This was sheer perfection. Even if I didn't always go for feminist Arthurian retellings, MORGAN IS MY NAME by Sophie Keetch still would have knocked me sideways with its gorgeous, accomplished prose. This is a stunning debut centring the life of the sorceress and healer popularly known as Morgan le Fay: daughter, wife, and sister of kings, written here by Keetch as a totally original, undeniably powerful figure in her own right.

I appreciated Keetch's resistance to popular and simplistic (and typically male) interpretations of Morgan's character as a dark or villainous force in the life and story of her younger half-brother King Arthur, while still maintaining her own complex nature. This is a Morgan who is not to be walked over; a Morgan who is rebellious (often at her own cost), formidable, and clever; a Morgan who craves knowledge and resists every single expectation of her; a Morgan who is also accepting, loving, romantic, and fiercely protective of the people she cares for. This is a Morgan whom anyone would be hard-pressed to deny her the impulse to go nuclear and burn the entire world (the endless shit these men put women through, my god)... and yet, she doesn't. And yet, she could.

There is a fire in her that burns so brightly and can't be put out. I can't wait to see what the remaining two books in this trilogy have in store for her.