The Dead Queens Club

You know that feeling you get when a book actually lives up to your expectations? This one did it for me. I was so looking forward to reading this because Tudor England is pretty damn interesting, and though I’m by no means an expert historian on the era, I’ve read the books and watched the movies and seen the show and Googled my way into having a passable knowledge of key figures/situations of that time period. That being said, I absolutely love how creatively those people and situations and dates were woven into the story. For example, 1,503 people lost their jobs when the factory Henry’s dad was running closed. Well, 1503 is the year Henry and Catherine of Aragon were betrothed. Example 2, Eustace Chapman, Lina’s most staunch supporter and a Lion Ledger correspondent is a great modern day high school equivalent of Eustace Chapuys, Catherine Aragon’s legal council in what came to be known as the “King’s Great Matter” and who was also the ambassador to England through Catherine’s nephew Charles V, and is best known for his extensive and detailed correspondence. There are just so many big and little details like this that make this book fantastic. I love how York and Lancaster and the Plantagenet were woven in, how minor figures like ladies in waiting were there, how one of Henry’s friends was named Brandon, and Katie’s lovers were Francis, and Tom Culpepper (the one that, like in the book, eventually caught her out). This book really is just riddled with details and that’s part of what makes it so good. The narrative was easy enough to follow, though I can see how it can get confusing with all the back and forth and no definitive timeline being given, but Cleves usually prefaced these sections by saying something along the lines of “this is how it happened”. There were only a couple of things I disliked about this book: (a) we didn’t get as much Anna as I personally would have liked, but that’s a personal preference, and (b) the ending. Trying not to give away spoilers, but I feel like the ending could have been slightly more “let’s get the cops involved” than it was. But, that’s me. Overall, I was really happy with this book and 100% recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in a modern-day retelling of one of histories most intriguing time periods.

I really salute the author, Hannah Capin, for managing something I never dreamed possible – turning the story of Henry VIII & his 6 wives into a clever present-day high school dramedy. She has really done her homework on the history of that time & used the characters’ names & traits flawlessly to depict what we know of the personalities of that era. This book is so well-written & thought-out that’s it’s literally impossible to put down. For people familiar with the Tudor period, the ingenious little “easter eggs” the author slips in, such as Anna & George Boleyn climbing up a building’s “scaffold”-ing, will fill them with delight, as it did me. But, even if your Tudor knowledge is somewhat perfunctory, the story is so entertaining on its own, that you will still enjoy it. The story is told from the perspective of the wise-cracking Annie Marck of Cleveland (aka Cleeves) who had me in stitches with her witty repartee & inner thoughts. I’m definitely way past the Young Adult age group the book is written for, but I can still remember what high school was like. (It never changes, it seems.) So everything in it is highly relatable. I cannot recommend this book more highly! It hits all the right notes & keeps you coming back for more!

What starts as a hilarious romp through the most dramatic high school ever quickly turns into so much more in Hannah Capin’s novel, The Dead Queens Club, which reimagines the court of Henry VIII of England in the modern day.

I absolutely loved this book! I’ve long had an interest in the Tudor dynasty, so when this book was recommended to me by a coworker who shared my interest, I was eager to give it a go. Capin’s reimagining of figures like Katherine Howard or Anne Boleyn in this new setting will have readers facing issues that they themselves will recognize – bullying, rumormongering, etc.

A brilliant book for any Tudor fan!

Where do I begin with my love for this book? Everything about it speaks to my heart, Cleves is probably one of my favorite characters of all time, smart, hilarious, saracastic with flaws and vulnerabilities that make her so incredibly relatable. The queens absolutely draw from their historical counterparts and they all gave me a new appreciation for their lives and an extreme amount of anger for the way history has condemned them in ways they never deserved. These girls are amazing. I want to be BFFs with every single one of them. And Henry was so well-written, very much how Id imagine a modern teenage version of whod hed actually be. I wont spoil anything, but wow, did I loooooove how it ended. So perfect. Hilarious and feminist and everything I love about girls getting stuff done, this is one story thats going to stick with me for years. LONG LIVE THE QUEENS!

Boring book…cannot say more than that!…it dragged on and on and on. Also didnt like the way the story was written..too many unnecessary comparisons which enhanced the boringness!

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