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The Kingdom Of Little Wounds (2013)

by Susann Cokal(Favorite Author)

3.31 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0763666947 (ISBN13: 9780763666941)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Candlewick Press

review 1: 3.5, from ARC. I'm torn because the themes here are very unique and compelling, especially in regards to sexual power and vagaries (especially regarding syphilis... by the way, some pretty explicit sexual scenes in this book, if that's not your cup of tea), but at the same time, the narrative isn't as convincing as it needs to be. A slew of unfortunate things happens, and even the sympathetic royal family isn't exceptionally perfect (these are pros to me; I prefer ambiguous narratives, even though the real villains of this story aren't exceptionally ambiguous), but the fortitude of the heroines just seems conveniently fortuitous at times. It's also evident a decent amount of research went into building the world and the Northern Renaissance attitudes, which were interestin... moreg to watch in action because the narrative frequently leaves the reader unable to discern whether or not the supernatural truly has been evoked, but Ava wasn't quite the compelling character she needed to be, in part because she's very much a lovestruck young lady who is no good at scheming, whereas all these interesting things are happening just out of reach within the court. I liked Midi's first person narrative for the individual character of her grammar, but one has to wonder how her Western language got so good... and likewise with Ava, whose voice blends into the third-person. Again, it is quite a different narrative and it's not an uninteresting story as long as you have the slightest interest in social history, but I do think the characters weren't the precisely perfect combination to deliver this tale, and there were some remarkably convenient bits.
review 2: I can relate to Monica's review! Each time I picked this book up, I felt like I was handling something that was "unclean" and should be wearing surgical gloves. It made for a difficult, slow read for me. That said, it also intrigued me enough historically to send me off researching more about 1500's Scandanavia, medical practices of the time, and the disease syphilis. Kudos for that! Despite my feelings of disgust and revulsion, I did finally finish the book and found that the ending chapters brought a satisfying, but consistently gruesome conclusion to the book. We talk about books that "stay with us". I'm sure this book will remain burned into my memory for a long time. I would put a strong "caution" label on it before recommending this book to most teens. There are few who could handle this kind of adult story. less

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