You could’ve told me this was just a random fantasy book and I would’ve believed it. Theres not much to the Rapunzel story sequel. In my opinion, the witch wasn’t witchy enough and was too good to be “evil”. I also feel like the way she was able to take the children was not the original story.

I know it’s a loose retelling but I don’t know if it was marketed correctly. I did like it though, some of it did get slow at points but I liked the feminism aspect of it.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

I’m sure you know the story of Rapzunel. But have you heard the story of the witch who took her?

This book is enchanting and cozy with a strong female protagonist. Pagan themes are woven so intricately throughout these pages. We have wortcunnery, a winged goddess, and a sacred blood vow. A shining tower that acts as a beckon for women, surrounded by a dark forest that harbours darker powers in the form of a wolf skin. And a community of bonded women, serving this winged goddess who have never lost their faith….even if their worship is punishable by death.

Haelewise, the daughter of Hedda, is plagued by fainting spells that send her to another world. Her mother loves her so much, that after her death, a sacred plant known as the alrune sprouts from the ground. A final offering of love, with the promise of a cure for these spells.

My heart broke for Haelewise. Her father is an atrocious monster who abandons, hates and fears her. They always fear what they don’t understand, and dear Haelewise is no different.

I’ve tried to write this review for weeks and each time I stumble on my words. It’s beautiful, and endearing. I loved this story so much, and I really hope you will too!


Thank you to Hachette Canada for my finished copy. This is one of my favourites this year!

I absolutely adored this novel! It is a wonderful take on the rapunzel story! I was very happy to get a copy! Highly reccomend that you read it!

Ah, the trend of retellings continues. I’m partial to them, especially when they include women originally perceived as villainous in nature. This book will definitely make you care about Haelewise and the Gothel women in general.

I was lucky enough to get a physical copy from Orbit/Redhook and an audio copy from Hachette Audio, so I flipped back and forth between the two. I will say, I think I paid better attention when I was physically reading––if only because Vanessa Johansson’s voice was so soothing that after a while, it became a part of my surroundings. I had to jostle myself back to the story every once and a while.

Haelewise is brave and kind even though she’s spent her life being mistreated by almost everyone she comes across. She maintains a thick skin but ends up keeping that kindness while also gaining an ability to do brutal things for survival.

I never thought about the backstory of Mother Gothel, and I’m always thankful when an author can bring new dimensions to a character, which Mary McMyne certainly does here. There’s non-stop progression in this book and I loved the way our author framed this story. There’s a bit of romance in here, for the romantic fantasy lovers, but not enough to scare away those that prefer very little in their reading.

The Book of Gothel is beautifully woven, and full of depth and compassion. It’s adventurous, and manages to be classic and modern all at once. Thank you again to Orbit/Redhook and Hachette Audio for the review copies!

I’m sad to say that I’m DNFing this title.

I really loved the prologue. REALLY loved it. I got so excited because of how much I enjoyed it. After the actual story started though… I was bored. The more chapters I read, the more bored I got.

I can’t tell you if it gets better or if it’s worth pushing through because I’m DNFing this. I don’t really feel like wasting hours on this.

I'm always intrigued by books that gives voices to villains.

This book did not disappoint but it did not exceed expectations.

What I initially thought was a villain origin story turned out to be a redemption arc, which was not what I was hoping for.

I was looking forward to learning about Mother Gothel's origin story and how she came to be the infamous which who trapped Rapunzel in her castle. I was left bored throughout the book and was hoping for more adventure.

The author clearly has a lot of knowledge on the setting and history but I just felt that a lot of it was dragged out and that didn't excite me.

Perhaps this book was not written for readers like me and I am pretty stumped about giving this a lower review than expected. The story held my interest but never enough to keep me engaged and invested.

Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for the ARC. My favorite Disney animated movie is Rapunzel and O was hoping for more of her in this even though it is very clearly about Mother Gothel. The conceit of the framing narrative was good, especially to couch it as academic. The story itself did not hit all of the points I wanted to and Haelewise was not intriguing as a character, She came across as childish and selfish and not understanding of the larger connotations of her world. She harangues everyone around her for more information even when she is older. She is only 17 or so before it goes into the end of the novel but I did not expect her to act like a 2020s 17 year old as this was in the late 12th century. I began skimming the latter end of the novel just to get to Rapunzel and see if it got better. For me, it did not. The conceit was interesting but I did not enjoy the execution. 2.5 stars.

DNF

Will try to reread later. I am a mood reader and I just could not get into at the moment. But I did want to at least give a decent rating and to thank Netgally, the publishers, and Mary McMyne for allowing me to receive and read this book. I am terribly sorry I was unable to read it at the moment, but if in the future I do read it I will adjust this review to fit accordingly.

I want to start this off by saying that I absolutely adore fairytale retellings. I love seeing the original story reinterpreted for modern readers, picking up on the little easter egg references to the source material, and gaining a larger appreciation for the fairytale as a whole by viewing it through a new lens. When they're done well, they feel simultaneously fresh and new while also maintaining a sense of comfort and nostalgia. It's a bit like reading a romance novel - you're familiar with the beats but the journey is still exciting.

That said, The Book of Gothel barely feels like a retelling. I really had to squint for 90% of the novel to see any parallels or sense of anything familiar. This doesn't ruin the book by any means, but I found myself having to readjust my expectations quite a bit while reading. I was looking forward to getting the origin story for Mother Gothel from the Rapunzel fairytale and while by the end that was technically delivered, most ties to the original story were shoehorned in to the last 10% of the book. Ultimately this felt much more like an original historical fantasy with fairytale references sprinkled throughout.

There's also a lot of discourse surrounding religion in this book, which I wasn't exactly expecting going in and may not be everyone's cup of tea. Especially where I was looking forward to a stronger fairytale vibe, the debates about religion and the Mother versus the Father and the prevalence of the church within the narrative threw me off a bit.

There were also a couple of loose ends that I'm kind of annoyed were never tied up. Why did Haelewise and Frederika look SO similar? I kept waiting for the twist that they were actually related to spring up but this was never addressed. What was the origin of the tower? As a Mother Gothel origin story, I feel like we the readers weren't really given much explanation. A lot of the rules surrounding the tower just felt like a convenient way to keep Haelewise and Matthäus apart but maybe I'm just being overly critical at this point.

Overall, this was a good story, it's just not the story I was expecting or hoping for.

I received an ARC of The Book of Gothel from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Fairytale retellings have always had a special place in my heart. Something about taking an old story and putting a new spin on it fascinates me. That's what initially drew me to The Book of Gothel. I was curious to see how the author would spin the tale of Rapunzel, and I was especially curious because it was from the viewpoint of the supposed villain. And this tale was indeed unlike any other Rapunzel retelling I have seen. First and foremost, the story was less of a retelling and more of a prequel, I suppose. It was all about how Gothel--or in this story's case, Haelewise--was "created." And unfortunately, Haelewise is most of the reason that I gave this book three stars.

I'm not going to lie. I've been trying to finish reading this book for about three weeks. The story itself was exciting and kept me coming back, but Haelewise. Oh, Haelewise. I honestly did not enjoy her as a character. At first, I didn't mind her, but once her mother died, she became so utterly focused on what she had lost that it was so hard to sympathize with her. Everything she did was to learn more about who her mother was and the religion, I'm going to call it, that she was part of. Which I can understand, to an extent. If I learned my mother had led a completely different life before having me, I would also want to know more about it. But that was Haelewise's motivation for the entire book. She didn't change, she didn't grow, she was one-track-mind on her mother. And many of the decisions she made felt extremely sudden and out of character. And the religion that she was so focused on? We don't even get to learn about it. There are bits and pieces scattered here and there, but in the end, Haelewise learns everything about it off the page. I'm sorry, but to have the story surrounding this religion to not even learn about it was disappointing, to say the least.

Aside from Haelewise's obsession with her mother and religion, I enjoyed the story. It incorporated much more history than I expected, but I can't say I minded because I also have a special little place in my heart for historical novels. And to through that little twist in there at the end about why we've heard the story of Rapunzel told the way we have was fantastic. Seeing the author nod to the original tale was my favorite part.

All-in-all, The Book of Gothel was an exciting read. The tale kept me interested enough to look past my issues with the main character, and honestly, that's what makes a good book: the ability to draw a reader in.

As a kid I loved fairy tails, truth be told I still do. I remember a collection of Golden Books and books by The Brothers Grimm sitting on the bookshelf in my bedroom. I have reread many of the classics and each time I discover something I had missed on previous readings so when offered “The Book of Gothel” I was interested to see how the retelling of “Rapunzel” was going to be handled. As it turns out very well.

1219, Haelwise, daughter-of-Hedda, in her seventy-eighth year, records her history, admitting to what might be considered heresy, from the famous tower of Gothel. In this prequel, Mary McMyne has done an admirable job of capturing the essence of the Brother’s Grimm original story from another viewpoint. It has the darkness and harsh reality of the times in which the characters lived. This is not a sanitized version and all the more admirable for holding true. The story embraces the woman’s side on all things and most of the men are painted with a less than sympathetic brush. Superb research and submersion in language and dialog of the time with just one or two slips into modern verbiage. This book is a new/old fairy tale and it is a triumph.

Thank you Redhook Books/Hachette Book Group and NetGalley for a copy.

Usually, Rapunzel retellings tend to focus on the princess in the tower, the sad and lonely girl imprisoned by an evil sorceress who uses her stolen daughter’s golden hair as a ladder. But in Mary McMyne’s debut novel The Book of Gothel, there are more references to rapunzel the plant than Rapunzel the person, and that’s just the first of the many surprises in this exceptionally original, propulsive fairytale reimagining that feels a bit more like a reclamation than anything else.

A retelling of Rapunzel that centers its story around the witch who held the princess prisoner, The Book of Gothel will delight fans who have reveled in publishing’s recent trend of giving the often unfairly maligned and supposedly evil women from folklore and mythology their voices back. (And, not for nothing, a story about a woman who secretly helps other women deal with unwanted, problematic, or troubled pregnancies from her mist-shrouded magic tower feels especially welcome right now. Just saying!)

The Book of Gothel was to be a German fairytale of Mother Gothel from Rapunzel. This story had so much potential with folk tale vibes of a witch, magic, and mystery. Instead the pace was painfully slow, the atmosphere falls flat, and the story vaporizes into air.

Thank you NetGalley and Redhook Books for the eARC.
#NetGalley

Haelewise is one of the most selfish, self absorbed character I have read. I could not stand her especially her obsession with Matthaus. I also do not understand why Ursilda never got her daughter back? Did Haelewise just keep her from her forever? I rarely do not finish a book so I had to see this one through. I will admit parts of it were interesting and I was intrigued to see what happened next, but Haelewise ruined it. I liked the idea of a story told from the witch’s perspective in Rapunzel, one fell short.

When I first came across this novel I understood it to be an origin story for one of my favorite villains Mother Gothel. What I got in this book was so so much more. Going into this you have to clear your head of what you think you know about the story of Rapunzel, and let your heart lead the way through this stunning tale. The world building is one of my favorite settings for a fantasy novel. I love medieval castles and quaint little villages. I love strong women characters put in a time setting where women were not expected to speak out or be independent in any way. Pair that with epic journeys on horseback and sequences of fighting for your life in the wilderness and I’m in. The characters are ones that will live in your heart and mind rent free. Haelewise is complicated and headstrong. She develops and morphs into one badass MC. Although I questioned some of her decisions, mostly in the love department, she is one of my favorite mcs to date now. This story is so much more than an origin story. It’s an entire rewrite of what we know altogether. And I loved every second of it. It’s a story of loss and grief, of learning to survive and standing up for what you know deep down to be right. It’s even about making the best of love in a situation you can’t control.

This is a fresh spin on a classic story, and I enjoyed reading this book! It has great characters, great magic and witchery, and TRULY excellent names.

Mostly I loved that it turns the story of Rapunzel on its head and makes you think about where our tried-and-true tales come from and how they may have changed over hundreds of years, often to the detriment of women. Of course.

Is it totally perfect? No. I don't think terms like "something was up" or "takes the cake" were used in the 1200s, but if you're not a total pain in the ass (like me) who notices stuff like that, this will be a fun and quick read if you love retellings/origin stories! Also, the beginning and the end worked for me a lot better than the middle third- the pace gets a little muddly, I think perhaps with too many threads to keep track of?

(Also- love the cover even if it plays up the original story (which is largely irrelevant to most of this book (which is not a bad thing) a bit too much (yes, I use too many parentheses)).

Thanks to Redhook and NetGalley for the review copy!

4.5 stars.

What a beautiful debut! In the new tradition of fractured fairy tales, The Book of Gothel is a fabulous retelling of the tale of Rapunzel. There is such incredibly rich detail in the story and the atmosphere and the creativity is off the charts. I loved this.

Set in historical Germany and including great social and religious context appropriate for the time period, The Book of Gothel is a stunner. McMyne's writing flows without a hitch and weaves a tale that is so wholly itself that it leans only gently on the original story, something I have to give serious credit to. There is such gentle detail present and I loved the inclusion of all of the herbal and midwifery background to the story. There something to the feeling of the novel that gave me light Philippa Gregory vibes and I loved that.

The only thing keeping me from a 5-star read was the insertion of the story as a book within a book. Normally that is a trope that I adore, but in this case it was used too lightly and really had no bearing on the overall tale. It felt a little like wasted space and took away from the solidity of the ending for me. I would love for McMyne to take this approach and use it to further the story via a series...using Gothel to reveal the "truth" about oh so many other misunderstood tales.

Other than that minor speed bump, this was a near perfect read for me. McMyne's style is lovely, her imagination is impeccable, and I am already ready to read whatever she decides to put forth next. If you're a lover of fairy tales, this one is not to be missed.

A story that stabbed me straight through the heart.

Rapunzel is one of those stories which is so much much deeper than it seems at first glance. It has some very real truths to speak about women, girls and the relationships between mothers and daughters. I remember when I went to see Tangled with my then 2 year old daughter. She loved it, I loved it. It touched me … especially the scenes between tiny Rapunzel and Mother Gothel. However, the relationship that Gothel has with Rapunzel is a little simplistic in the cartoon. I get it, this is a Disney villain, she needs to be all bad and that is really reflected in the way the character is written. I didn’t pick up on any real love for the little girl, only selfishness and a desire to use the child’s powers.

The relationship between Rapunzel and the Witch/Gothel is much more fleshed out in the stage production of Into The Woods. Which focuses on how the witch wants so desperately to shield and protect her child that she imprisons and hurts the young woman. Do yourself a favor and listen to the song “Stay With Me”. It will rip your heart out. The pleading of a mother who is doing the wrong thing every damn day but tries to convince herself she is doing it for all the right reasons.

Don’t you know what’s out there in the world?
Someone has to shield you from the world
Stay with me
Princes wait there in the world, it’s true
Princes, yes, but wolves and humans, too
Stay at home
I am home

Who out there could love you more than I?
What out there that I cannot supply?
Stay with me
Stay with me
The world is dark and wild
Stay a child while you can be a child
With me

So now that I’ve taken you down my personal Rapunzel rabbit hole I can explain how this book fits into the picture. Haelwise has and loses a mother who loves her unconditionally, which wounds her deeply. Throughout the story she then meets and parts with other women who come to stand in as mothers (and sometimes sisters). Each providing their own measure of guidance and help, some for good and others for ill. Some harm her because even when we try our absolutely hardest to mother our daughters we can fuck things up with the best of intentions.

As women I feel like this story resonates because it is true for each and every one of us. As a mom of a young teen, I’ve lived my own Rapunzel/Gothel story since we went to see Rapunzel all those years ago. I am happy when I know that I’ve done my best to be supportive and kind. I am stricken when I realize the ways I’ve let her down. I am horrified when I contemplate how I was forced to “rapunzel” my own daughter during the pandemic. We took our girls and tucked them away in our homes trying to shield them from a dangerous world. We had to wrap them up, mask them, isolate them from their friends and frightened the living daylights out of children who shouldn’t have to deal with death and illness to this extent during their younger years. Things have calmed down a bit but we still have to protect them from an ongoing pandemic to some extent. I know from talking to educators in my area that so many children are suffering anxiety/depression as a result of all of this. It isn’t my fault as a mom, I didn’t create this pandemic. But all the same, how do we ever make up for that? Can we help them manage their stress adequately? Do we hope that someday when they are women they can look back on their childhoods and see how we tried our best to mother them through this crisis? I certainly hope so. It keeps me up at night. Truly.

Anyway, back to the book. Besides the mother/daughter relationship it also has a lot to say about how women’s stories are told and have been told through the ages. In other words, hardly at all. I’m glad that books like this are now taking the old stories (told and interpreted by men) and looking at them through a female viewpoint. I actually read this book twice since I got the ARC. I feel like it’s something I will revisit again in the future. I hope you will read it, don’t miss this one. It’s fascinating, heartbreaking but also hopeful. I loved it.

Amazing. I honestly don’t have words. If you loved TANGLED (which is one of my favorite Disney films btw) then you need to pick up this book.

I will admit that you can pretty much convince me to read any feminist retelling of a fairytale or myth, but I also recognize that some are much better than others. Mary McMyne's debut novel, The Book of Gothel, a retelling of Rapunzel from the witch's point of view, is one of the best ones I have read in a while.

A medieval historian has traveled to Germany to translate a thirteenth-century codex found in an old cellar. That codex--the life story of Haelewise, or Mother Gothel--is the main narrative of the novel. Haelewise has strange dark eyes and has suffered from fainting spells since she was a young child. She also demonstrates an "unnatural affinity" for midwifery while attending births with her midwife mother, Hedde, and it's all too much for the superstitious residents of her isolated village, who fear her. Hedde creates a loving, safe space for Haelewise, unlike her father, who also fears her spells and keeps his distance. Haelewise tries various elixirs, powders, and other remedies that her mother gets from local herbalists and is subjected to religious remedies at the insistence of her father, but nothing cures her spells. When Haelewise is sixteen, Hedde goes on a walk in the woods outside the walls of the village and returns with a fever that ends up killing her. Before she dies, she gives Haelewise a figurine of a bird woman that she urges her to keep secret, lest she be branded a heretic. After Hedde dies, Haelewise's father abandons her and the town turns on her, branding her a witch. She flees to the woods in search of Gothel, the tower from her mother's stories, hoping to apprentice for its resident, Kunegunde, who cares for desperate pregnant women. At Gothel, Haelewise learns about magic, plants, and a religious tradition worshipping the Mother--the bird-woman of her mother's figurine--practiced for generations before it was banned by the church as heresy. When Rika, a pregnant woman on the run from a violent nobleman, seeks refuge at Gothel, the two women forge a friendship that leads Haelewise to embark on a dangerous journey that helps her find herself and her power in the process.

I loved this book. Not only is it a rich and multilayered retelling of a well-known fairytale, with all the magical elements you would expect from such a story, but it is also grounded in the historical reality of medieval Europe, complete with real historical figures, where women were forced into narrow roles and threatened with ostracization, accusations of witchcraft, or death for straying from those roles. "Their way is not the only way," Haelewise's mother urges her to remember. In Book of Gothel, McMyne creates a compelling character who finds agency and power by embracing her difference and her communion with other women who have broken free from society's restraints in various ways: the abbess who incorporates stones from an altar to a female-centered religion in the abbey, the midwives who help vulnerable women even under threat of execution, the queens and princesses who practice magic and pull strings behind their powerful husbands' backs. I loved the community of women in this story, and loved Haelewise's reflections on her mother and the sacrifices she was forced to make and chose to make out of love for her daughter.

The premise of most retellings is obviously "the story you know isn't the whole story," but McMyne carries that theme through the entire novel so expertly that it truly resonates here. From the novel's opening, with the historian whose work uncovering the gaps in history about women's lives is dismissed as "domestic minutae" by her colleagues, to the stories Haelewise hears as a girl about women's supposed misdeeds ("Even as young as ten, I understood that men make up reasons to get rid of women they find disagreeable"), to the various ways that Haelewise's own story is misunderstood and distorted, both with and without her encouragement, we are constantly reminded that our understanding of history is not objective; rather it is the product of stories told by the powerful to preserve their power.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes female-centered stories with a little magic in them, but especially for those who love fairytales and their retellings or novels like Circe and Kaikeyi. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an electronic review copy in exchange for an honest review!