I have loved the subject of Jane Gray for as long as I can remember. I read everything about her that I can get my hands on. This is not the first book that I have read portraying her in a somewhat negative light, but it is the first that I have read in which I ended up not liking either the character or the book.
In "Raven Queen," Jane seemed to be a mean-hearted and unaccepting person. I understand that her belief in her faith was unbreakable. But this book made her out to be a person who was unaccepting of anyone not of the New Faith, even those she claimed to love. She was mean spirited to her sisters, degrading in her thoughts about her royal cousins. Of course she also had repellant thoughts regarding her parents and the Dudley family, but those can be excused if you know anything about either family.
I dont know if it was all the negativity that made me dislike this book, or if it was that I just dont like the idea of my idolized Jane being anything other than what I have come to see her as. The forced teenage queen made a martyr by her power-hungry family.
In "Raven Queen," Jane seemed to be a mean-hearted and unaccepting person. I understand that her belief in her faith was unbreakable. But this book made her out to be a person who was unaccepting of anyone not of the New Faith, even those she claimed to love. She was mean spirited to her sisters, degrading in her thoughts about her royal cousins. Of course she also had repellant thoughts regarding her parents and the Dudley family, but those can be excused if you know anything about either family.
I dont know if it was all the negativity that made me dislike this book, or if it was that I just dont like the idea of my idolized Jane being anything other than what I have come to see her as. The forced teenage queen made a martyr by her power-hungry family.
A YA book which tells the story of Lady Jane Gray and her fictional "boyfriend." While the story skirts around some of the true facts of Lady Jane's life, it is an interesting tale of friendship and the religious controversies of the time. Plus, there is romance, which is always a nice touch in a YA novel.
