My first thought after finishing this novel was, “How do I convey how deeply attached I’ve become to these characters?” I’m not sure, but I’ll try. The Queen’s Fool is an impressively and convincingly accurate depiction of the mentally stimulating battle between the Tudor sisters. In a nutshell, Philippa Gregory (author of The Other Boleyn Girl) has done it again.
Romance, suspense, deceit, and adventure meet pre-Elizabethan England, personified through Hannah Green. Begged for a holy fool by Lord Robert Dudley and taken in as his vassal, she begins her life in the hectic and confusing courts of England. Holy fool turned spy, Hannah makes her way through the courts of Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, culminating in a vivid and realistic description of life for the monarchy and its courtiers in the 1550s. However, as Hannah soon finds out, life in court is never black and white. The opposing courts emerge as a no man’s land of emotion, deceit, and politics. Bound to a future husband, but in love with another; torn in her loyalties between Queen Mary and her sister, Elizabeth; held to underground Judaism, yet forced to practice Christianity; struggling to understand her own autonomy and the gender bias; this is a novel that catalogs the constant conflict of one young woman’s life.
Cons: I found none. This is the sort of book that critics would refer to as “a mesmerizing read/couldn’t put it down.”
I would wholeheartedly give The Queen’s Fool a 10 out of 10 and recommend it to everyone.