Laura Sebastian

The Lady of Shalott reclaims her story in this bold feminist reimagining of the Arthurian myth from the New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess. Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come--for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future. On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends--countless possibilities, almost all of them tragic. When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle. As visions are fulfilled and an inevitable fate closes in, Elaine must decide how far she will go to change fate--and what she is willing to sacrifice along the way.

Half Sick of Shadows

Izzy 

"I’m left," I tell her. "Me. Everything I am, everything I've made myself. Maybe you have all shaped me, molded me like a vase, but when all is said and done, when everyone has chipped away their pieces, I will not break.”

 It's life, Elaine. Getting hurt, picking yourself up, trying again. You're so focused on the ending sometimes that I don't think you know how to appreciate the during. 

Lizeth Garcia

"He's dying," Morgana will say, touching her brother's face. It won't matter that I passed his apology on to her, it won't matter that she forgave him a long time ago, there will still be a tension between them. A tension that will break the second she brushes her fingers over his skin. Suddenly, he will be her little brother again, the boy she protected with everything she had. Now, she will want to protect him again, but that will be beyond her.

"Not all men, fne, but enough of them. Enough to drown out the few good ones. More than enough to ruin the whole damned world."

“You’re my sister,” he says again. “You could burn down the world and I would still love you, whether I wanted to or not.”

“… but this isn’t about truths. It’s about stories, remember? They won’t like that story, and so it will cease to be the truth. You will be their villain because they will want you to be, truth be damned.” 

And for just a moment, I don’t think about all the ways we will doom each other. Instead I think of falling asleep beside him with his arms around me. I think of quiet days spent together in a home all our own, with him polishing his swords and me reading, neither of us saying anything at all but not needing to. I think of him lifting a lace veil from my face and looking at me the way he is now, like I’m the sun and he is the moon and he will follow me across the sky for the rest of eternity. 

She rolls her eyes. "Heartbreak isn't as lethal as the name implies, you know. Maybe it feels that way at the time, but l swear it isn't. You’ve seen Gwen and me both rebound from it eventually. I dont regret anything leading up to it, and I doubt Gwen does either. lt's life, Elaine. Getting hurt, picking yourself up, trying again. You’re so focused on the ending sometimes that I don't think you know how to appreciate the during"

“You look at a situation, even a happy one like a boy you’re madly in love with saying he loves you, and you see only how that love might rot.” 

“Do you think it won’t?” I ask “… Love is weakness. That’s what you’ve always told me: Exploit it in others - it’s a useful trick to know - but guard your own heart with iron and steel. Guard it above all else. Because if a person has your heart, they have all of you.”

This quote starts on page 169 and continues on 170

He was quiet for a moment. “Funny, I always thought Gwen thrived on chaos,” he said, though there was no humor in his voice. “Controlled chaos. Chaos of her own making. But this? This means trusting someone else enough to give them some measure of influence over her life. You must know that terrifies her.”

"Because, Shalott, I have one foot in each world, neither human nor fay. I've been raised fay, with this idea of a great sprawling life full of everything. and I want that … but I will, in all likelihood, have a human life span. A hundred years, if I'm lucky. Why shouldn't I fill those few years with what I want?"

“You asked me to come with you. You said you needed me here. So then why are you pushing me away now?" Because the needing is terrifying. Because I've seen how it ends. Because I don't want you to break me, and I don't want to break you either.

I had always heard brave and fearless used interchangcably, but when I said as much to Gwen, she laughed. "A person is brave in spite of their fear, but being fearless is another beast entirely. Arthur could never be fearless. The wise ones know that there is much to fear in the world; it's the foolish who claim that nothing frightens them and only because they don't have the foresight to know what to be afraid of until it's too late. You aren't fearless, are you, Elaine?"

How awful is it to need someone, but more awful still to admit it out loud. It feels like I’ve cut myself open and set myself out for the crows to pick at. 

Lancelot keeps his eyes on the horizon. “What do you want me to say, Gwen?" he asks with a sigh. "We aren't children anymore. We have futures, and now those futures go in different directions."

"What I have seen is a sheltered girl who is so afraid of her own shadow that she won't walk in sunlight, a girl who closes her eyes and takes all the injustices the world pushes on her without a word in response, a girl who does everything her mother tells her to and never questions why." The words pierced me through like well-aimed arrows tipped in poison. I suppose that was how I knew they were true. 

It’s not important to the book (I think) I just like how it sounds 🤷🏻‍♀️

What use do you have for new dresses? she’d asked when I’d pointed out mine didn’t fit right anymore. You could make them fit if you tried… I didn’t argue. I knew she always got what she wanted. It was just a question of how much I lost in the process. 

"But we're safe here," I point out. “AII of us." "And you will always be safe here," she says, and now there is no mistaking the sadness in her, leaking out to color her voice. "But you were not raised to be safe, you were raised to be heroes."

Sophia 

“You’re so focused on the ending sometimes that I don't think you know how to appreciate the during."

It was enough for me, but Morgana is different. She has never wanted to be a hero, never craved glory or admiration. She cares about her own happiness first and foremost, and there is something admirable about that, especially in a court where women are happy to fold themselves up tight to be more easily manageable, to swallow arsenic to be thought of as just a litle bit sweeter.

 At the time, I didn't understand why the were so angry, so vicious toward someone they didnt know the first thing about, but now I know--there was nothing more terrifying in Camelot than a girl who refused to follow the rules. 

More often than not, I had to remind myself of the reasons I loved my mother. As a girl, I would count them off in my mind whenever she said something cruel. I smoothed those reasons over the wounds her words inflicted like a balm that never lasted long enough.

I will die drowning; it has always been known.

Kelci

"Not all men, fine, but enough of them. Enough to drown out the few good ones. More than enough to ruin the whole darn world."

I've always loved arthurian tales, but I've never read one from Elaine's POV. It was an amazing book, and I loved it. 

Katheryn

"Not all men, fine, but enough of them. Enough to drown out the few good ones. More than enough to ruin the whole darn world."

I've always loved arthurian tales, but I've never read one from Elaine's POV. It was an amazing book, and I loved it. 

I never knew what to expect next and it left me bawling. Though it took me forever to read, I’m glad I did because books very rarely make me physically cry. The ending doesn’t sit  too well with me but the book has an important lesson in it that is heartbreaking yet necessary.

I wasn’t a fan of the ending, and around page 300 everything suddenly started feeling very rushed. At the beginning I caught myself having to reread paragraphs and asking myself is this something that’s happening in the present or is it from the past like a memory? And towards the end I again kept rereading trying to decide if she was talking about the present or the possible future (tip: whenever she uses “will” it’s the future, ‘I will’, ‘it will’, ‘Lance will’- you get the idea). All in all it was satisfactory and does get your imagination running which I loved. 

audrey

this book dragged on wayyy too long. too much dialogue that could’ve been condensed.

Elizabeth Hagenlocher

** spoiler alert **
           This book really has me in my feels 😫

My earliest love has been Arthurian legend, and this is such a satisfying (albeit different) perspective on the classic tale. 

Spoilers ahead!

Honestly, this isn’t a happy story by any means. It’s haunting and bittersweet, and leaves you feeling a bit empty. But in the best way?

Elaine is a character who doesn’t get enough credit in the source material (nor any of the women for that matter). This story rights that wrong, by giving these three powerful women—Elaine, Morgana, and Guinevere—more agency. 

And in the middle of it all is fate. Elaine is a deeply flawed character, but you would be too if you saw every possible outcome of every relationship you have. As the reader you root for her, grieve with her, and want to throttle her for becoming her own self-fulfilling prophecy. 

The problem is that she loves her friends so deeply, that in trying to save them she seals their fates. It’s heartbreaking to see the rifts in these relationships, which feel so real and raw. It hurt me like they were my own relationships 🥺 

What I love is that despite it all, Elaine learns to break the cycle of hurt, and makes one of the most powerful choices she can make (which, spoiler, is to remove herself). This choice is so powerful by the end of the book, because for so long we suspect that her reasons have something to do with Lancelot’s affair. 

(Though I will say, poor Lancelot deserved better from Elaine. He went above and beyond for her, and she left him alone. One of the biggest reasons I felt so hollow at the end of the book.)

Anyway, the storytelling was engaging and beautiful, and I loved the way past, present and future were weaved together to bring us closer to Elaine and her own experience of the world. I thought it was brilliantly done, and gave context to a lot of Elaine’s feelings and choices….even when they were dumb. 

I’ll be thinking about this book for a while. And possibly writing an AU where Elaine and Lancelot live happily ever after 🥺

The best part of this book for me was the end. That last third I could hardly put down. Partly from anxiety and partly from excitement. 

This was a very unique retelling of King Arthur’s story. I love how the women in this version were given a stronger voice and a different fate than in the classic myth. The narration in three tenses was also something very unique that I’ve not encountered much before. Flashbacks and Visions of the future - makes for a very powerful timeline and amazing character development, albeit in small doses.

It is a compelling read with that classic sense of fantasy and adventure you would expect from a retelling of King Arthur, but with a fantastic twist on events. 

Tace

The best part of this book for me was the end. That last third I could hardly put down. Partly from anxiety and partly from excitement. 

This was a very unique retelling of King Arthur’s story. I love how the women in this version were given a stronger voice and a different fate than in the classic myth. The narration in three tenses was also something very unique that I’ve not encountered much before. Flashbacks and Visions of the future - makes for a very powerful timeline and amazing character development, albeit in small doses.

It is a compelling read with that classic sense of fantasy and adventure you would expect from a retelling of King Arthur, but with a fantastic twist on events. 

Tammy Tancredi

It's an interesting retelling of the Arthur legend, told from the point of the women in the legend. Elaine (who becomes the lady in the lake) narrates most of it. Morgana is awesomely wicked, Lancelot is still a bad boy,and everyone does everything to ensure Arthur is made King.
 

CN. Holly

** spoiler alert **
           2.5 out of 5 stars, and again the .5 was only because of the ending, and even then it's probably a .25, only BECAUSE of the ending... i have a love and hate relationship with this ending. TW: suicide, emotional abuse, graphic violence and death. 

This book felt like a chore to get through, and it wasn't even because it was a terrible book believe me I wish it didn't end where it did, i would have read another 200-300 pages after where the book ended, and it was very upsetting where it ended with no talk of doing a sequel, but let's get into this. 

(spoilers..)

I had to sit on this book for a minute before i wanted to write this review and the only reason why is because i needed to collect my thoughs before i posted this review. Normally books do not take me this long to get through. And this book was pretty great I'm not gonna lie! But for some reason It felt like a chore to get though and I honestly think it's because I could not get behind the main character Elaine, I loved Morgana. She was my favorite character and Elaine, she was way tooooo Not good. 

I don't understand how you can ask the man of your dreams to leave his home and his mom to travel to a land he's never been to, ONLY to treat him terribly throughout the biggest chunk of the book, only to finally marry him, and then two days later decide to commit suicide, I just. i don't know I think it's a little douchey to me? She has spent her entire life trying to change the future not realizing at a younger age that you can't change the future that's been written for centuries, at that point just live your life, again I loved Morgana. She left, she finally found her line and left, and I don't blame her, I would have done the same thing. 

After Elaine kicked the bucket and she became the Lady of the Lake I feel like the book would have gotten soooo much better, it would have picked up beautifully instead of feeling like it only built up the universe to only be let down in the end, I would have rather read a book about Elaine being the Lady of the Lake than basically a book of 'protecting Arthur", I swear I would have left him long before even Morgana left him.

Would I read this book again? mmmmmmhhh no. Would I real the sequel? mmmmmmmhhh yes, espically if we see Morgana become the Goddess of death and Elaine do amazing at Lady of the Lake, and of course Guinevere become the best queen. But hopefully it doesn't feel like a chore to get through.

Mikayla Cassidy

There is something really special about this book. I cant put my finger on it but I’ll try my best to describe it. I was fully immersed in the book from the first page and felt so connected to the characters from the start. I think part of it might stem from the fact that I read The Lady of Shallot in AP english, right before the pandemic hit. I think reading about her again, especially in such an empowering way, just had a big impact on me. I loved the way that Sebastian was able to take a beautiful, if problematic, story and spin it into a tale of female power and empowerment while being able to keep the feminine beauty of the original poem intact. If you are someone who is intimidated by re-tellings, I urge you not to let Half Sick of Shadows intimidate you! It is a super easy read and it flows beautifully. The way Sebastian is able to seamlessly connect current storylines with Elaines past and future visions is truly commendable. I seriously cannot recommend this book enough and I can’t wait to read more by Sebastian!

Laura Kehoe

This was such a cool, fascinating read! I'm a huge fan of Arthurian legends, so when I saw a book about Arthur, Morgana, and all of the others, I knew I had to check it out. And this book did not disappoint!

The only problem I had was occasionally with the switching back and forward in time. Sometimes it was hard to figure out whether I was reading about something that happened in the past, or present. But for the most part I didn't have any trouble. And I did enjoy the flashbacks, as they gave some good insight into the characters. 

Speaking of characters, that's where this book really shone. I loved how developed, unique, and relatable they all were. I felt so invested in all of their lives that I found myself genuinely worried as they faced the various dangers in the story. 

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys fantasy books, especially if you have a soft spot for Arthurian inspired stories. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Kayla 

** spoiler alert **
           I thought this book started off AMAZING but the majority of the books is setting up for things that never end up happening and because of this the pacing was off for me and the ending was very rushed. I also didn’t love the ending, the “I have to sacrifice myself for everyone else” trope isn’t for me 🤪

Sahi K

CW: suicide, bullying, descriptions of drowning

Though I’ve only read the author’s debut Ash Princess before and never managed to continue the trilogy, she is fun to follow on Twitter and I’ve been very excited for this book since it’s announcement. But now I’m pretty unsure of my feelings after finishing it. 

I know Arthurian legends are very famous and probably familiar to most western readers from a young age. But I didn’t grow up knowing them, and my only knowledge is pretty limited to the show Merlin and the books The Mists of Avalon, which I encountered less than a decade ago, both of which I don’t remember much of. So I’m not exactly attached to the original mythos and I don’t have the usual complaints like other reviewers, that it diverges too much from the original. 

My problem is mostly with the plot itself. I frankly didn’t find the non linear timeline structure of the story too difficult, and it was actually interesting to read the “future” chapters and imagine all the various possibilities. It was just that all of the past chapters felt very detached, so when our group of ensemble characters in the present timeline pledge undying loyalty to each other and tell that they would do anything to make Arthur king, I couldn’t find it emotionally engaging because I couldn’t understand why they were actually so close and loyal to each other. 

The characters themselves are interesting, I especially loved Elaine because she is kind of a tragic figure, unable live her life properly as she is always thinking about future possibilities and betrayals and how to change them. I really wanted her to have a life where she got what she wanted. Morgana is another character I loved because she is fierce and impulsive, but always remains true to herself. I think I would enjoyed the book more if more of these two women’s dynamic was explored. Gwen is a warrior who gets to make difficult decisions for the sake of her love and her people, but I didn’t feel much of anything towards her. Even the romance between Lancelot and Elaine, or Gwen and Arthur were just peripheral subplots that didn’t have much impact. Arthur himself wasn’t much of a major figure in this book, but I knew that going in because the author herself mentioned it many times, so it didn’t bother me much. 

To be honest, I don’t even know where I’m going with this review. It was an okay story, but I could never understand what the goal or ending we were going towards, and I’m not sure if I’m satisfied with the ending, though it was an interesting surprise. I probably could have loved this more if I could’ve felt connected to the characters, but alas that didn’t happen. I don’t know to whom I can recommend this book, but definitely not to those who are very attached to the Arthurian legends and would be unhappy with such a drastically different retelling.

Candyce Kirk

Jordan Heustis

I really enjoyed this book. It has beautiful writing and the kind of skillful story telling that makes you fall in love with reading. I also appreciate how Laura Sebastian always ends her chapters. They drive very will into the next one. I loved the Ash Princess series and I’m glad to say that I enjoyed this book too 😁

laura

I overall thought this was fun take and unique look at the camelot myth. It was a really fun and unique look at the characters in the Camelot world. I really loved the wiring style of this read and it had a very lyrical writing style that captured me. the one element of this read that I sort of struggled with was the time frame and the time line could be a bit confusing but it still was engaging read. I found the book to also deal with harder topics like sucied and depression and was a strong focus of the read! I def want to read more by this author in the future it was a really unique look at the camelot myth.

Abby Hoggatt

izzy

maiden, mother, and crone, this book is absolutely amazing and i can already tell that (1) it's one of my favourite books of 2020 and (2) this is probably going to a really long review and it will never be able to squish into the 2200 instagram character limit. half sick of shadows is 450 pages of beautifully written prose that kept me crying into the late hours of the night. this book is so good that i immediately want to go buy a copy to own (i read a library copy). it's an absolute masterpiece. it's the best arthurian retelling that i have ever read to date, and maybe it's even better than some of what i've read of the original lore. (well, the term "original" is still up for debate because arthurian legends are murky and every version is different to the point that canon basically isn't really a thing.) 

half sick of shadows by laura sebastian is a reimagining of the legend of king arthur, but from the perspective of elaine (the lady of shalott). who even is elaine? good question. she's originally a background character–a perfect forgettable damsel in distress who stays locked up in a tower–who's most well known depiction is in tenysson's poem titled "the lady of shalott." half sick of shadow's elaine is nothing like that. she's cunning and clever and incredibly complex. oh, and, elaine is also an oracle, able to see visions of the future through her weaving loom. this lends itself to the unique storytelling of the book, told through three intersecting timelines and tenses of past and present and possible futures. 

the book begins on the mystical isle of avalon, where elaine trains under nimue (the lady of the lake) and sees visions of the fragmented future. they prophesize countless possibilities, almost all tragic. of arthur's death. of guinevere and lancelot's affair. of morgana's betrayal. elaine carries the curse of seeing the future, and it suddenly begins to fall into place when arthur's father passes away and he's supposed to take the throne. elaine, gwen, lance, and morgana must accompany him back into the constricting camelot, where magic is outlawed and the fey are looked down upon and society weaves heavy chains around them. everything is dangerous in camelot, but perhaps not as dangerous as the impending threats from their own inner circle as more of elaine's visions are fulfilled. fate seems inevitable, and elaine must decide what lines she's willing to cross to change it. 

august 13, 2021. i'm 64 pages into half sick of shadows and i can already tell it's going to be amazing. (spoiler alert, i wasn't wrong). something unique that half sick of shadows does is spoil the ending in the first chapter. the first line of the book is actually: "i will die drowning; it has always been known." i already know the ending is going to be tragic before i'm even attached to the characters. yet half sick of shadows kept me engaged in the story, because it was never about how it ended, but how it got there. (and i did get really attached to the characters later.) the fact that the ending of half sick of shadows is already revealed but the book still kept me engaged as a reader and kept me guessing at points is a testament to how well written the book is. i didn't predict like 90% of the plot twists in the book, except for one of major ones at the end. 

when i started reading half sick of shadows, i had really high expectations because i really enjoyed laura sebastian's ya fantasy series "ash princess." (which by the way, i also recommend!) half sick of shadows did not disappoint. it easily exceeded all of my expectations and also had me sobbing in the middle of the night. if i reread it, i'd probably cry again. i feel like i basically predicted that the book would be full of *pain* because arthurian legend is full of tragedy, but i didn't expect to be as affected as i did. i'd like to also include snippets of my actual reactions on goodreads updates because i don't have better ways of wording it.
95.76% "i rlly don't have any words left to say wtf it's such a masterpiece but i'm crying-"
august 14, 2021 – page 426
90.85% ""i'm left. me. everything that i am, everything i've made myself. maybe you have all shaped me, molded me like a vase, but when all is said and done, when everyone has chipped away their pieces, i will not break.""
august 14, 2021 – page 396
88.39% ""i found my line, elaine. where is yours?""
august 13, 2021 – page 388
86.61% "can we not just let them be happy?"
august 13, 2021 – page 375
83.71% "i'm crying-"
august 13, 2021 – page 114
18.75% ""better monsters who know they're monsters than ones who insist on wearing pretty masks." sdfjdskajflsjfklfjdksjfkljdskjf half sick of shadows is so good it's literally already the best arthurian retelling i've read. also i feel like it's going to be sad i'm not prepared for this–"
august 13, 2021 – page 64

i'm trying to pull together some coherency in this review but it's not really coming through and i've already included at least one keyboard smash so coherency is out the window. regardless, i'm going to try to explain some more reasons why i like half sick of shadows so much. besides how objectively good the prose is and the uniqueness of the storytelling, half sick of shadows also happens to have one of my favourite tropes. this found family is like no other. elaine and morgana and gwen and arthur and lance are one of the best found families ever. they rely on each other, they love each other, and even as things begin to fall apart and trust is scarce, there's no denying that they never truly lose the bonds they have with each other. they're all also definitely their own person outside of the group dynamic and nobody is there for the sake of being there. elaine is the only point of view character, but every member of the main five gets their time to shine and they're all so incredibly interesting and distinctive and complicated. 

half sick of shadows has also been compared to circe, madeline miller's reimagining of the life of the infamous greek sorceress from the odyssey. i think this comparison definitely holds up, and when i was reading half sick of shadows it was giving off major circe vibes in a sort of hard to explain way. if you liked circe, you'd probably like this book. i think that something that half sick of shadows did that made me appreciate it more as a feminist retelling, though, was that elaine was not the only strong female character that gets significant focus. morgana and gwen are equally also strong female characters, and the trio of characters demonstrate that there's more than one way to be strong. 

this book also gives these characters a lot more depth than they have in the original lore where they're just a damsel, an evil seductress, and an scapegoat. elaine of shalott is not a damsel in distress. she's actually the one making most of the decisions and pulling the strings doctor-strange-in-infinity-war style so they can have the right outcome. morgana of tintagel is not an evil-for-no-reason femme fatale who has no personality outside of trying to dethrone arthur. she's complicated and morally grey and she actually has the most interesting personality in half sick of shadows, and i might be biased because she's my favourite character. morgana also puts her friends before the world, and this leads to interesting ideological conflicts with her brother arthur, who is more traditionally heroic. and the magic thing. these are conflicts that actually makes sense for the siblings. guinevere of lyonesse is not just the unfaithful queen to be blamed for all of camelot's problems. she's a princess with her priorities and own people to take care of and she actually has an arc outside of the whole affair situation. elaine and morgana and gwen also build each other up, and actually have a supportive female friendship. 

there's also a major conflict in the book about the importance of arthur's destiny. arthur pendragon is supposed to be the heir to the throne, but because mordred and morgause also have a sort of claim to the throne, there's this whole three trials quest thing so arthur can prove that he's actually worthy. for a lot of the book in present day, the main group is basically going around and trying to help arthur do these tasks. during which, morgana performs one of the most powerful spells and consequently gives up magic and gwen literally marries arthur so he can succeed in one of the tasks (consolidating lyonesse into part of the main kingdom) and in doing so she has to give up a part of her magic too. and elaine is basically arthur's adviser, the brains behind the crown, and let's be honest she's really doing most of the work. no hate to arthur though. he just feels like a boy who isn't ready to be king yet (he is the youngest of the group, i think) and the circumstances basically force all this responsibility onto him. he's a sweet but kind of dumb cinnamon roll who isn't prepared for running a kingdom or the camelot court. 

all of the other characters sacrifice everything to put arthur on the throne, as per what nimue has advised them to keep as their main objective. they cross lines and lose parts of themselves to fulfill this grand destiny. arthur is the focus, until they realize that you can't always put destiny before self. when elaine and morgana and gwen finally realize they have to put their own happiness first at various points in the book, they're such a powerful scenes. and also how it all ties into the magic conflict too. in addtion, i also like this because (1) it gets rid of the notion that the world and its characters bend around the chosen one and their destiny and (2) enforces the idea that the women of arthurian legend to be something more than just the bland side characters in the story of king arthur and (3) it allows arthur to stand on his own without the supports he's used to so he can actually learn how to manage his own kingdom. 

i'm also going to just list a bunch of other things i like in half sick of shadows: the doomed relationship between lance and elaine that made me cry, the side characters nimue (the lady of the lake) and gwain (i love him so much), the whole thing about being heroes, the past-present-future narration, all the iconic quotes, morgana and elaine, the worldbuilding, avalon, when they went to go visit elaine's father, and let's be honest every moment. 

the only negative things i have to say about half sick of shadows is that it can be a little bit confusing at times and that morgana and elaine weren't explicitly ever in a relationship together haha. those two give off serious queer vibes (i'm headcannoning that elaine is bi) and that last scene when they're alone together feels very much like shipping fodder to me so i'm going to run with it. i ship it. they'd be a power couple. oh, and this isn't a negative thing for me, but if you prefer retellings that stay closer to the original material, half sick of shadows might not be the book for you because it takes a lot of creative liberties. or maybe still try it regardless. it's really good. i think i've said that too many times now lmao. highly, highly recommend!

Katelyn 

Autumn Hunsinger

"Laura Sebastian is the next Madeline Miller. . . . a fierce, fresh, lyrical tale that will enthrall until the last page."--Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress A Popsugar Best Summer Read of 2021 A Bibliolifestyle Most Anticipated Summer 2021 Sci-fi and Fantasy Book "Magical, haunting, unique--I haven't been so excited about an Arthur book since I read The Once and Future King ."--Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author The Lady of Shalott reclaims her story in this bold feminist reimagining of the Arthurian myth from the New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess. Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come--for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future. On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends--countless possibilities, almost all of them tragic. When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle. As visions are fulfilled and an inevitable fate closes in, Elaine must decide how far she will go to change destiny--and what she is willing to sacrifice along the way.

Half Sick of Shadows

Reviews

Highlights