Joan A Novel of Joan of Arc

This novel is so beautiful. It had everything I would have wanted from a novel version of Joan of Arc‘s story especially the author‘s gorgeous skill of describing and conveying a feeling of witnessing mythology being lived alive. I was caught in the story and at the same time felt like history unravelled before me. This novel has a very distinct vibe to it and I loved it. I have read a fair share of retellings and this is definitely an outstanding one.

Great historical figures, great expectations. Truth be told my attention was caught by the cover and yet, as soon as I found out the main character was HER, I knew it was meant to be, meant to be read by me. Little did I know. Full of historical inaccuracies, unnecessarily verbose, dwelling on descriptions of facts irrelevant to the story. Chen gives us a rather secular portrait of La Pulcelle, cutting out most of the peculiarities that made her the heroine we know. Honestly so bad that I almost grew fond of it!