***100 Days of Summer***
Reading prompt: Book based on a fairytale or mythology
Virtual 12 sided dice role: 9
King Arthur retellings, especially those that centre on the women of the myth, hit me where I live. Morgan le Fay has always been on of my favourites, so this tale which features her seems to have been written just for me. Including the mysterious Merlin, the lovely Ninniane, and adding in healing powers exhibited by Morgan, and I was well and truly hooked. I chalk it up to Celtic blood in my mother's family, this love of mystical, magical stories.
I also appreciate the current trend of writing the old tales through a feminist lens. It doesn't change the chauvinist society that existed in that time period, but it does introduce the notion that women may have felt much the same as they do today—resentful, rebellious, wrathful. The smug male view that women should be satisfied with childrearing and keeping the household accounts gives me heartburn, and I cheered Morgan on as she carved out a place for her medical studies and hid her manuscript on women's health concerns from Urien's prying eyes.
At this point, this book seems to be a stand alone, but there is definitely potential for a sequel. Should one be forthcoming, sign me up to read it too! I love this reinterpretation of Morgan le Fay, who has been written as a villain by the men who originally wrote down the mythology. It's always seemed to me that she was a much more complex woman than that, more sinned against than sinning.
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