While this book was really well written, and I did enjoy it, I struggled with the jumping around. There's a lot of Elaine's visions and going back to earlier days. It can be very difficult to keep track of where you are in the story and what is real versus what isn't. The ending was unfortunately very lackluster and confusing. I'm still not sure what happened. But I did like Sebastian's take on the King Arthur legend and the characters were likeable and interesting. But it's a very long book for not a lot to happen unfortunately.

When I saw that this was a Book of the Month pick, I couldn’t resist snagging it. I love Arthurian retellings and Half Sick of Shadows sounded right up my alley. While this novel had such an interesting premise and so many excellent ideas, the execution just didn’t quite work for me. I loved seeing Elaine as an Oracle, Lancelot as half-Fae, and Gwen as a nature witch. The juxtaposition between their time in Avalon and their time in Camelot worked well to convey the different societies.

But the narration ended up being quite a slog, since it goes from the past to the present to the future and back again. This book relies heavily on Elaine telling the reader everything about Camelot and the various characters, rather than showing the reader things through actions/the plot. And so I never ended up connecting with the characters because I felt like I only knew Elaine’s version of them. I also ended up skimming portions of the book because I got tired of how wishy-washy Elaine was regarding every single decision (particularly romantic ones). I think Half Sick of Shadows is a book that really could have benefitted from having multiple POVs in order to give more depth to the various characters and to the story overall.

Overall, Half Sick of Shadows just wasn’t the book for me, which was frustrating because there were so many interesting pieces of this novel. I do think that some readers will love it, but I prefer some of the other Arthurian retellings that have come out lately.

I very much enjoy the idea of Arthurian legends, but I find myself being very picky. I know the stories so well and it's hard put a fresh spin on something that is deep in my feels.
That being said, I did like the premise of this book. It takes the poem The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson and gives her a voice and a well rounded story. Sometimes the characters were a little flat and there were times when the pacing was a little slow, but overall it was an interesting read.

I stopped reading around 10% but if it continues the way it has, easy three stars and four for the right reader. Going in, you should have some understanding of the kingdom and the legends already. It reads YA and I’m surprised it’s being marketed as adult. It does acknowledge sensitive topics later on, and may shift to an adult tone later in the book.

I'm not extremely familiar with Arthurian lore, but this book took me by the hand and led me through the old world with ease.

The story follows the Lady Shalott. She has been having visions of her death for some time, but the path is unclear. She knows her mother is overbearing and her friends stand for freedom, but anything beyond that is still to be seen.

I cam to enjoy Elaine's story line and her growth throughout the book. She's strong and intuitive. The other characters seems to pale in comparison. I wish the rest of the Camelot team was as strong as Elaine, but in the overall scheme of things, they held their own.

The pacing at the beginning of the story was slow and almost repetitive. It took the party a long time to get moving on their journey and it almost lost me, but once they had left Avalon things became more interesting.

All in all, a good read.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Arthurian retellings, and I absolutely can’t resist one that centers female characters and feminism. But this one felt like it fell a bit short for me. And it sucked, because I really wanted to love this book so badly.

The first issue that I noticed is that the story is choppy. The story is told in the present, but there are also flashbacks to the past and visions of the future, all of which would happen in a row. This got to be really confusing, and made it difficult to keep track of exactly when and where I was in the story.

Rather than jumping into the story once Arthur is already king, this one mainly tells the story of the road to getting Arthur crowned. Sort of. Because it also talks about all the possible future paths, since Elaine is an oracle — she can see the potential paths that the future can take, although these are immensely changeable. So there’s a lot of speculation about what might happen.

While the story has an immense amount of potential, there are also some major flaws. First, there’s so much telling, rather than showing. Arthur is mostly a shadow of a character. We’re told that he’s charismatic, but aren’t really given the chance to see it. Instead, he comes across as a boy, and one who relies heavily on his friends to lead the way, rather than demonstrating any sort of confidence or capability to actually lead a country. Lancelot? He’s just kind of there, serving as a foil for the on-and-off romance while Elaine decides which future vision she’s going to believe will most likely occur. Gwen — I like that she’s portrayed less as a damsel in distress, and more as a fierce, feral woman connected to nature, but she fades so much after leaving Avalon. And I’ve always had a soft spot for Morgana, even though she always gets a bad rap in the story. I think this one does her more justice than most, to be fair. Elaine was a little bland, constantly worrying about the future and often replaying the same vision, slowing down the reading by forcing us to reread the same or very similar versions of the future.

I was a little disappointed by the claims of bold feminism, too. While the norms are very different in Avalon, where gender roles and customs aren’t as restrictive and women have more rights, as soon as they ventured away from Avalon, they slipped right into traditional gender roles, conforming to the expected roles:

“…in a court where women are happy to fold themselves up tight to be more easily manageable, to swallow arsenic to be thought of as just a little bit sweeter.”

It’s easy to be feminist where women have equal rights, but it’s most important to fight for feminism when it’s hard. When women don’t have the same rights. When they’re expected to be manageable and sweet, and do what they’re told. But the only one who really ever stayed true and was a feminist even when it was hard was Morgana. All of the others just gave in and did what was easier, with the women often sacrificing far too much of themselves for Arthur, who appeared to not even notice what the women around him were giving up on his behalf.

Finally, some of the key parts of the story were changed. Mordred is changed from Arthur’s son to his stepbrother/brother-in-law, Morgause and Morgana are twins, Gwen has a huge secret that completely steals away any chance of feminism that she’s got, and Merlin was portrayed in a completely different manner than I’ve ever seen. I’m usually open to changes, but these were a little much for me. I’ll be sticking with the Camelot Rising series by Kiersten White.

When we first started the book it seemed like it might fall into the first person present tense YA trend, which was honestly kind of a turn-off. But as we read on, we realized that there was a great narrative reason for the stylistic choice. Elaine of Shalott takes on the role of oracle and main character of this book. Laura Sebastian has fleshed out her backstory and given much more weight to the choices of the Arthurian women - in addition to Elaine, Morgana and Guinevere's motivations are explored in depth, and even Nimue's role is expanded. The fantasy world that includes Avalon, Camalot, Lyonesse, and more is given a great treatment, Keep in mind that most Arthurian tales are tragic at heart, so this may be a tough one to read if you're looking for a happy ending. That said, the book is a great addition to Arthurian lore.

Retold from Elaine of Shalott's point of view, this Arthurian legend offered insight into her life as an oracle.

"Visions do not change... However, there are often many visions of any one event, showing many paths of possibility. Nothing in the future is truly settled until it becomes the past."

Reading this story was like stepping into a fairy tale and made me feel like a child again. The tale was engrossing and the bursts of humor, including the playful yet barbed banter between the main characters, was amusing. Except for one odd and surprising turn of events in the middle, I was totally immersed in the story and the characters. Ever since reading Camelot's Destiny 15 years ago, I've been wanting to read more about Arthur, Gwen, Lancelot, etc. Half Sick of Shadows quenched my thirst for now, but I'll definitely want to read more in the future. If you know of any good ones, please let me know!

"Sometimes all you can do is find the beauty in the broken."

Location: Avalon, Camelot and Lyonesse

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book started out strong for me and then fell flat in the end. We knew the lady of Shallot was going to drown and that Arthur was going to meet his end at some point. I wanted to see the end and what happened to all of the characters. I kind of felt it was a cop out the way the ending happened. The time jumps were pretty hard to follow as well. We would be in present time and then in the next sentence we would go back to time that was spent on Avalon. I did think that the writing was beautiful and I really loved the setting. I would definitely read more by this author!

I enjoyed this feminist retelling of King Arthur from the perspective of Lady Elaine of Shalott! Now I’m not all that familiar with the poem by Tennyson that Elaine appears in, but what I do know is that it shows her as a lonely woman who only serves to further the plot of the men in the story. I loved how powerful Elaine was in this retelling, she really held the key to Arthur’s success, along with Morgana and Guinevere.

As someone who enjoys King Arthur retellings but hasn’t read many of the original stories (apart from what I had to read YEARS ago in high school), I’m not sure how much of this story lines up with those originals and what was all new with this retelling, but either way, it was a good read.

I also like Laura Sebastian’s writing style, it’s very easy to follow along with and get lost in the story instead of focusing too much on how it’s being given to you. This is being marketed as an adult novel, but I think that it reads more like the upper end of YA.

I liked the characters, especially Elaine, Morgana and Gwen. They’re such strong women and are faced with so many challenging decisions that impact not only themselves, but entire kingdoms. I loved how they supported one another instead of putting each other down. Elaine learning what was truly important to her and what she was willing to risk to make sure that Arthur was crowned was really amazing to see, although it was definitely bittersweet.

This story is told in a future/past/present style which I enjoyed, however it was a little jarring because there was nothing to indicate what time period you were reading. It did keep me on my toes though because I never knew what was coming next. It did feel like there were a few gaps in the story but I’m assuming that’s more to do with my lack of knowledge on these legends in general.

I think this was a good read, and I think it’ll hook a lot of people. Overall, I did enjoy reading this one and seeing these characters in a different light than the originals.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

First, thanks to the author for thorough Content Warning (suicide).

Normally, I do not care for books told in flashbacks but I was hooked immediately from the start. A retelling of Arthurian legend from Elaine, the Lady of Shalott - now the Oracle in the merry band of Morgana, Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. Even though you know this "Greek Tragedy", the sentiments and the questions the author weaves left this old middle aged lady's heart a bit bruised. I was captivated by the narrative and the switching of tenses did not bother me; I felt it added to the angst and frenzy of Elaine's decisions.

A few niggles...speech was closer to Victorian age than Medieval. This book definitely felt closer to YA than Adult. Sex was closed door and only lightly referred to. Would've have liked to have seen the moralistic and ethical issues dug into deeper (but that's just me).

Overall, I thought this was an engaging and melancholic journey.

I doubt there are many folks who grew up with western civilization and British mythology that are unfamiliar with the legends of King Arthur. When I first picked this up, I was confident I would be following well-trod paths and know how the story ended.

How very wrong I was. This is a King Arthur re-telling you didn't know you needed, but trust me – you do.

This book blew my assumptions and expectations away – in all of the best ways. I loved everything about this book. Sebastian's writing is gorgeous. This book sucked me in right from the first sentences, and I devoured it with eager trepidation. It was suspenseful, like watching two things inevitably collide.

No matter how many movies, poems, books, and songs you've heard of King Arthur, Lancelot, Lady Elaine, Guinevere, and Morgana, there will be pieces of these characters that are fresh and recognizable. I loved Laura Sebastian's take and feminist retelling. Elaine was an immersive, highly empathetic narrator. I loved how the POVs jumped through time. I found it impossible not to sympathize with all of the main characters. I fell in love with them right along with Elaine. It's not an exaggeration to say I loved every moment of this book, from beginning to end. Sebastian delivers a satisfying twist on a classic tale, and I could not get enough.

Laura Sebastian has been on my TBR pile for years, and now I cannot fathom what took me so long. Thank you so much to Ace/Berkeley for providing me with an e-arc of this gorgeous book.

First of all thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

As soon as I saw Laura Sebastian came out with a new book I was immediately excited because I was a fan of Ash Princess.

This book is a King Arthur retelling in which I had high hopes for. Unfortunately, I was only able to get 10% through before I DNF'd. I struggled to get into the story and found myself bored at times. My biggest issue was something about the writing felt off. Also, the story jumps back and forth between past and present timelines and that just threw me off.

Hopefully I can give this book another try in the future.

Half sick of shadows has been one of my not anticipated reads for 2021 and it did not disappoint. I loved the twist on the Arthurian legend and the feministic way in which the story was told. It was something new and refreshing for me as a reader and will definitely be recommending this going forward.

Though many people are probably aware - or have at least heard of - the Lady of Shalott thanks to the famous Alfred Lord Tennison poem, most probably have a pretty sad and likely pitiable view of her. A depressed, lonely woman trapped in a tower, she is largely only memorable because she literally dies of unrequited love for King Arthur's knight, Sir Lancelot.

Her story is both tragic and infuriating - she has her dead body floated down the river to Camelot in a boat so that Lancelot will find it, he feels guilty enough to pay for a rich funeral - and all the more so for generally being little more than a footnote in the stories of a man's greater adventures and loves.

Laura Sebastian's new novel Half Sick of Shadows sets out to change all that and succeeds admirably, rewriting Elaine of Astolat's tale into a story of power and agency rather than unrelenting heartbreak and sorrow. Sebastian smartly reconceptualizes the misogyny that sits at the heart of some Arthurian myths as a necessary evil, a choice made by powerful women like Elaine and Morgana when forced with impossible and worse options that will challenge everything they've told themselves they believe in. What is this Camelot, really, if its existence requires that these powerful women must make themselves smaller to be part of it? But what is a world without Camelot, that never learns to believe a better future is possible? Is that a sacrifice worth making? Maybe.

In Half Sick of Shadows, there are no easy answers, and though Sebastian's tale is likely to appeal more explicitly to those well versed in the intricacies of Arthuriana, there's enough here for anyone familiar with the tale's broad strokes to enjoy. This is the Elaine of Astolat I wish that legend had given us, but I'm certainly happy to meet her now.

Things I liked:
- The writing style: Laura Sebastian’s characters truly come to life over the course of this story. Her plot is beautifully written
- Elaine’s visions: our main character has various visions over the course of the story, and they’re all things that could happen. I love the way they’re written as well
- the Accuracy of the characters: Every character in this story feels true to Arthurian Legend, in the best ways.

Thing I didn’t like:
- the Predictability of the plot: This is my only qualm with the story. I felt the ending was very predictable. There are definitely some twists on the original story, but not as many as I would have liked.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel! This is another excellent novel by this author and I can’t wait to read more of her stuff.

Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian

9780593200513

443 Pages
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group / Ace
Release Date: July 6, 2021

Fiction, Sci Fi & Fantasy, Arthurian Legend

This is a retelling of the legend of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Morgana, and Elaine, The Lady of Shalott. The story begins on the Isle of Avalon. Morgana and Guinevere have magical abilities, Elaine is a seer, and Lancelot is part Fae. When they receive word that King Uther has died, the group make their way back to Camelot. They arrive looking for Merlin and find him about to crown Mordred. In order for Arthur to take the crown, he must complete several tasks that seem impossible.

The story is very engaging. It is fast paced, the characters are well developed, and is written in the first-person point of view by Elaine. The story jumped back and forth in time as Elaine had flashbacks of memories. I loved the way the author showed the strength of the women as equals to men. If you liked stories of Avalon, you would love this book as well.

I'll admit it: I have been enamored by the Lady of Shalott since early adolescence. The idea of a woman who was trapped in a state of infatuation with someone who didn't love her back, of it driving her toward her own ruination? That's the kind of hopelessly doomed love story I've always been a little too susceptible to seeing as a romantic ideal. Laura Sebastian's retelling turns that story all the way on its head, painting a tale of strong women who are forced to make impossible choices that will challenge relationships of friends, family, and themselves. In Half Sick of Shadows, we find Elaine, Guinevere, Morgana, Lancelot working together under one common creed: Arthur above all, no matter what the cost. But as the years pass, Elaine begins to see that the actions required to continue Arthur's path to the crown may be ones that spell out disaster--not for herself, but for her friends, and she will have to decide: does she truly believe Arthur's taking the throne is more valuable than any and everything else? And if so, how can she ever forgive herself for the damage it may cause those she loves most?
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this advanced review copy! HALF SICK OF SHADOWS hits bookshelves July 6th!

“Arthur is like a brother to me. Of course he matters,” he says, his voice low. A secret spoken in the dim woods, lost to the trees. “But you, Shalott . . . you’re the sun. Without you, nothing wakes. Nothing grows. It’s just darkness.”

And the award for the book I’ve highlight the most goes toooo *drum roll* 🥁 Half Sick of Shadows 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Euphoria. That is the feeling I get when I think back on the experience of reading this book.

Let’s just start with the first line:

“I will die drowning; it has always been known.”

Hook, line, and sinker *LOUD, aggressive clapping*

You know a fantasy book is about to be spectacular with an opening line like that, and spectacular ‘twas was.

What makes a fantasy book great? Technically I do not know but whatever formula it is this book did it correctly and then some.

If I were to pick a book that was the very definition of everything that I love about reading, the definition of the plethora of emotions that reading causes me, it would be this book. This is a tale told unlike any other I’ve read. Mesmerizing, enchanting, an Arthurian legend retelling that contains all the elements of a fantasy that I adore. And yet unlike anything I’ve read. Laura’s idea of retelling the Arthurian legend through the eyes of Elaine of Shalott as an oracle was the best thing to happen to the fantasy book world in ages.

I don’t think I could truly express just how much this books means to me, just how perfect it is for me. I read King Arthur retelling after King Arthur retelling but not a single one has buried itself into my heart like this one.

The story is told in past/present/future intervals that you sort of are thrown into blindly BUT it’s genius because it gives you a daunting sense of a foreshadowing doom that keeps you immersed into this world. It fills you with questions that leave you awake at 4 am anxiously biting your fingernails and wondering if sleep will ever come. It makes you think that the story of King Author and all who surround him could not have existed any other way. It consumes you and sets you aflame with the desire for this book to never end. My gosh, this is, and I say not lightly, my new favorite book of all time.

Also just please, I need Laura to write more retellings in this manner, no other retelling will ever be the same, no other possibility of a retelling will come close to the love I have for Half Sick of Shadows.

An interesting retelling of the Arthurian legends combined with the Lady of Shalott story. I enjoyed the redrawing of the traditional characters with a more feminist view. There was more dimension to some of them than in the traditional versions of the stories. This gave the story more body and color, especially adding magic / special powers to more of the core characters. A darker side was added to the story which was both positive and detracted from the story. I felt very mixed during and after finishing the book. If asked if I would recommend it it, I would have to say, I am not sure. The writing was good, but the organization and intertwining of the narrative was clunky. It was, at times confusing, the movement in the narrative from the present, to the past, to Elaine's visions. The graphics between the sections helped to understand there was a change in point of view, but it still made me stop, at times, to see that the focus had changed. and know where I was in the timeline. A strong edit to have less back and forth and better ordering of the narrative would make the book better and an easier read. The story elements are there, but not laid out in as clear a way as I would have liked.