The Dead Queens Club is truly unique. Henry VIII goes to high school. Still tyrannical and crazy with the added bonus of being a teenager. Girls, run!! Seriously, though, this is a high school fiction story based on Henry VIII and his six wives. Just to recap them: Katherine, exiled and died; Anne Boleyn, beheaded; Jane Seymour, died in childbirth; Anne of Cleves, annulled and actually came out quite nicely; Katherine Howard, beheaded; Kathryn Parr, outlived him. These were not happy women. Now, high school Henry VIII has his six girlfriends. Granted, a certain suspension of disbelief is needed because it's far fetched. It's still an entertaining read. It's helpful to know anything about the time period when he lived, 1509-1547, because historical references are thrown out here and there. It's not necessary to read the story though. Overall it's a good read. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

So, this was completely awesome. The tale of the Tudors - Henry VIII and his six unfortunate wives - set in a modern American high school, dripping with sarcasm and wit, darkly fun and enjoyable reading. I could not put this one down, and I literally LOL'ed so many times that I was getting weird looks from people around me.

Would someone not familiar with the Tudors enjoy this book as much? Maybe not, although I think it's funny and action-packed enough to stand on its own. Is the good guy/bad guy flipping somewhat whiplash-inducing? A little, though I suspect that's probably how it felt in actual Tudor times. Was Cleves (the narrator) a little arrogant and misguided at times? Yeah, but it was fun to watch her journey and she definitely redeemed herself in the end.

Personally, I think Hannah Capin knocked it straight out of the park with this one.

I saw a review for this book on Vicky Who Reads blog a couple of weeks ago and I knew I had to read it! This book is a mix of the Tudors of England meets Mean Girls. It’s amazing!

I love the combination of historical figures and modern teens. My own manuscript is an adaptation of Wuthering Heights in a modern high school, so I especially love these kinds of adaptations.

There were also some thriller aspects to the story. Henry’s girlfriends either disappear or die after they break up. It ends up becoming a mystery of what really happened to Anna Boleyn. She apparently set a tower on fire, leading to the deaths of her and her brother. The real Henry VIII murdered his wives when they weren’t pleasing him anymore. The question in this story is did Anna actually set the fire or was she innocent?

I loved this story so much! I can’t wait to see what Hannah Capin writes next!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First off I would like to thank the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this ARC. While the copy was provided for free, all opinions are honest and my own.

The Dead Queens Club is a modern high school retelling of Henry VIII and his wives. It’s got drama, romance, and strong female friendships, narrated by Annie “Cleves” Marck, Henry’s fourth girlfriend. She’s the only one that’s managed to survive dating Henry so far, and she’s starting to wonder why…

The first quarter of 2019 seemed to be ripe for a lot of Henry VIII retellings, and this novel was one of a few that caught my eye. I’ve been especially into murder mystery novels lately, trying to find more YA ones as the genre keeps growing, so this book was an instant add to my tbr. When I was accepted to review it before release, I was even more excited, and couldn’t wait to get started.

While in the end, I didn’t rate The Dead Queens Club all that highly, I did thoroughly enjoy the first half of the book. Cleves was a narrator that truly stuck out, whether it be due to her characterization as well as the how the story itself was written, and I found myself speeding through the first half of the book. The insane amount of drama the book involves was also hilarious to read, and while some of it was a bit ridiculous, I can definitely see some of the people I was in high school with acting this exact way. Additionally, even though the book dealt with a decent amount of death for your average high school story, it still managed to be pretty lighthearted and funny, for the most part. Unfortunately, that latter trait had consequences later on.

I wish I could say I liked where the story ended up going and went into the ending with the same zeal I had started with, but I can’t. Somewhere along the line the book just lost me, and I blame that on a few reasons.

1. The book keeps switching who Cleves/we are supposed to trust. While this is common in mystery novels, the sheer amount and speed at which we are thrown back and forth between characters made me feel like a ping pong ball. I’ve never had a book give me quite this much whiplash, and honestly, I really hope I never do again.

2. We are given way too many different stories on what happened “that night.” I felt like I should’ve been taking notes on all these stories since the beginning since by the time everything started going down, so many different tales with so many different intricacies had been spelled out that I couldn’t even keep them straight anymore. I normally still think for myself as I’m reading, not necessarily taking everything the main character thinks as the truth, but in this case, I just had to trust Cleves because I couldn’t even remember everything anymore.

3. The writing style ends up adding to the confusion. I mentioned the writing style above, and while I did like it then, it’s lack of directness and it’s wishy-washy way of spelling things out just added to the confusion the first two points gave me. I had to reread a few parts to get what was really going on, and even then I’m still not sure if I interpreted the scene properly. While I almost always love unique writing styles, this one just ended up hurting the ending even more.

4. At some point, Cleves stops being suspicious of others. There were tons of moments later on where Cleves just kept on believing what her friends said, even after being shown multiple times that they’ve very frequently not been entirely honest with her. Normally this isn’t so annoying, but if I’m relying on Cleves as much as I mentioned above, and suddenly I feel I can’t trust her, I feel even more lost in the book.

5. In the end, I wasn’t able to actually like anyone. Now I get the point of the book wasn’t to make people likable, but the way this book went made it hard to actually enjoy and go along with some of the scenes and events in the final 20% of the book. I was at the point where I literally didn’t like nor trust anyone, but I had to go along with how it ended up being tied up anyways. I just wasn’t into it anymore.

I’m sure there are more little things that started bugging me the further along I got in the story, but these are the main issues that switched me from loving the book to just being annoyed by it. I feel like it has a lot of potential, and some of these issues may have been fixed enough for the final copy, so I do recommend just trying it. And I’ll definitely see what other books this author will release! However, The Dead Queens Club just wasn’t for me.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own*

DNF @ 28% (in addition I skimmed the last 4%)

Here's the thing: I probably could finish this book, but I'm not into it. I'd be pushing myself to finish it and I'd end up disliking it even more. Do I want to know all the answers? Yes, but not that badly...

There is content here to really enjoy if you like Gossip Girl and other super drama-filled stories. This one has it in spades! I think the problem I had with the drama though is that it could at times feel so overboard. Yet, when given that it is a retelling of Henry the VIII it makes more sense. How the characters and some places are named to correspond with history made me smile.

There is also a lot of female empowerment here. While there is slut-shaming, girls back each other up and defend each other. There are some great quotes and moments of girls being friends and not caring about boys.... sometimes. These moments did feel forced at times or just felt confusing because Cleves would totally be on believing the girls' side and sticking up for them, to turn around and then not for another girl-- usually Anna. Cleves needed to make up her mind.

I didn't understand why everyone likes Henry so much and cares so much about his dating life. I think this may be a huge part of why I couldn't stay in the story. Everyone wants him to continue being happy in his relationship and they step on eggshells around him, yet besides his magnetism and who his father used to be, I didn't see a reason for all the attention.

I did like that we got snippets of the past here and there. I liked the writing. Although, I wish the moments in the past were more distinct because sometimes it was hard to tell where we were in time -- year ago, last night, tomorrow afternoon?

So, would I recommend this? I would recommend this to people who like Gossip Girl type books and shows. It has drama, girls who stick together, and a subtle mystery to make people want to read it with a bowl of popcorn.

Dead Queens Club is a clever retelling of the Six Wives of Henry VIII. Cleves is our narrator; she's snarky and smart, and it is really refreshing to read about a high school senior who doesn't know where she wants to go to college or what she wants to major in. For her senior year, she moves to Lancaster where her summer camp BFF Henry lives. Drama and death ensue.
The voices of the girls - some friends, others adversaries - are all very distinct and authentic. I've seen some reviews mentioning how Cleves says she's a feminist but doesn't always act like one. I find this depiction quite realistic; she's 17/18 years old and figuring things out. Capin fantastically tackles slut-shaming, social media, and high school politics. With regards to Cleves's feminism, the author really sharply unpacks and explores the complexities and importance of female friendships.
If you love Tudor/Elizabethan era historical fiction, Dead Queens Club is a refreshing and cracking contemporary retelling.

As soon as I read Vicky’s review of this book, I knew it needed to be placed front row center on my TBR. I’m no Tudors historian, but I love me some Henry VIII, from Showtime’s The Tudors to Margaret George’s tome The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers.

The premise is simple: Henry VIII drama transported to a modern high school setting. These high schoolers are the cool you can only dream of—oodles of money, absent parents, an arsenal of witty one-liners on their lips. We’re treated to first person narration by the MC, Cleves, who is no-holds-barred hilarious. Let’s get real: nobody talks like this in real life, but it doesn’t really matter, since you just want Cleves to keep on spitting jokes. Also be prepared that there are some near break-the-fourth-wall moments; for some readers this will be all in good fun and for others this might get annoying.

“I don’t give a flying fuck whether or not you slept with him.”
“Really?”
“Really. We’re done talking about guys, okay? Let’s pass the damn Bechdel test.”

If you’re looking for a standard whodunnit, this isn’t it. Really this book is all about character development, voice, and teen drama. Yeah, there are some dead queens and a finger-pointing blame game, but the sleuthing is kept pretty minimal until the end… This being said, I will say that the end does get intense, in an awesome way. I got actual chills. Yet the multidimensional characters and rock-solid voice are the real reason to open this book. I’m very curious to read the author’s future works; will we see a modern adaptation featuring some other infamous historical figures? Julius Caesar, perhaps? The Medicis? I’m game if Capin is.

I loved this book! I'm a huge fan of Tudor England and anything to do with Henry VIII and this retelling was perfect. The voice of Cleves was perfect for a modern version of her and the story kept you entertained, despite already knowing what happened to the real wives of Henry Tudor. Definitely adding this one to my must-buy list.

While I found the idea of basing a book on Henry the VIIIth and his wives intriguing in concept, I think the book was just a mess.

First of all, the grammar and typos were really hard to get past. Secondly, 6 wives (or girlfriends in this case) is just too much. There should be at least 2 books to give them all their due. The overachievers camp and pranking stories were distracting.

And the whole thing really doesn't make sense without the overarching historical and religious themes. It might work if it was set at a boarding school. For example, I went to an episcopal boarding school, but I wasn't particularly religious. Some kids opted out of attending chapel and instead went to Catholic mass on Sundays. That might work. Or maybe you could make it about people who follow a particular team religiously.

On the other hand, I don't know how you replace the main theme of Henry needing an heir...

Regardless, this attempt just doesn't work. It's convoluted and over the top. I did like some of the characters, though...

I loved this book. It is no perfect by any means but I loved its message and how things play out. This is such a great novel about perils of toxic masculinity. It also explores important feminist themes, including girl-on-girl hate and girl friendship. It lacked a bit on the intersectional front, though.

I assume those who are into history and know of Henry VIII and his wives will be intrigued and yes, there are many references to historical figures, events and details. I loved most of them, although I admit it felt jarring when it comes to names. Some of the names are taken directly from history and it took me a bit away from the story.

All in all, a really relevant story and a great exploration of toxic masculinity. What I liked is that we experience many of those things from the MC's eyes; she grows throughout the novel so much. And the ending is perfect.

I think this story might have worked better as a comedy. Watch this teenage boy burn his way through a line of increasingly wrong girlfriends. I really thought that's where it was going for the first third. Changing to an investigation of suspicious accidents was a hard pivot, thematically and tonally. THe first third was relatively light. Murder and toxic masculinity and savior complexes are much heavier and darker. And characters that had previously appeared frivolous or intense suddenly became unhinged.

The Dead Queens Club takes the historical facts of King Henry VIII and his six wives and translates it into a Contemporary Young Adult novel set in a high school. No, high school Henry is not married to six girls, but he has had six girlfriends in the last two years. Including our main protagonist, Annie Marck “Cleves”, girlfriend number four, and best friend to Henry. When she hears a rumor that Henry is possibly responsible for the deaths of two of his ex-girlfriends, Cleves investigates to help clear his name. Is the most popular boy in school the funny partner in crime she knows? Or is he a guy with anger management issues who takes revenge on his cheating girlfriends?

The Dead Queens Club cleverly names all of it’s characters after their true life namesakes and incorporates familiar places from Tudor history into this small town. I’ll admit to once again using Wikipedia to give myself a quick history lesson on each wife (and if they kept their head or not) and found that I relished watching the mystery unfold more because of that knowledge. Setting Henry VIII’s relationships in a high school certainly had it’s challenges but I thought Hannah Capin did a GREAT job at intertwining and creating original scenarios while still maintaining their historical references. It wasn’t just the names and places that were similar, but each person’s relationship with Henry, down to his advisors who fed him false information to turn him against his wives, were represented in this book. Once you know the history (as I did with my quick Wikipedia exploration) you have a few aha! moments where you stop and admire the machinations and manipulations the author took to make that reference happen.

Lancaster High had all of the drama and gossip you’d imagine from a high school setting and even though the pace was kind of slow I was surprised at how well the political intrigue of the Tudor court translated into the cliques and capers of high school life. Cleves rides on the edge of any clique although her friendship with Henry puts her in the elite circle. She is blinded for a long while by that friendship, his magnetic personality, and his lies, but the other girls, even though catty and mean, help her see the truth.

Even though The Dead Queen’s Club had a contemporary setting I found myself enjoying it like I do historical fiction, yet it was easy to read and didn’t bog down as some historical fiction does. Cleves was probably one of Henry’s least impressive wives, yet in this novel she was the catalyst for the readers emotions to dip and surge. She was so torn between her “best friend” Henry and this other Henry that her friends were trying to make her see. Who was the real boy? Well, if you know your history you know the answer to that question. But there is so much more to this novel than the historical facts. There are emotions, discoveries, and the realization that people just sometimes suck. The story, however, didn’t. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a free copy of this ARC for my honest review and it was honest!

Now, don’t send me off to the guillotine but when I was watching The Tudors all those years ago, I fell in love with Anne Boleyn and her story.. it was probably how great of an actress Natalie Dormer was in it but I was completely captivated by this obviously wronged woman whose only crime was loving a psychotic man. I hated what happened to her so much that when Jane appeared (Ugh, Jane Seymour) I stopped watching the show. Yes, I know Katharine of Aragon got the shitty end of the stick first but.. I just felt that Henry was truly in love with Anne before he went all nutty and emulated the Queen of Hearts with the whole off with her head thing.

I truly loved how much The Dead Queens Club with it’s channeling of Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girls just managed to tell a story where the women finally get the last word in the story. I adored how this book was all about feminism and women finally winning. This book didn’t let a man like Henry whose charming personality hid what was such an obvious psychotic persona.

So thanks to this author for reawakening my obsession with all things Tudor! And to Netgalley and the publishers for sending this book to me in exchange for an honest review.

King Henry VIII and his six wives step out of history and take on high school teen drama in The Dead Queens Club. I have to say I do really like the title and that it is used later on in the book. Unfortunately being the second Henry VIII adaptation that I have read, I can now say that I am not a fan of books based on him. I think the author did well at turning these historical figures into prom king and queens and naming the characters to fit them. I also liked all of the references in her "possible future day jobs" such as "#24601 Life Without Parole" and "#1984" though they didn't seem to have anything to do with the Tudors. I'd say the last 80% was pretty good as the reader starts to see the girls banding together and be all "girl power." That way it didn't end with just broken hearts...and rolling heads. In my opinion I wasn't a fan of the content, but that's not to say that it was a badly written book or that the plot didn't work. It just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 4/5

I loved this! It was like watching The Mean Girls again but with Tudor actors! The drama here was unreal and I am VERY glad I was not part of any of it! I laughed so much and enjoyed this immensely!

Thank you NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This book, although having a very interesting premise was not for me. The humour and the pacing turned me completely off and the plot was all over the place.

I did not connect with any of the characters at all and in that lies my overall distaste for this book as I tend to like more character driven books.

4.5 stars.

The sordid tale of King Henry VIII and his six wives is probably the one most well-known to those with even only a passing interest in English history. As an Anglophile myself, I grew up reading Antonia Fraser's The Six Wives of Henry VIII alongside other titles more obscure on the topic, and heartily enjoyed the many popular TV adaptations. I tended to avoid the fictional stuff, an inclination cemented by viewing the movie of The Other Boleyn Girl. It was so terrible that, for once, Natalie Portman's acting was the highlight of a movie for me (and she was quite good in it, don't get me wrong, but the lack of historical rigor was appalling!) Most historical fiction about the six queens tends to follow some weird agenda, such as Ford Madox Ford's attempt at redeeming Katherine Howard by pretending she was Anne Boleyn in The Fifth Queen. I did, however, give in and read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall because Booker, and found it, while an excellent portrayal of Thomas Cromwell, a somewhat tedious read.

All this is by way of saying that I've read tons and tons of books on the subject and consumed so much film and TV on it, that when I watched the Mark Rylance-starring version of Wolf Hall, it was actually a shock to me to realize for the first time what a monster Henry VIII was. It was as if some BBC producer got tired of everyone pretending that Henry was just a quirky horndog and decided to finally put his sociopathy front and center (and God bless you, BBC producer, for doing it.) Pretty much everything ever written or filmed about Henry before the Beeb's Wolf Hall tried to justify his actions because romance or religion or monarchy or whatever, but guys, he sucked, and nearly everything good that came out of his reign happened almost in spite of him.

And this is where we circle round to The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin. It takes the story of Henry and his queens and transplants it to a small-town Indiana high school in the modern day (and frankly, if you're trying to reshape history to fit your own agenda, this is the way to do it, by changing the scenario entirely so that it makes sense to pick and choose what you carry over.) Our narrator is Annie Marck, the adopted Asian daughter of Cleveland professors, who is the best friend of Henry, the most popular guy in Lancaster, Indiana. As the book opens, Henry is dating Annie's other best friend, Katie Howard, while Annie, an aspiring journalist, is constantly thwarted by her nemesis, editor-in-chief of the high school paper, Cat Parr. When Katie dies at a party in the woods, Annie must start to confront Henry's terrible dating history and, more sinisterly, the death of yet another of his exes, Anna Boleyn.

While modern and feminist, TDQC hews quite closely to the history, performing a remarkable feat in repotting this Tudor drama into the hothouse of an American high school. Ms Capin clearly knows her stuff, and readers will find themselves absorbing actual history almost unwittingly, as we're carried along by the narrative. Her portrayals of Katherine Howard, especially, and (Jane) Parker (Boleyn) Rochford are both loving and illuminating. I have to admit that it took me a while to get really comfortable with Annie's first person POV, as she's a decidedly idiosyncratic personality, but that's sort of the point, that she's the quirky one. And also? A teenager. Ms Capin does a really terrific job of taking these archetypes and pinning them on to actual teenage personalities.

I really enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to reading more from Ms Capin, perhaps with more non-white characters (tho I'm going to pretend that Lina is a brown Latina, because if Annie can be Chinese, why not?) I especially recommend it to everyone tired of Henry VIII being given a pass on being a bad dude. It doesn't fix what he did, but it does help people see better the truth of his court, quite an accomplishment for an ostensibly YA novel.

A modern historical retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives, The Dead Queens Club feels like a cathartic answer to one wondering what would happen if Henry got what he deserved. Relevant even in a contemporary context, the novel is told from the point of Henry's best friend (as well as girlfriend #4) Annie, as in Anne of Cleves, who takes way too long to realize that her womanizing best friend may also be a literal ladykiller. Occasionally jumping back and forth on a two-year timeline, the story comes during the time of #5 and continues into #6, merging a murder mystery-ish plot with a girl-squad-seeks-justice plot.

Annie, aka Cleves, has known Henry for a couple of years from summer camp, and when she moves to Lancaster, Indiana from Cleveland, she is readily accepted by the popular kids (mostly because Henry rules the school), and finds an easy friendship with Parker and Katie, the latter being #5. Her friendship with Henry is formed on a mutual love for pranks, and doing daredevil things. She has been with him through all of his breakups and though she calls herself a feminist, she has a glaring blindspot when it comes to him, and is much more ready to accept that Anna Boleyn may have accidentally caused her own and her brother's death.

She finds it unfair, though, that the general consensus in the school is vitriol towards Anna, (even though she herself calls her a boyfriend-stealer) and tries to mend the dead girl's reputation through her position as a correspondent on the school newspaper (also, BTW, I loved how the chapter titles are framed like headlines). When Katie, too, dies 'accidentally', Cleves is devastated and is frustrated over how the school once again tarnishes Katie's image and thinks she had it coming. As the novel progresses, she is roped into Parker's scheme to get justice for Katie, and eventually has to contend with the fact that Henry is shady AF. Bonus: they make a girl squad out of the living 'queens' + Parker in order to get the truth.

As a retelling, it works really well to translate the story from its historical context to a modern one - there are plenty of references that tie it back, as well as little nods to the fates of the original people. The names being similar, or in some cases, same as historical figures warranted at least one joke about history repeating itself, but maybe that's just me. Annie is a wonderful narrator with some quippy lines, and the best part about the book - she keeps the book lively with her sarcastic and dry humor, and is human in that she finds it difficult to believe her best friend could be a killer (still, shouldn't have taken her 400 pages to open her eyes!) and struggles with her feminism (a lot) but grows through the book. The other girls in her squad, though archetypes in some ways, are well-fleshed out characters, and the friendship and solidarity between them is played so well. It also touches upon consent and slut-shaming, in a topical manner.

With regards to the murder aspect, I still feel it wasn't as clean as it made it out to be. For a supposed 'crime of passion' it was too easily dismissed as accidental, and I don't think Henry was charming enough to make even investigators not suspect him (especially not a second time). It would have probably made more sense if his father was bribing officials or something, to be honest. The drama may have been a bit exaggerated for a high school setting, even if it was entertaining. The ending, though, is satisfactory enough to make the book an enjoyable read overall.

Let me start by saying I would (and no doubt will) read it again a dozen times. I’ve been looking for some really good contemps to get me out of this weird struggle I’ve had getting into them lately. NO TROUBLE GETTING INTO THIS ONE. Just enough touches of humor balanced with the murder-y vibes to make it impossible to put down. Some of the moments felt like they were trying a tad too hard but I overall really enjoyed where this story went. And, I mean, you can’t go wrong with a main character like Cleves. You just can’t.

I was extremely lucky to receive a digital ARC of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

I’m always a sucker for stories based on Tudor-era drama, especially when it’s focused more on the many women screwed over by Henry VIII instead of just Henry VIII. This book did that in so many ways, but it’s definitely an odd little (well, big – over 450+ pages) book that might not be for everyone.

It took me a little white to get into this book because it bounced around a lot. We enter the story while Henry is dating Katie, aka Catherine Howard, Wife #5. We learn first about how our protagonist, “Cleves” (aka Anne of Cleves, Wife #4) first met Henry and became his best friend, even after their short romantic relationship ended. We go back and forth from the present timeline, where Cleves is friends with Katie and Henry still likes her, but is suspicious that she might be cheating, and we slowly learn more about how Cleves met him at Over-Achiever summer camp before moving to the same town as him, as well as how things ended with girlfriends one through three.

I had a lot of fun matching the characters with their real-life counterparts. They’re not hidden, obviously, but there are some details, like the fact that Lina (girlfriend #1, Lina Aràgon, aka Catherine of Aragon) is the daughter of Isabella Castille and Ferdinand Aràgon, aka Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, that are fun to notice if you know some of the history of the characters. It was also interesting to see how author Hannah Capin modernized different things, like how Lina is still religious and beloved by the people, but now that just means she doesn’t believe in sex before marriage and everyone is Team Lina when Anna (Anne) Boleyn enters the pictures.

Things were darker than I expected – for instance, without too many spoilers, people die or died before the story started, just like the actual historical people. Sure, not everyone died – one guy who’s supposedly involved with one of the girlfriends isn’t actually drawn and quartered, but he does drop out of school and move “to Alaska to get a job on a fishing boat or a pipeline or something where you might make bank, but you’ll probably die in some heinous winching incident that’s essentially modern-day drawing and quartering,” (pages 209 – 210 of the eARC). It’s the little things like that that amused me.

And there’s a lot to find amusing in this book – Cleves, our protagonist, is a very sarcastic person. Sometimes the humor can feel over the top and like it’s trying a little too hard, but for the most part, I enjoyed it. It’s definitely an element that some people might not enjoy as much, though. Same with the way things take a turn in the second half of the book and it almost becomes a quasi-mystery, or at least a “prove that Henry is horrible” quest, since he has a habit of losing girlfriends to various things, like moving away and dying. It threw me a little, just like how I was surprised with how many flashback scenes we got in the first 50 or so pages, but it didn’t derail things for me.

I think that people could really enjoy this odd retelling/high school drama/pseudo-murder mystery story, as long as they know what they’re getting into. It has a lot of feminism, from defending girls who are sex shamed and vilified and such, to also acknowledging that girls can do bad things like “steal” boyfriends and are still victims of other crimes, even if they’re not perfect. I liked that aspect, even if it felt like it was a bit anvilicious at times – for teenagers and young adults who haven’t been exposed to feminist theory as much as I have, it might bring up some good points that they hadn’t though about, and that’s always a good thing.

This book took me a while to read, mainly because I had it in PDF form, which is annoying to read on Adobe Digital Editions, but also because it really was a big book, and there were some things that didn’t always work, but ultimately, I enjoyed this debut. Capin already has a 2020 book listed on Goodreads – another retelling, this time Macbeth with some #MeToo elements – and I already know I’ll be checking that out as soon as possible.