Reviews

Joan by Katherine J. Chen

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keepreadingbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

For lack of a better word, I will describe this book as authentic. Not in the sense that it’s necessarily one hundred percent true to real events or the real Joan, but in the sense that, when reading it, I repeatedly thought, “this feels right”. I think it takes real skill to fictionalise historical figures. It can so easily feel… off. Maybe you don’t get the character right, the tone right; maybe it feels too modern or too far-fetched. You need to use your immense amount of research to bring life to the story, to know when to move outside documented history and when not to. Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy is an example of hitting the mark on all counts, and I now want to put Chen’s Joan in that highly regarded company too.

You cannot convince me that Chen’s version of Joan is not the real Joan. To me, she is. She is fierce, badass, entirely human and flawed, conflicted, brave, loving, caring, ruthless and intelligent. In short, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better heroine. And that’s all the review you’re going to get – just read it!

kmentillo's review against another edition

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adventurous informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

vejohnson's review against another edition

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Many reasons:
- hate present third-person POV
- slow pacing
- yet another retelling that casts modern eyes on a medieval woman. Joan of Arc was a devout Christian living in a time where religion touched every sphere of life. You can’t tell her story while minimizing religion.