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greyxwaren's review
5.0
"But a man of woman born/can be by woman led"
Juliette Sebock's resume is vast and impressive, but the breathless lyrical content of Boleyn still manages to far exceed expectations. At once an immortal tale of a woman scorned, and an unfailing combination of history and fiction woven by an adroit pen, this collection faithfully places the lost queen in the context of a dynasty far bigger and far crueler than she, considering her motivations, hopes, losses, emotional turmoil, and the eventual bloodthirsty price of circumstance and survival in a man's world.
These poems deliver a perspective we have not yet had the opportunity to hear, absorb, and understand. They deliver nuance and tactfully mix fact with a voice that is new and familiar in lyrical simultaneity. From the contemplation in "Three Years a Queen (Reflections on a Reign)" to the concurrent regret and acceptance in "Haunted", this is every perspective we didn't know we needed from the rise and fall of one of England's most (in)famous women, and every retelling we've been waiting for, all collected in Sebock's talented hand.
For fans of Kailey Tedesco's Lizzie, Speak, Christina Rosso's She Is a Beast, or the Medusa's Daughters anthology (all reviewed on my page); Juliette Sebock astounds and enchants. I highly recommend Boleyn to even the most skeptical readers, unaware of Anne Boleyn's haunted existence.
Juliette Sebock's resume is vast and impressive, but the breathless lyrical content of Boleyn still manages to far exceed expectations. At once an immortal tale of a woman scorned, and an unfailing combination of history and fiction woven by an adroit pen, this collection faithfully places the lost queen in the context of a dynasty far bigger and far crueler than she, considering her motivations, hopes, losses, emotional turmoil, and the eventual bloodthirsty price of circumstance and survival in a man's world.
These poems deliver a perspective we have not yet had the opportunity to hear, absorb, and understand. They deliver nuance and tactfully mix fact with a voice that is new and familiar in lyrical simultaneity. From the contemplation in "Three Years a Queen (Reflections on a Reign)" to the concurrent regret and acceptance in "Haunted", this is every perspective we didn't know we needed from the rise and fall of one of England's most (in)famous women, and every retelling we've been waiting for, all collected in Sebock's talented hand.
For fans of Kailey Tedesco's Lizzie, Speak, Christina Rosso's She Is a Beast, or the Medusa's Daughters anthology (all reviewed on my page); Juliette Sebock astounds and enchants. I highly recommend Boleyn to even the most skeptical readers, unaware of Anne Boleyn's haunted existence.
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