“Gilt” by Katherine Longshore is a fictionalized account of Henry VIII’s second to last wife, Catherine Howard. The story is told from the perspective of Katherine “Kitty” Tylney, who has been friends with Catherine since age 8.

I've been reading lots of YA literature lately and I've really come around to the potential quality writing in the genre. I really wanted to like this book. It's such a shame that I didn't.

Characterization: The characters in this book are just dreadful. The main character and narrator, Kitty Tylney, is an idiot. Plain and simple. She starts out naïve and willingly manipulated by Cat, and that never changes. She never grows from her role as Cat’s toady, except for one outburst when her life is actually threatened. I don’t really understand how one spends an entire year in a place like a Tudor monarch’s court and never learns anything, but since that was apparently true with the real Catherine, I guess I have to accept it.

As for Cat, well...... She’s selfish, manipulative, and even dumber than Kitty. She’s cunning, but stupid. Because for all her pretensions of understanding people better than Kitty, her wiles and manipulations actually landed her in a worse position that even poor, hopeless Kitty. I’m not wild about nasty personalities like Cat’s to begin with, but her ridiculous antics made her even worse. She’s not interesting enough to even “love to hate her” because her antics are so uninspired and self-indulgent.

Apart from Kitty and Cat, there are no well-rounded characters or compelling personalities. It doesn’t help that we see almost everyone from a distance, especially the King of England who is portrayed as either groping his child bride or limping around on his ulcerous legs. The villain, Culpepper is cookie-cutter charming rapist. The other ladies in waiting are rarely even refered to as anything except the Coven and you never get a real sense of who any of them are, or even how they might be injuring Catherine’s reputation; you are just told that they’re gossipy and it’s implied that they’re no good.

Setting: Honestly, the setting and context seemed more like a backdrop than any important aspect of the story. There is no discussion of politics or religion, beside a few mentions of the Reformation for Anne’s sake. This could have been the court of any king at any time, not one of the most infamous British rulers of all time. Longshore spends more time describing peoples’ wardrobes than she does most things about England.

Language: Longshore is proficient with the English language. She isn’t the worst YA writer I can mention. However, there are several completely anachronistic/false notes in the writing that just jerked me right out of the story. For example, at one point Cat exclaims, "How romantic is that!" Another time she pantomimes forcing her finger down her throat to induce vomiting, in an attempt to convey some peevish emotion. I understand that Catherine Howard was probably the most gauche of the king's wives, but she was far from the Valley girl this novel makes her out to be.

Other Details: The cover puts me off, frankly. There is absolutely nothing in the cover that makes me think of the Tudor era and the picture is odd. You can actually see the hair on the model's nose, for pity sake, and it's the second most prominent part of the image.