Yet another rummage sale purchase that found its way onto my bookshelf, Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl is a long, but entertaining foray into historical fiction and the twisted relationship of two sisters caught between the sheets of a cold-blooded, impulsive king. If that description doesn't make you want to pick up this scintillating tale, there's also a film version starring Natalie Portman awaiting you.
Gregory allows the youngest of the Boleyn trio, Mary, to narrate the tale as the most sympathetic of the siblings brought to court by an ambitious uncle to improve the family fortune. Ushered to the King's bed at 14, Mary soon loses his favor to her more avaricious sister, Anne, who plots a clumsy Machiavellian scheme to unseat the King's current wife and usher in her own reign as Queen of England. As we all know, the scheme falls flat when Anne fails to birth a son and is eventually beheaded along with anyone else the King didn't particularly like.
Gregory executes the plot brilliantly and the arc of this story is artful, intelligent and provocative. I had trouble putting it down. Another recommendation to keep your brain plump and wrinkly for the zombies.
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