Tidelands by Philippa Gregory ISBN: 9781501187155
Series: The Fairmile #1
Published by Simon and Schuster on August 20, 2019
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 476
Format: ARC
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The #1 New York Times bestselling author and “one of the great storytellers of our time” (San Francisco Book Review) turns from the glamour of the royal courts to tell the story of an ordinary woman, Alinor, who cannot bear to conform to the life that lies before her.
Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, England is in the grip of a civil war between renegade king and rebellious parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even the remote tidelands —the marshy landscape of the south coast.
Alinor, a descendant of wisewomen, trapped in poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead, she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.
Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbors. This is the time of witch mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.
It is dangerous for a woman to be different.
Characters: 7, Alinor is a pretty memorable character. Alys as well, eventually, though she spends much of the book being unreasonably able-bodied and beautiful and charming; more or less a plot device. Rob is less distinguishable and definitely more of a plot device, though at least he was given some strengths and personality traits. James is also memorable, especially for how he changes and grows throughout the book. I stopped caring about what happened to him toward the end, because of some choices he made (in contradiction of the choices Alinor makes). Every other character in this novel exists to toss tension into the storyline, but several of them have names and little moments of kindness or cruelty that serve to flesh out the world.
Atmosphere: 9, some parts of the tidelands (like the rife), I had difficulty keeping track of what it was. But for the most part, the physical setting was very clear in both its dangers and its charms, and place played an important part in setting the atmosphere and creating backstory. Likewise, the emotion of the scenes was mostly very palpable, believable, and compelling. There were several points where I had to stop and just process, because we know the lives of common women in the 1600s sucked but Gregory makes it feel immersive enough to be the current situation (and, too, there’s a segment of the American population that believes they’d like to bring us back to those times, which added a layer of intensity to the reading of this).
Writing: 7, I struggled with the sudden changes of POV that happened mid-chapter, but this was an eARC so perhaps that’s different in the published version? Aside from those rapid-fire switches, I enjoyed the writing style as I always seem to enjoy Gregory’s writing style.
Plot: 8, the pacing was consistent though there were a few places that dragged a bit (then it caught steam for the final 20% or so). Even if you aren’t aware of England’s history from 1630-1680, you can see how the story is going to end pretty early on- there are plenty of hat-tips from Gregory (maybe too many? But then again, that serves to lay the tension because you have a constant low-level dread). So most of the plot is watching it unfold. That said, a few things surprised me, which I appreciated. And I spent many hours binge-reading the last half.
Intrigue: 6, the first half of the book, I wasn’t called to read this very much. Alinor seemed too simple of a character (and entirely too good to be real, with plenty of off-stage suffering that should’ve given her a little bitterness or trauma, at least). The second half of the book, more or less, I didn’t want to put it down.
Logic: 8, as I understand it, this is relatively true to the history of that era. We often get stories centered in large populations or historically significant areas, so it was nice to get a glimpse into a forgotten area of Sussex. A few things were incredibly convenient to the plot, and highly unlikely, but it didn’t throw me out of the story (just raised an eyebrow).
Enjoyment: 8, this could be a 7 but for the final 10% of the book which had me hooked like a fish on a line and prompted me to get the sequel right away. When I balance my engagement and my investment against my criticisms, on the whole I enjoyed it.
I don’t often post a trigger warning, but in this case I feel the need to because Alinor is a bit of a suffer-puppet for the author: mention of rape, domestic violence, death of a parent, murder/execution, war, miscarriage; explicit death of an animal, misogyny, religious bigotry, torture, death, pregnancy, adultery, public shaming, suicidal thoughts; graphic description of abortion.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- MerMay
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