"'I wonder what will be left of you' she muses, 'when all the people you love have chipped away their pieces.'" Half Sick of Shadows, Laura Sebastian.
There are rare moments when a book touches my soul on a deeply personal level. There are rare moments when the words on a page make me feel so incredibly seen and understood. It happened when I read The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. And again when I read Circe by Madeline Miller. And again when I read Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian.
Half Sick of Shadows is touted as a feminist King Arthur retelling, but to me, it was so much more than that. The story follows Elaine, the Lady of Shalott. She is an oracle doomed to see the tragic future of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the rest. She is forced to chose between present happiness and future heartbreak.
Sebastian succeed well in creating meaningful characters and an immersive and sparkling setting. Told in an unilinear timeline, the reader is able to watch countless versions of the future unfold. I also appreciated the focus on the women in the story of King Arthur. It is easy to focus on Guinevere's betrayal or Morgana's evil turn. Instead, Sebastian choses to focus on the relationship of these women and how the shape and change the narrative around Arthur.
This novel is a beautiful story about staying true to yourself, even when the desire to change for others is closing in. I finished this book and immediatly wanted to pick it back up again. It is magical, tragic, and heartwarming all at the same time and I highly recommend it.
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