Just some thoughts on the Other Boleyn Girl (more about Philippa Gregory and her dubious research than the actual story though) and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, don't mind me
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I can lend it to you if you want to read it, I just got to get my copy back from someone else who's borrowed it. The Other Boleyn Girl was the first Philippa Gregory novel I read and when I had, I thought it was amazing, gorgeous, flawless, etc. Then I read The Boleyn Inheritance and thought the same. It went on for the next few books so at the end of the day, The Other Boleyn Girl = my least favourite book by Philippa Gregory, ever. (I could list 3475956 mistakes that her proofreader somehow missed.)
She usually gives a very, very brief version of her opinion on the particular bit of Tudor history in her author's note, though I can't remember what her author's note in The Other Boleyn Girl said, so maybe I need to re-read it. But I once said this to a friend: Philippa Gregory's Tudor novels are almost like professional fanfiction? If Tudor times can ever be considered a fandom. I do enjoy her writing but I can't say the Tudor series is awe-inspiring, I was so pissed off with Mary Boleyn and Katherine Boleyn and Elizabeth Boleyn - see, I only liked Anne.
The controversial historians bit has always been her biggest flaw, I admit. I kind of let her get away with it because 1) at the end of the day, it is just historical fiction and 2) I might have subconsciously put her entire Tudor series in my head under 'fanfiction anyway'. Tudor books aside, her other novels are miles better.
She usually gives a very, very brief version of her opinion on the particular bit of Tudor history in her author's note, though I can't remember what her author's note in The Other Boleyn Girl said, so maybe I need to re-read it. But I once said this to a friend: Philippa Gregory's Tudor novels are almost like professional fanfiction? If Tudor times can ever be considered a fandom. I do enjoy her writing but I can't say the Tudor series is awe-inspiring, I was so pissed off with Mary Boleyn and Katherine Boleyn and Elizabeth Boleyn - see, I only liked Anne.
The controversial historians bit has always been her biggest flaw, I admit. I kind of let her get away with it because 1) at the end of the day, it is just historical fiction and 2) I might have subconsciously put her entire Tudor series in my head under 'fanfiction anyway'. Tudor books aside, her other novels are miles better.
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