I loved this book. I am a sucker for a narrative that feels like someone telling you their life story and that is very much what this book is. I also love when fairy tales are incorporated in a way that feels fresh and different from the millions of other “retellings” on the market, and this book had that in spades. This is one of those books were there are definitely a few critiques that could be made when it comes to writing craft but I don’t even care because I enjoyed my reading experience so much.

The story opens with a woman scholar being invited to come and translate a manuscript written in High German that was found in the basement of an old house. This framing device was one of the things I didn’t particularly like, but it allowed the story to be written as though it was a journal or diary of the main character. Once we got past that introduction I was hooked. I will say though that it doesn’t fit into the category of villain origin stories that I think it has been marketed as. This is the story of a girl who doesn’t fit into society and how she grows into her difference and her power along with it.

There are so many things I loved about this book. I loved the voice of the main character. I loved how she wasn’t afraid to own up to the mistakes that she had made. I loved that she was a storyteller. I just loved her.

I also really loved how fairytales were incorporated throughout the story. Most people don’t realize that before men like the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault started collecting fairytales they were mostly told by women to women. They weren’t originally for children either, they weren’t about morals, or cautionary tales. They were entertainment, and ways for women to record or discuss women’s issues. Women made them up and told them to each other while having to do the domestic tasks that were considered women’s work. And the original versions were often very different from what has been passed down to today. I was so pleased that the versions of stories that were included in this book were of the original type and were important for the main character to help her navigate through her various trials and tribulations.

I will say that the second half of the story didn’t feel as well thought out or plotted, almost as though the author knew where she wanted to go but wasn’t really sure how to get from point A to point B. But like I said above, I don’t even care because I was having such a good time reading that I was happy to meander in the middle.

This book is a must read for people who love fairy tales and historical fantasy that examines the place of women in the past. One of my favorite books of the year for sure!

This was a beautifully written, atmospheric fairytale retelling about the life if Dame Gothel. I absolutely loved this character driven read! It explored religion, feminism, and family relations. It even had a beautiful love story and really just had everything I look for in a book. I finished Book of Gothel a few days ago but literally just can’t stop thinking about it, I can’t even get my thoughts together about it for this review because I loved it that much! It’s definitely not a plot drive book, and so I fear that plot driven readers will pick it up and bash it, calling it “boring” or saying “nothing happens.” I think it’s important that potential readers know that this is an atmosphere driven book. It’s perfect for readers of The Bear and the Nightingale, Uprooted and those that have enjoyed Juliet Marillier’s folk magic historical fantasies. I absolutely adored this book!

"Villain" origin stories will always fascinate me. What we think of as the evil character in a story and the ways in which in Rapunzel, most 'villains' aren't given names. They serve as place holders for a force to be overcome by our main character. The Book of Gothel is Haelewise's story. How she has to mire and navigate through layers of misinformation. When we are alone, we can be so susceptible to influences who don't have our best interests in heart. To information we think is right about the world, our family, and ourselves.

But couldn't be much further from the truth. The Book of Gothel deeply explores these themes. The story of Haelewise as she must figure out her own power and relation to the world. So if you're looking for a story that is mostly origin story and about 10% Rapunzel vibes, then this is for you. That's just the main warning I have in terms of expectations. Once I was able to pivot, I had a much more enjoyable reading experience. To see how she is made a target for blame. Ostracized and alone, how Haelewise must determine her own truths.

A middle of the road book with a lot of promise and a stronger start than the finish, unfortunately. The atmosphere present in the prose is enough to encourage extending the benefit of the doubt to the fiction far beyond what the reader might have before.

My feelings about this book are all over the place so expect my review to be similar

Overall, I really liked Book of Gothel. The first third had serious 5-star potential. However, it started to slow for me partway through Haelewise's stay at the tower and I lost interest completely while she was a guest at the abbey. Then the pacing switched again. (I didn't mind her trip to see the king or her quest to save the baby.) While I'm not a fan of some of the details, the endings of both "books" were truly satisfying.

This was such a clever and believable retelling of Repunzel telling the story in old Germany (like 1200s) and following Mother Gothel before she really was Mother Gothel.

Haelwise is a young girl with a strange fainting affliction and vision issues. Her mother does everything to find a cure, her father is frustrated and blames her mom. When her mother dies (it was so obvious later on that she was poisoned so that way her daughter could get the special fruit she needed to cure her health issues). Her father abandons her and she’s eventually forced to flee and make her way to Gothel tower, where she meets an older woman who is her grandmother.

There she slowly learns that her affliction is related to her powers. Now after eating the fruit she can hear a goddess and see things. Her grandmother doesn’t want her to go down this path so she lies to her and Haelwise flees after befriending a princess who is brutally murdered. She tries to do right by her friend, the princess, but trouble follows. She flees to a nunery where she learns more about her gift and purpose.

Eventually she meets up with the Queen who also has the gift and they must save another princess who is getting poisoned while pregnant thanks to the King. Haelwise frees her love interest, they go to the Princess and she delivers the baby and they have to flee. The princess can’t pick her daughter up due to family drama so Haelwise takes the girl to her grandmother’s and her grandmother takes away her lovers memories.

Haelwise names the baby Repunzel and raises her as her own even with her own daughter. When her grandmother dies she becomes mother Gothel, helping women near and far and is a full fledged member of the circle that dedicated themselves to the goddess. Her lovers memories eventually return and she basically becomes his mistress.

It’s an interesting and clever way to tell this story and I like that we get a “villain” background instead of focusing on Repunzel. It’s believable in the time period and location. I will say the pacing of the story can be slow at times it’s a lot of Haelwise being sad and angry, running away, repeat and repeat. She makes some pretty bad choices and suffers the consequences of her unhinged need to be involved in everything and know everything.

But she’s an interesting and flawed main character. It’s a great feminist retelling and so true to history that women’s stories were left untold or lost and often women were made out to be the bad guys. This book reframes the narrative. Mother Gothel was doing what she was told for the Princess. She isn’t evil. She loves children.

I do wish that the love interest had either stuck around the whole time as a sidekick or honestly didn’t come back for her toward the end because the weird visitation mistress thing just didn’t make a ton of sense.

You can totally read this book and not even realize it's a twist on Mother Gothels origin story. You can take that positively or negatively. Personally, I think the author created a unique take on the character, from childhood to adult, and how certain tragic events (plus mysterious magic) shaped her into becoming the witch we all know from the fairytale.
Full review to come on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/hollyheartsbooks

I wanted to love this. it has all the pieces of a book that intrigue me enough to pick it up: Grimm Fairy Tales, maerchen tradition, the story of a witch, conspiracy and mystery, a fascinating magic system, and powerful female characters.

However, the pieces don't quite land and the overall quilt is lumpy and in need of some re-weaving. To be fair, the task McMyne undertakes is vast and complicated, but much to her detriment, it has been done far more deftly by many other hands. While some of the woven in folktales are subtle and masterfully done (encasing in ice = fabulous) certain maerchen feel shoe-horned into the prose, the references landing with jarring, unsatisfying effect, specifically that of the red cloak and a man with a wolf-skin, rather than the illuminative, "Ah!" moment that is intended.

In other instances, and this deserves a paragraph of its own, the relationships made between fairy tale characters and potential real world counterparts are not only jarring, but offensive and, historically inaccurate to a dangerous degree.

Perhaps I discredit the text by being a German speaking student of maerchen; having studied the literature, landscape, and history of German folklore extensively. However, the critiques still stand: Althochdeutsch is deployed clumsily and without contextual clues, oftentimes swapping from one Althochdeutsch regional dialect to another without clear reason. Plot points appear and are resolved in a matter of paragraphs rather than being fleshed out and developed to the point of gripping interest, and the framing of the text is jarring, obvious, and disappointing in the resolution of the who and the what. Haeleweise's journey into becoming the Witch ought to be gripping and full of fist-pumping, "yasss queen" moments, and instead it leaves the reading wondering why the choice was made to discredit her journey by relying on the pseudo-not-at-all mysterious opening and obvious conclusion.

The overall theme that fairy tales are perseverant throughput time, just like Gothel, lands, albeit not with the deft hand and smug eye-wink that was intended. Instead, it comes off as though the author is lecturing the reader, acting under the misguided assumption that they are smarter than their audience a la J J Abrams touring the press junkets for a new filmic "re-envisioning".

Wow! I was expecting a much darker tale and was delighted to find a softer more gentle, more hopeful prequel to the Rapunzel tale. The world was magical while being rooted in history which was another unexpected and lovely surprise.

This book is for the adult who grew to love fairy tale retellings like The Lunar Chronicles and is looking for a more adult retelling that isn't completely dark and gritty.

I mean it was fine?

This did not meet expectations at all. I was hoping for Rapunzel from the view of the witch. Instead it was the long, painfully detailed, glacially slow backstory for the "witch" and a thesis on middle age religion. Don't get me wrong, that could have been a dang good and interesting story. But the writing just killed it. Even during the more action-packed scenes where the reader should feel the adrenaline and excitement, the pacing of the writing just puts everything on this even flat keel that sucks the life out of the story. A tale about a gifted young woman coming of age in a repressed, religiously fearful era, doomed by fate to always be at odds with those around her and in a fight for her life? That should be exciting! Instead it's just....meh. Maybe the last hundred pages or so are worth reading but I had to fight through two thirds of the book to get to anything interesting. If you like slow paced, thoroughly researched, meticulously detailed stories that really could be the truth behind the fairy tale, give this a go. If you want that possibly true story to come alive off the page and have any feeling....try something else.

**Thank you NetGalley and Redhook Books for the eARC**

"A woman doesn't have to be pure to be good. Girls get angry. Mothers fight for their children."

This book was not what I expected going in, but so much better. Haelwise, daughter of Hedda the midwife, is different. She has black eyes and fainting spells, and in 12th century Germany, that's enough for the locals to brand her a witch and fear her. But Hael is just a girl, with some mystical powers, who wants to be normal and not shunned. Hedda, being the protective mother she is, does everything she can to "cure" Hael of her spells to no avail. Her mother secretly practices a more mystical religion, to the annoyance of her Christian father, whose efforts to help his daughter also fall short. When Hedda dies, Hael is, for all practical purposes, on her own and goes to seek out the wisdom living on the Tower of Gothel per her mother's instruction. As she learns more about her family's history and another young woman comes to Gothel, secrets come to light and danger quickly follows.

I expected this to be more of a "Rapunzel" told from the other perspective, which, in a way it was. But the story was really about Haelwise's coming of age and what led up to her being cast as the witch in the tower and really no mention of Rapunzel until almost the end of the story. It was interesting in reading to the author's notes to discover that some of the story was based on actual medieval Germany, including the character of Mother Hildegard, who was a fascinating woman, later granted sainthood, and worth reading more about. the book ultimately explores not only motherhood, but women in the 12th century, religion, spiritualism, and all the things that go along with those topics. It was not only a well done story with adventure and suspense, but also educational in regards to women in those times. I'll definitely be looking for more from this author in the future.

I received a copy thought NetGalley for review.

This one was truly wonderful to read. It closely brought to mind some of my other favorite authors who reside of my shelves. About girls who want and see more than just the world around them, who are different, who see the world in another light for their time and how it could be.

A mixture of history, fairytales, and magic. We meet Haelewise, daughter of Hedda, a healer and midwife. The people of her village think she's cursed because she has dark, black- light sensitive eyes and is prone to fainting episodes.
She's trained in healing and midwifery by her mother, but wants nothing more to have a normal life with Matthaus the son of the Tailor and heal people, and have a family.
But his parents would never accept her, even though they love each other.

She finds herself left behind when her mother dies, and goes looking for a refuge. A place where women can be safe and train in the healing arts. Unraveling her mother's past and family and their roots in magic.
Haelewise is brave and steadfast, she's resourceful and smart. And the least wicked of witches.
I enjoyed this twist on her role and how she came to have princess Rapunzel in her care. For the stories told are never quite the truth.

I normally don't like comparing novels, but this did ring very close in feel to The Bear and the Nightingale series and much of Juliet Mariller's Daughter of the Forest and her other writings. Which are some of my absolute favorites.

I am a sucker for retellings, I'll read them all, good or bad. On rare occasion there is a retelling jumps that out at me at something so unique and moving as this book was. I loved every page of it. It reminded me of all the best parts of a Naomi Novik book while still maintaining an original voice. Enchanting, I want more.

This book was a fascinating fantasy. Haelewise was an interesting and well rounded character. I appreciated the details of her early life, but not all of it felt relevant to the story as a whole. The premise is that this is the origin story of mother Gothel. We learn a lot about her at a young age, but nothing about her life with her own daughters. This story was such an interesting take on the rapunzel tale, I would have loved to learn more about who Haelewise grew up to be.

🥰Review/ Summary 😍
The Book of Gothel
Author: Mary Mcmyne
Genre: Fiction
Pages:384
Rate: 7.5/20

Summary: Haelewise with frequent fainting and black eyes is a little too strange for a medieval village as such her only real reprieve and comfort come from the stories about the Princess and the huntsmen who can turn into a wolf her mother tells her about and most interesting the wise woman in the tower. Following the death of her mother and the departure of her only friend Matthaus Haelewise takes to the Woods where she stumbles upon the tower, the wise woman and a princess in need of assistance only Haelewise can give her.

Thoughts: I adored Tangled by Disney so I was super intrigued by this retelling and through Mother Gothel’s point of view I did like this book however it was quite what I was expecting. The majority of the book just focuses on Haelewise’s life rather than being a Rapunzel retelling and that fine because Haelewise is super interesting and a fun character. I loved her relationship with her mother and her desire to help others and her mom despite how the world views her and that she doesn't let her health or the gossip really get to her. I also love that she was unfriend to stick up for herself. I was really rooting for her and her love interest however her love interest is a little too concerned about society and what it thinks so I am glad that Haelewise does what she wants and eventually assists other women to do what they want as well. Haelewise and the other wise women of Gothel Tower are strong, independent, midwives and I would love solely about the Tower and its history and the women who protect it. Also despite everything, I adored Matthaus and wanted him to have a happy ending but he truly is a damsel in distress, and that works for him. His and Haelewise’s relationship was so pure and precious that I adored the two of them together but my favorite relationship was the one Haelewise had with her mother Hedda. Hedda was a fascinating character and I loved that twist for her! I wish we just got a history of these fascinating women characters because just like Haelewise we didn't get to spend enough time with Hedda she still had so much to teach Haelewise. Overall the story was super interesting and I will be needing to read it again soon.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest

"The Book of Gothel" by Mary McMyne is, retelling of the classic fairytale Rapunzel where a professor is given the story of Haelewise the witch and her journey before she puts Rapunzel in her tower by her descendant.


I would give "The Book of Gothel" by Mary McMyne a 5-star review because, 1; I really love learning the back story of Gothel from Rapunzel 2; I really like how the author wrote all of this and how she adds things like the foreign language that many problems hate but it's important for the plot and time period where this takes place 3; I've seen how many people have seen that this book is too depressing and how Haelewise didn't have really any victories but for me I don't personally think that its true this is a spin on the origin of Gothel leading to why she puts Rapunzel in her tower I think everything here helps us understand the why she does and 4; I really loved this book and the spin on the origin of both Rapunzel and her villain.

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

THE BOOK OF GOTHEL follows Haelewise– the daughter of the local midwife and an unimportant fisherman– and her journey to becoming the famed witch in Rapunzel. Set in twelfth century Germany, GOTHEL weaves elements of folklore, herbalism, Christianity, and in paganism into an incredibly rich tapestry. Haelewise is born into a family with a deep magic history– both her mother and grandmother practiced under the guidance of a mother goddess, and in GOTHEL she struggles to fit together all the pieces of her history and future.

The amount of research that has gone into this book is evident, there was so much care and attention to the details of the story that make it feel vibrant. There was the use of several different languages, customs, and religions– and each aspect felt intentional and purposeful.

Most of the book took place during the childhood and adolescence of Haelewise, with the majority of the story we know taking place in the final chapters. I personally loved the inclusion of different fairytales, specifically Snow White, if you’re looking. THE BOOK OF GOTHEL Perfect for fans of Circe and Hamnet, or anyone who enjoys fantastical retellings.

Thank you to Redhook and NetGalley for the arc!

The Book of Gothel is a folklore retelling of Rapunzel—except it primarily focuses on the "witch" who stole her away. Haelewise is a young woman who longs for a place where she feels safe. After her mother dies, leaving her with mysterious wives' tales and strange fruit, Haelewise is simply known as a witch girl who threatens the town with her fainting "spells." Amid a culture of strict Christianity and conservative powerful men ruling the surrounding areas, Haelewise searches for a place amongst a secretive group of women who worship the all-powerful Mother.

I loved this. The ending is so perfect and the story is so vibrant and fulfilling. I love that it took so long to get to the “original story” and that it focused so heavily on the complexities of female solidarity, marriage loyalty, and medieval Catholicism. I loved that instead of retelling the Rapunzel folklore, it told Haelewise’s story from start to finish. The love story was perfect but not overwhelming as a lot of romance B plots are, and it was so sweet.

I do feel bad about my inability to pronounce all the names correctly, but I’m glad that they were incorporated in German to offer an authentic feeling of the codex.

One question though (might be spoiler-y): what happened to the second assassin?? And if the first assassin were to be successful, why would there need to be another?

This was a retelling that was in dire need of writing. It reminded me of a mix between Circe and Wicked. I felt the character of Gothel was adequately developed, and the origin story was solid!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I love a good villain origin story and this did not disappoint. Haelewise is so relatable as she struggles with the religious superstitions of the age, the inability to be with the boy she loves due to her family’s status, and her desperate feelings of loneliness after her mother dies. She wants to badly to understand her gift and to learn more about it, but everyone that could help her wants to use her for their own purposes. There is a tension to the narrative throughout that keeps you turning the page. The constant worry that something bad is around the corner, the hope that Haelewise might finally learn more about her gift and be able to claim her own life. I loved the portions of the story with Matthaüs; it’s both tender and heartbreaking throughout.
Of course there is so much more than meets the eye to any villain, especially if they are a woman. This was such a great exploration of the woman behind the stories and I just really loved it. Full of emotion and heart and heartbreak, I definitely recommend.