Book Review: Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian

Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
Genres: Fantasy
Length: 448 Pages
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

"Beware, beware three maidens fair
With bloody hands and divine air.
Help not the girl whom others blame
She'll burn the world to ash and flame.
Trust not the girl with the golden crown
She'll take what's yours and watch you drown.
And my Lily Maid will scream and cry.
She'll break them both and then she'll die."

Trigger Warning in this book for Suicide

Along with Greek mythology, one of my lifelong obsessions (dating back, probably, to when I first glimpsed Sam Neill in the 1998 Merlin miniseries on Syfy, when it was still Scifi) is Arthurian mythology. I've always had such a fascination with the characters, and I have to admit I've rarely come across a well-done Arthurian story. I was really taken by surprise when I saw Laura Sebastian's Half Sick of Shadows as one of Book of the Month's June picks, because it had somehow completely flown under my radar! 

"I am half-sick of shadows," Elaine Astolat, Lady of Shalott, famously declares in Lord Alfred Tennyson's lyrical poem, which consists of 20 stanzas (19 in another version). She is afflicted by a strange curse, doomed to forever weave images on her loom, and to only ever glimpse the world through a small handheld mirror. The Lady of Shalott is perhaps even overshadowed by her own death, in which she dies of heartbreak over the knight Lancelot, and floats down the river to Camelot, a lily clutched in hand.

In this retelling, Elaine is cursed with visions, which come unbidden to her in her sleep, and later, under the careful tutelage of the Lady of the Lake, Nimue, at her beck and call through weaving on her loom. Her childhood is spent trapped in a tower in Camelot with her mother, until the wild and tempestuous Morgana returns to court and they strike up a fast friendship. Morgana urges Elaine to come away with her back to Avalon, where the Fey have reigned since they lost the war with Albion. She does, and when she arrives she meets the lost Prince Arthur, the strange and beautiful Lyonessian Princess Guinevere, and the half-fey Lancelot, who she will go on to love.

Soon, Elaine realizes that her power is more a curse than a gift. Urged to never share her visions with those they involve, lest she bring them to fruition, Elaine is lonely, but wise and trusted. She, along with the others, are raised for one purpose: to see Arthur crowned. Everything, their friendship, their love, and even their very selves, are pushed to the side to see the task done. But Elaine cannot accept the future that lies ahead -- one of broken promises, treasonous friends, and her own heart broken by the very man she so wants to trust. Can she stop it? Or is the future already set in stone?

I very much enjoyed this new take on the Arthurian myth, told from the POV of a character rarely utilized. I loved each character, and each new vision Elaine discovered, of a bitter and hate-filled Morgana, or of her and Arthur heartbroken by their lovers' betrayal, made my own heart ache. I was especially taken with this new spin on the much maligned Guinevere, and was pleased to see her not relegated to the same old adulterous harpy role she so frequently fills. A refreshing take on the old with a bittersweet ending, Half Sick of Shadows is a perfect choice to inspire new lovers of Arthur, Morgana, Lancelot, Guinevere, and the oft-forgotten, Elaine.