(post may contain affiliate links)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Spear is a queer fantasy novella with folklore elements by Nicola Griffith. The eBook version is 192 pages. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at six hours and is narrated by wonderfully by the author. We follow our main character with a third-person point-of-view. There are occasional romance elements, though it’s mostly fade-to-black.
A nameless girl grows up hidden in the woods with her mother. One day, after hearing travelers talk about Artos, the king of Caer Leon, she decides it is time to go. She asks her mother for her name, and then sets off–disguised as a young man–to find out who she is or will be.
This is my first book from this author, but I really enjoyed her prose! It’s quite lyrical and beautiful. I don’t see too many fiction novels read by the author, but Griffith does an amazing job here. I’m absolutely going to add her back catalog to my TBR.
Tropes in this book include: folklore retelling (Arthurian), queer heroine, sapphic romance
CW: animal death, violence, murder
Special thanks to Macmillan Audio, Tordotcom, and NetGalley for providing an audio galley of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
View all my reviews
ruse reviews 