This story of a 12th C nun and her convent absolutely captured me! I raced through, but found myself immersed in the world that was so vividly drawn by Groff. I have already purchased copies for several friends, particularly those who identify themselves as feminists!

A truly excellent novel that’s definitely one of my books of the year. I did not foresee myself getting so entangled in caring about the fortunes of a 12th century nunnery, however Groff is such a good storyteller that you can’t help but be hooked in. Taking a character who is usually portrayed as a footnote in someone else’s history and creating such a strong narrative around them is a difficult thing to do, and this is where the author triumphs.

This is the first Lauren Groff I have read a di thoroughly enjoyed it. Marie is ousted from the court of Franceand sent to be Prioress os an abbey. Is it representative of 12th century life? Probably not but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this book.

An absolutely stunning historical novel. Marie is an awkward, ungainly teen, related to royalty but sent away from the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. She ends up at a poor rural abbey, where the nuns are starving. The everyday life of these nuns is fascinating, and the hard work and organisation it takes for Marie to become the Abbess is tenderly described. Marie ends up as the de facto ruler of the area, building a maze around the abbey to protect her female nuns and workers. Groff has managed to ,make the story come to life and written an incredible novel. If you like accurate historical fiction about little known women, this is a meaty slice of wonder.

Marie is the illegitimate daughter of a wronged noblewoman. Her young life is full of the love of her extended female family, travelling on Crusade and enjoying the countryside in France. The her mother dies and Marie is sent to her errant father's family, the Royal Plantagenets of England. Queen Eleanor finds Marie awkward and banishes her to a royal abbey. Marie rails against this but then accepts her fate and decides to make the best of it.
This is a wonderful read. Marie is a sympathetic character and is surrounded a cast of fascinating characters, all portraying the various members of a genteel priory of the time. The unwanted daughters of the nobility - disabled, damaged or unmarriageable - and the villeinesses, the workers. At times more magical realism, at others straight historical fiction, this is a strong and moving novel.

A great retelling of the life of 12th century writer Marie de France, this belongs on the shelf alongside the celebrated retellings that centre women forgotten to history.

I was really looking forward to this but found it a very difficult read and was unable to finish it, didn't get half way through.

I know it has had some great reviews so understand that my inability to finish is down to my own reading taste.

Too wild and ugly for marriage, 17-year-old Marie is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey. Marie is determined to improve the lives of her sister at the abbey and create an impenetrable safe-haven for the women under her care. Bolstered by her devotion to her sisters and by her divine visions, she sets forth on a path previously un-trodden by women, but her actions will receive opposition from many sides.

Matrix is quite an outstanding novel. It doesn’t particularly have much of a plot – the story simply follows Marie’s life at the abbey – but it is gripping and compelling nonetheless.

It is beautifully written, with an outstanding level of detail of 12th-centuary life in an abbey and formidable characters. Marie herself is wonderfully well-developed. She isn’t an entirely likeable character, consumed as she is by her own power, but you still find yourself rooting for her and sympathising with the position she is in, even if you don’t agree with the direction her ‘visions’ take her in.

I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and the attention paid to different characters, but it needed a bit more plot-action to be a five-star read for me.

A beautifully written story chronicling the imagined life of Marie de France who was banished to an impoverished abbey as a teenager. We follow Marie as she grows into a confident and authoritative woman who transforms the fortune of the abbey and the lives of the women she lives with. A powerful novel that examines gender expectations and roles in twelfth century Europe with all the dangers and pitfalls that accompanied life at the time. This novel is masterful, evocative and immersive, a powerful story of being female in the late Middle Ages. Highly recommended and I am excited to reread it.

You know that feeling when you pick up a book, read the first page, and are just instantly transported? Well, that’s how I felt when I started reading Lauren Groff’s latest novel, Matrix. From the moment I started the novel, I was instantly transported into the life – and mind – of the extraordinary Marie de France: a woman who, in reality, historians know remarkably little about.

From Marie’s literary legacy – much of it still tentatively attributed – of remarkable lais, translations, and religious writings, Lauren Groff has created a complex, vivacious, and remarkable depiction of 12th century womanhood as, in Matrix, we follow her from resentful teenager, cast out from the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, to visionary abbess of one of the most powerful abbeys in Angleterre.

As the illegitimate daughter of a powerful man and a strident, unconventional mother, Groff’s Marie is a woman too large for the times in which she lives – both in terms of her tall, broad stature, and the fiery cast of her brilliant mind. Her family tree is filled with ‘difficult’ women: crusading aunts, a fiercely intelligent grandmother, and, far back in the legendary past, the fairy woman, Melusine. To Eleanor of Aquitaine – herself a woman no stranger to power, intelligence, and latent cunning – Marie has a potential that, whilst admirable, poses a threat to the crown that must be contained. But, in casting her out, Eleanor provides Marie with the perfect arena on which to imprint her powerful personality.

Groff has evocatively depicted the rhythms of life in an English nunnery during the twelfth century. From the lean years of starvation, with their ever-present threat of deadly illness, to the serenity of a well-fed, well-tended community of women, bound together by their promises to both their faith and to each other, every page felt like being pulled into the past. And, by the end of the novel, these women – Infirmatrix Nest, Sub-Prioress Goda, Baliff Wulfhild – felt like beloved friends and relatives; their tribulations, woes, and joys my own.

The word ‘matrix’ has multiple meanings and Groff plays with all of them deftly. From the community of women that Marie builds around her to the idea of the ‘mat-rix’: the mother as leader, Groff has clearly delighted in playing with the ideas generated by the word, and in showing how Marie herself encompasses its multiple meanings throughout her life.

In addition to being a novel of female community, Matrix is also a novel of female love. At the centre of this is Marie’s relationship with Eleanor; whom she both loves and loathes from afar and whose life, in many ways, mirrors Marie’s own. Theirs is a love story of unconventional expression but, for Groff, a love story nonetheless. There is also physical love in the form of relationships with Marie’s fellow nuns – whether in the form of sexual gratification or familial bonding – and the spiritual love between Marie and her religious namesake, the Virgin Mary.

It is hard to encapsulate just what I found so enthralling about Matrix – the books I love the most are, often, the ones I find the hardest to write about – but I hope I’ve conveyed the incredibly layered nature of this rich and complex novel. Though slight in length, Groff has created a masterpiece in miniature in Matrix: a richly detailed and compelling story of the multiplicity of female experience that has continued to resonate long after I turned the final page.

I'll start by saying that this book was not for me, but I've seen plenty of other reviews where people loved it so it might be for you!
My biggest gripe with this book was the writing. Written in third person, this book really keeps you at arm's length from both Marie the main character and the narrative. The writing seemed to have no pacing, it just stayed continuously at the same level throughout which made it quite boring to read. In fact, it kind of read like spark notes for the story as it sped past years and years of Marie's life with just inconsequential anecdotes. The book started off strong with an intriguing main character and LGBT themes but it swiftly lost my interest.

The book appealed to me because of the author rather than the premise. I’ve enjoyed Lauren Groff’s previous books.
Historical fiction is not my favourite type of genre and after a strong start , I struggled to get this through one. It took me several attempts and I found myself reluctant to pick it up and then when I did it was making me feel uncomfortable , credit to the vivid descriptions of the time and place.. That was the only vivid element of the book for me, everything else felt a bit flat and labourious, in particular the secondary characters.

I wanted to enjoy this one, I tried hard to but it just felt like hard work. Not for me.

I absolutely loved Matrix, by Lauren Groff. Set in the 12th Century, the plot follows the life story of Marie, a woman cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine. Marie is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. Marie is an extraordinary woman, in every sense of the word. Standing three heads taller than her companions, and strong as a man, she is heartbroken at being separated from Queen Eleanor, but soon turns her energies to bringing the abbey out of darkness. As the years pass, Marie devotes her life to the nuns, and begins to have visions which she interprets into increasingly ambitious, yet dangerously insular, changes to the abbey's way of life. The prose is stunning, and reads almost like an historic text, and yet it is utterly thrilling and completely immersive. All the characters are richly explored, and Marie herself is a heroine who will live on in my heart and mind for a very long time.

I knew nothing about Marie de France, so looked forward to this book: it did not disappoint!
Marie is indomitable and I loved her strong character. Despite being sent away from court by Eleanor of Aquitaine (and never quite getting over it), Marie makes the most of a dire situation. It is fair to say that physically, Marie is described as unattractive and almost masculine. Her rise to power within the abbey is inspiring, once she has got over the shock of her banishment!
Under Marie’s hand, the abbey thrives and grows beyond anyone’s expectations. Her vision is limitless, to the point of hubris at times.
I was intrigued by the strong female character and the interpersonal relationships that Groff explores. Beautifully written and well worth your time to explore this is you like historical novels.

Matrix by Lauren Groff tells the life story of Marie de France who is kicked out of the 12th century French court of her half brother and deposited, as a prioress, in a crumbling English abbey. In this fictionalized account, Marie is a force of nature and vastly unhappy by the turn in her fortunes but soon makes the most of the circumstances in which she finds herself. When she sees an opportunity in her situation she finds ways of maneuvering events and people to her will.

In one way the story is immersive. The time and place feels real making the damp simply seep into your bones as you read of Marie's chilly arrival to the abbey. The day-to-day life is well illustrated in the vignettes of life for the nuns who reside and work within the abbey. The characterization of Marie's fellow nuns is spectacular. Their ailments, temperaments and peculiarities bring them to life.

On the flip side, the story seems to be told from a safe remove. We pop in and out and around events that shape the abbey but feel held at a safe distance by being told from a dispassionate onlooker, Marie. Not unlike chronicling of a work career from beginning to the end by an automaton. Not much in the way of emotion but rather a lying out of 'facts'. Matrix is the first book I've read by Lauren Groff so, perhaps, that is her style? I wasn't troubled by it but found it noticeable even if it didn't diminish my enjoyment.

DNF. What a letdown. Interesting premise but dull delivery. I tried, really. But a lack of direct dialogue and a general feeling of disconnect from the characters resulted in me giving up.

This book is all over the place now that it's been published and I can see why! Groff has told such an important story with "Matrix". I haven't read "Fates and Furies" (yet), but this novel seems hot on its heels as far as brilliance and popularity goes. Groff covers everything from feminism to religious passion; it's raw and brilliant and masterfully told. Thank you for this ARC!

I liked how this told the story of Marie from her teen years to the end of her life. This was drama-filled and action-packed. I really loved the writing and how the world-building was done. This really helped the monastery come to life in my eyes and it helped bring all the ideas Groff was discussing together. There were a couple of moments that brought me to tears as they were beautifully written given how serious the moment is but Groff wasn't afraid to show Marie as a complex and sometimes unlikeable character who isn't afraid to do what is needed for the greater good.

Matrix by Lauren Groff is set in 12th century England and follows Marie de France, who is banished at just 17 from the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine as she is deemed too course and unmarriageable. Instead, Marie is sent to an impoverished abbey as their new prioress. where the few surviving nuns are on the brink of starvation and overwhelmed with disease. At first, she is shocked by the stark reality of her new surroundings, but soon discovers she can build her power and influence in this new position, raising up the reputation of the abbey to become a formidable female led powerhouse.

Having read and loved Lauren Groff’s previous novel, Fates and Furies, I was eager to read Matrix, I found the premise of the story intriguing and it being set in a part of history I know very little about I went into this book completely blind to its characters and events. Overall, I found this a difficult book to get stuck into, the pacing was hard to keep up with, it either rushed through years very quickly or really slowly and I think because of this I didn’t feel that I developed much concern about any of the characters or the situations they faced.

But I was interested in the story enough to keep reading, I was drawn into the plot through Marie’s innovative schemes to turn the abbey’s prospects around from poverty to prosperity within her lifetime. She was a remarkable abbess leading her nuns safely through a series of dangerous events and protecting them all against the turbulent world outside of their lands. Marie was certainly a force to be reckoned with, which is even more incredible given that women at that time had very little or no power over their own welfare.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for a digital copy for review.

It is 1158, and 17-year-old Marie de France, counted too ungainly and strange for life at court, is sent by Eleanor of Aquitaine to be prioress of a destitute, starving abbey in England. Matrix follows the rest of Marie’s life over six decades, her passion and energy and vision and devotion and heresy. “She appears as myth; some say saint, some say witch, the rumors mix and muddle; descendant of the fairy Mélusine with the rages and the power to bend nature to her will, kin to royalty, to-huge woman on her warhorse, crusader, abbess of unwomanly face and body and knowledge and force of will.” Matrix is an astonishing work of art – earthy and transcendent, powerful and mesmerising and utterly human.