“I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read That Yet” #22 (Help Me Choose!)

July’s Result – The Familiars by Stacey Halls

I don’t need much to enjoy a story set in the medieval period. The Familiars focuses more on gentry than what I usually read, but with its exploration of women’s medicine and witchcraft, I was content throughout most of the story. I found it a little dry going at times, as the plot is mostly carried forward by Fleetwood riding around and talking to different folks in order to piece everything together. Overall, though, my enjoyment of the setting meant I wasn’t too fussed by the plot. I do have some thoughts on the conclusion – spoilers in the next paragraph!

**begin spoilers**

The ending was more hopeful than I expected. I was preparing myself for Fleetwood to lose the baby, Alice to hang, a life of misery to fall in place… (clearly I had Hannah Kent’s writing on the mind!) I was particularly surprised (pleasantly so) when Fleetwood recognized how much she had misunderstood and mispresumed about her husband. He did still behave poorly throughout the story, but it was hopeful to see how he cared about her and wasn’t up to such a nefarious plot as concealing her supposed frailty in hopes of her death. I think the conclusion regarding Richard’s character would have been more satisfying had there been maybe a few additional hints throughout the story that he wasn’t necessarily as bad as we thought. Which, I realize if I think slightly more critically, is a slightly ridiculous thing to critique in a novel focused so pointedly on the experience of a woman giving birth and a woman being persecuted for being a witch… but anyway. Fleetwood obviously cared for her husband, so it was satisfying that the two were able to reconcile their relationship in some manner, without dipping into the realm of impossibly romantic fairy tale ending (ie things don’t entirely go back to the way they were).

**end spoilers**

September’s Selection

It took me awhile to get ahold of the July pick, so I’m skipping over August and going straight to September. September’s theme is popular fantasy books. I chose these titles by sorting my to-read-fantasy shelf by number of ratings, then selecting the first four books that jumped out to me.

• The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (42,993 ratings) – based in Norse mythology, a banished witch falls in love with trickster Loki
• His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (95,294 ratings) – first book in a historical fanatasy series about the Napoleonic wars, where dragons are part of the army
• The Once and Future King by T.H. White (106,301 ratings) – retelling of Arthurian legend, originally published in the late 1930s
  • I put The Once and Future King because that is the book that is on my TBR. But to make the read more manageable for myself, I’d just aim to complete the first book, The Sword in the Stone.
• The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake (157,823 ratings) – it seems to me this is dark academia featuring a magical initation process?

Which book should I read in September? Vote on the poll below or by leaving a comment on this post. (I can’t tell who voted on Twitter, so if you’re really keen you can vote in the comments AND on Twitter ;P) Voting closes on 30 Aug.

🗳️New post! Which #fantasy book should I read in September? ❤️🐲⚔️🪄https://t.co/6RV8qCH4CX

— Jenna (@fallingletters) August 24, 2023