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A review by sabsey
The Last Days of Jeanne d'Arc by Ali Alizadeh
3.0
3.5 Stars.
I picked up this book expecting to read a fictionalised version of Joan of Arc, but I was extremely surprised when this turned not just into historical fiction but historical romance, focusing on Joan's romantic relationship between another woman, Pieronne, and the struggle to accept hersef for loving women (it's always exciting when something you didn't expect to. The interplay between Joan struggling with her feelings for women against her faith (which is one of the defining elements of the Joan of Arc narrative as we know it) felt like it had more potential - something about the way Joan's character was portrayed felt sloppy; the narrator tended to mythologise Joan rather than humanise her more often than not, and the fact of her loving women seemed as though it was added in as an attempt to build her as a tragic hero, which made me very, very uncomfortable.
The writing was the strongest part of the novel - the narrator tried to fit the fictionalised parts with the historical as much as possible, and constantly interwove facts and historical records amongst the story as a whole.
I have mixed feelings about this book, it was a very strange, but very well written novel that felt like it had more potential than it did, especially when it came to the character arc of Joan herself.
I picked up this book expecting to read a fictionalised version of Joan of Arc, but I was extremely surprised when this turned not just into historical fiction but historical romance, focusing on Joan's romantic relationship between another woman, Pieronne, and the struggle to accept hersef for loving women (it's always exciting when something you didn't expect to. The interplay between Joan struggling with her feelings for women against her faith (which is one of the defining elements of the Joan of Arc narrative as we know it) felt like it had more potential - something about the way Joan's character was portrayed felt sloppy; the narrator tended to mythologise Joan rather than humanise her more often than not, and the fact of her loving women seemed as though it was added in as an attempt to build her as a tragic hero, which made me very, very uncomfortable.
The writing was the strongest part of the novel - the narrator tried to fit the fictionalised parts with the historical as much as possible, and constantly interwove facts and historical records amongst the story as a whole.
I have mixed feelings about this book, it was a very strange, but very well written novel that felt like it had more potential than it did, especially when it came to the character arc of Joan herself.