Juliette’s journal holds her tortured thoughts in an attempt to repress memories of the horrific act that landed her in a cell. Juliette was torn from her home and thrown into an asylum by The Reestablishment, a militaristic regime in control since an environmental catastrophe left society in ruins. Guinevere is White secondary characters are diverse, from those with implied Asian and African parentage to a female Lancelot and a lesbian Isolde, although only Lancelot’s identity is interrogated within the context of Guinevere’s questions.Ī dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself.

In this version of Arthur’s legend, magic is chaos and female while Camelot is order and male the exception to this dichotomy is Merlin, who is never seen directly but whose hand and lack of care drive Arthur’s story and give Guinevere a model of power against which to fight. Happily, those questions revolve around power and nature as well as recurring themes of who and how to be, providing rich intellectual fodder for readers who want a think-y book with few conclusions (although the ending implies they are coming in Volume 3). Cipher Guinevere wants to understand herself, but her lack of memory means she has little depth to draw from she has limited identity beyond the questions she ponders and asks of her world. The plot holds few surprises, being more a study of Guinevere’s internal landscape peppered with bursts of action slowed by Guinevere’s constant self-doubt. The sequel to 2019’s The Guinevere Deception continues to retell in close third-person the story of Guinevere, a magical blank slate with almost no memories of her past and little understanding of herself other than an unshakeable conviction in Arthur, as she tries to “fight like a queen” rather than a witch. More female-centric meandering through Arthuriana.

The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White