that they can easily go hand in hand with each other. 

This book has cemented the fact that her novel on Mary I will be the next one of hers that I read and o genuinely cannot wait for it. 🙈