DNF at 5% I just couldn’t get into this. The description was very flowery, the pace was slow and having read other reviews I can see it didn’t get any faster. I’ve not seen/read King Lear so the retelling part wasn’t very clear to me and this is possibly why I didn’t enjoy it. It’s not a bad book, I just didn’t like it for me.

I can easily see this book becoming a favourite amongst avid book readers. It's an interesting storyline and the sisters are so different from each other. I enjoy reading about the Fox particularly and the stories from the stars. I thoroughly recommend this book to all. ARC from NetGalley

I approached this fantasy retelling of King Lear with some trepidation - but, you know what, it's wonderful!

Gratton shows her deep understanding of the original in so many ways even while she contests and subverts it. Rather than this being a Lear via Game of Thrones, it serves to reveal how much GoT is already indebted to Lear (and others). The writing is gorgeous: lyrical and poetic in its evocation of a world ordered by earth and water magic; dark and edgy when it comes to close-up encounters between, especially, couples: Regan and Connley (Cornwall), Gaela and Astore (Goneril and Albany).

This cleverly unpicks all those problems that have challenged students and scholars: the missing mothers, for example, are written back in; and the three daughters of Lear are no longer conventional fairy-tale archetypes of good and bad women, but have characters of their own - bound by a love which supersedes their differences.

Big moments from the play like Gloucester's eyes are handled adroitly, making their presence felt but in keeping with their new setting.

Less successful are the constant flashbacks: the book insists on giving us backstories to relationships which are already fully-fleshed in the present. Cutting these would have tautened up the pace as this feels unnecessarily drawn out in places. Some character additions, too, could have gone: Aefa, the Fool's daughter, does little other than add to the plethora of female characters displacing the male ones of Shakespeare.

Nevertheless, this is a hugely enjoyable read and an impressive re-imagining of Lear.