Book: Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer

Book Info: Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 227 pages; hardcover; borrowed from the library

Goodreads Summary: The story of Mary Tudor’s childhood is a classic fairy tale: A princess who is to inherit the throne of England is separated from her mother; abused by an evil stepmother who has enchanted her father; stripped of her title; and forced to care for her baby stepsister, who inherits Mary’s rights to the throne. Believe it or not, it’s all true. Told in the voice of the young Mary, this novel explores the history and intrigue of the dramatic rule of Henry VIII, his outrageous affair with and marriage to the bewitching Anne Boleyn, and the consequences of that relationship for his firstborn daughter. Carolyn Meyer has written a compassionate historical novel about love and loss, jealousy and fear–and a girl’s struggle with forces far beyond her control.

It was different reading a YA book about the Tudors, since I tend to read Tudor non-fiction or adult historical fiction.

So here’s the bad.  It was more about what happened to Mary than it was about Mary herself.  And while you got a fairly good sense of who Mary was, I would have liked more depth to both Mary and the people surrounding her.

That being said, I thought it was a pretty good introduction to the Tudors and some of the people, places and events of the time period.  It was easy to read, and pretty well-paced.  A lot of details are skipped but you do get the basics, and Meyer does a good of introducing everything to an audience that might not know about it.  It feels like Meyer knows her stuff about Tudor England, and for historical fiction, I thought it was a very realistic and believable portrait of Mary Tudor.

I also liked reading about the time period through Mary’s eyes, and it was refreshing to read about her, instead of her half-sister Elizabeth.  I think I would recommend it for younger teens, since it seems to be written for the younger end of YA.

I give it a 3 out of 5.  I enjoyed it, and it gets the job done, but it needed a little more detail.