Half Sick of Shadows is a unique retelling of the classic King Arthur story. It follows the main character, an oracle named Elaine, along with her best friends the sorceress Morgana (Arthur’s sister), the half-fey knight Lancelot, the rightful heir of Camelot Prince Arthur, and Arthur’s true love, the magical Princess of Lyonesse Guinevere (or Gwen). Switching between Elain’s past, present, and visions of the future, we learn that the 5 friends were groomed by their mentor on Avalon, an elderly oracle named Nimue or the Lady of the Lake, to ensure that Arthur becomes the King of Camelot, and declares peace between the humans and the fey, at whatever cost. Throughout the book, Elaine and her friends must decide how far they are willing to go to ensure the best possible future for Camelot. Firstly, before reading this book, I only had a vague recollection of the King Arthur story, so I am sure that I missed a lot of the references and connections that Laura Sebastian made in Half Sick of Shadows. Therefore, this book is ideally suited for fans of the King Arthur legend. I would also recommend Half Sick of Shadows to teens or young adults who are fans of medieval fantasy and retellings, including fans of A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer and The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. This book deals with themes such as appearance versus reality, fate versus freewill, quest for power, death, growing up, love and heartbreak, court life, good versus evil, knowledge versus ignorance, heroism, friendship, and the role of women. This book highlights the importance of friendship (and chosen family). I think that the main takeaway is that you should enjoy the present and not worry so much about what might happen in the future. It is important to note that this book may be a trigger for people struggling with depression and/ or suicide. I found this book to be a bit confusing because it was constantly switching between the past, present, and future visions. It was frustrating because when Elain is scrying the future, she is only seeing one of many possible outcomes; nothing is guaranteed, and Elain struggles to figure out how to obtain the future she covets. It was quite scary for me to read about all the ways that Elain and her friends’ futures could go catastrophically wrong. I also found that this book was very slow to start and was hard for me to get into; but it got significantly better once it got going! I thought it was very cool that Elain was the main character instead of Arthur. I loved how Elain, Morgana, and Gwen were strong and powerful on their own and were constantly challenging the traditional expectations of women in Camelot. I also liked how Half Sick of Shadows had a little bit of everything: action, adventure, quests, romance, royalty, friendship, magic, etc. Lastly, my favourite thing about this book was that I thought that the ending was totally fitting yet unexpected. Fans of retellings and Laura Sebastian’s other novels (including Ash Princess) are sure to love Half Sick of Shadows. I gave this book a rating of 6 out of 10. This review was written for "The Nerd Daily". Click here to view this article on "The Nerd Daily's" website or copy & paste the following URL into your web browser: https://thenerddaily.com/review-half-sick-of-shadows-by-laura-sebastian/ Will you be picking up a copy of Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian when it comes out tomorrow (July 6th)?
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