The Other Boleyn Girl

Happy Tuesday!! 

So over the past few weeks, I have been a little bookworm. Out of all of the books that I've read, though, I think that The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory was probably the most unique.

Obviously if you're awesome, you know that this book was our pick for January's historical fiction genre for Blogger Book Club.

Before I get into my actual book review, I'd like to make one thing clear - I almost never read historical fiction, and when I do, it's always, always WWII. ALWAYS. I think that this book was the first book I ever read that focused on the Tudor period.

That being said, I thought it was a great book. You are all probably going to make fun of me, but I had no clue which King Henry this was, and if the book hadn't given us years, I would have been clueless as far as when this was taking place.

I've been trying to figure out how I want to approach this review, and I thought I would focus on the characters rather than the plot, because, well.... those characters got me very fired up.

CONTAINS SPOILERS... but then again, so does your history book. 

FIRST OF ALL. That Boleyn family. How evil, self-absorbed, and manipulative can one family be? Obviously very. You practically force your 14-year-old daughter into an extra-marital affair with the king of England just so you can get ahead in society. When she is PREGNANT with his son, you allow her sister to take over the affair and try to manipulate the king into divorcing his wife so that you can take over the throne?!?! WHAT THE EFF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!?!?!?

Anne Boleyn. WHAT. A BEEP. Seriously. There were so many times I wanted to jump into the book and give you a high five. In the face. WITH A SPIKE-COVERED METAL BALL. Words cannot describe how much I hated that little beepitybeepbeepbeeper. What a manipulative, cunning, heartless, soulless person you were. You stole your sister's son and banished her from the kingdom. You convinced the king to have his wife (the lawful queen) banished from the kingdom. You deserved to get your head chopped off. I may have cheered at that part.

via

Mary Boleyn. Okay, you're not quite as bad as the rest of your family, but my gosh are you a freaking idiot. I mean, really??? After all that your sister did to you, you go back and indulge her and her stupid games? You make some really bad choices, Mary. I suppose I can't totally blame you since you were so manipulated by your family, but holy balls. I'm just glad that, in the end, you were intelligent enough to stay away. I appreciate that you eventually figured out that true love was more important than power.

George Boleyn. You disgust me. I'm pretty sure you were all up into making a monster baby with your sister Ann. That's right, you slept with your sister to get her pregnant. You. are. NASTY. Let's not talk about your relationship with little boys, either. I have no words. I'm glad your head was chopped off, too.

King Henry. You suck at life.

Overall, I'd give this book an A-. The author did a very good job of developing the characters and turning a part of history into a very engaging and entertaining story. I guess the only reason it didn't score higher is because there were parts where it was fairly slow-moving and I got bored.

What did you think? Feel free to link up both book and movie reviews below! Don't forget about the video chat on Thursday!!