Review: Half Sick of Shadows

Half Sick of Shadows
By Laura Sebastian

Published By: Ace Publishing
Publication Date: July 6, 2021
Date Read: May 29, 2022
Genre: Adult – Retellings
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 448

From Goodreads:
Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come–for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future.

On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends–countless possibilities, almost all of them tragic.

When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle.

As visions are fulfilled and an inevitable fate closes in, Elaine must decide how far she will go to change fate–and what she is willing to sacrifice along the way.

The Lady of Shalott reclaims her story in this bold feminist reimagining of the Arthurian myth from the New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess.

“But you were not raised to be safe. You were raised to be heroes.”

Half Sick of Shadows is a book I haven’t been aware of for very long. While I have been aware of the authors Ash Princess series (even though it is still on my TBR), I hadn’t heard anything about this Arthurian-inspired tale. As a huge lover of anything Merlin/Camelot and Arthurian related, I knew that I just had to pick this one up.

Half Sick of Shadows is a brilliant retelling of King Arthur and Legend of Camelot tales. I really enjoyed seeing the story we all know, through the eyes of a newer character, Elaine, who is an oracle. This book is a very sad and melancholy tale, especially as we see all of Elaine’s visions of future possibilities. These are often quite sad and tragic and so we see the impact of what it is like for her living with these constant visions. While I absolutely loved the character development that the author so superbly weaved, one thing I couldn’t really get behind was the romance between Elaine and Lancelot. On the one hand I loved them, and their relationship was really well developed by the author, but when you can see it is not going to end very well, I really struggled to get involved with it.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very different from other Arthurian retellings I have read, and I really enjoyed that aspect. It was however, very slow in pacing. The pacing really jumped around a lot. There were times when I was really enthralled with the book, and couldn’t read it fast enough. There were times where nothing was happening and I had no motivation to pick the book up. This really affected my enjoyment unfortunately, and it took me a long while to get through this book. In addition to this, the timelines really jump around as well. You go from present day, to a potential future through Elaine’s visions, to the past when all the characters met. Sometimes this could be within a few pages, and it didn’t always flow very well.

Overall, I really enjoyed Half Sick of Shadows, and while it’s not one I would probably re-read, I did really enjoy it. If you’re a fan of Camelot/Arthurian inspired tales, then I definitely recommend that you pick this one up.

“What good is a world without you in it? It would have fallen to darkness anyway.”