I expected more from this book but I thought that I am not the right audience for it. The writing is good and the characters as well. Just felt too "fact dumping" rather than exquisitely written. 3 stars.

M.R. Carey, creates amazing stories in the fiction realm, that are beautifully written and accurately capture the feel of the time period or environments in which they take place.

Once was Willem, is no exception. The book seizes the old school feeling of ancient fables. Adding to that credibility, it unfolds in the early days of England, where many of our present day mythos are grounded.

From birth time death, this story had me captivated. The evolution of the story, told by Once Was Willem, or more accurately a re-animated Willem. The story is magic, myth, sword & sorcery, and historical fiction.

As the story develops, so do the characters, as they transform they create a wonderfully dark, realistic alternative reality where the stories of boogie man, and wizards such as merlin are real.

An incredible, interesting, entertaining, twisty turny, novel. It's not to be missed

This was such a strong medieval fantasy element that I wanted from this type of book. The overall feel worked with the story being told and worked with what I was looking for. The characters were everything that I wanted and worked well with the story being told. M. R. Carey has a strong writing style and hope to read more from them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the arc! This will be a quick review, because I put this book down at 11% and I can’t be bothered to pick it up again. Simply, I don’t think I’m a fan of the memoir-style narrative. This is purely a personal problem and does not imply anything about the quality of the book.