Friday Reads: The Winter Prince

My knowledge of Arthurian legend is maybe a little weak, but I do love the mythos. I loved Gillian Bradshaw’s Hawk of May (and if you haven’t read it, you should!) and I enjoy the BBC show Merlin, so when I heard about The Winter Prince, a Young Adult book about Arthur’s children, my interest was piqued.

A short 200-pages, The Winter Prince reads more like a novella than a full novel most of the time. It’s a close character study about the child of an incestuous romance between Arthur and Morgause; you might know him as Mordred, in this book he’s named Medraut. The theme of incest seems to run throughout the entire book, with the main character showing more than a little interest for his half-brother and half-sister, as well. While a little odd, it’s certainly keeping within the general atmosphere of many myths.

If you can get beyond that element, the book presents a startlingly deep insight into the emotions of a character who has grown up abused both physically and sexually. Medraut is prone to dark thoughts at times and odd flares of temper. He’s led a hard life and, not only that, he can’t be recognized as an heir to the throne and must instead take care of his hair-brother, Arthur’s legitimate, younger, son.

The Winter Prince shines when it comes to characters. It creates an interesting portrayal of everyone involved. Based on the pacing, the themes, and the general structure of the novel, I honestly don’t know that I would have pegged it as a YA book if I hadn’t known already. YA certainly doesn’t need to be all bubblegum and roses, but this book is decidedly introspective and–well–to be quite frank, it’s slow, even at only 200 pages.

That’s not to say it’s not enjoyable, but it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. There’s something to be said for subverting the expected, though, and this book presented a kind of beautiful, haunting atmosphere of grief, loss, and the weird shapes of love.

Overall: It was an interesting book and I’ll most likely check out The Coalition of Lions at some point, although I’m in no huge rush to.

Learn More: The Winter Prince on Amazon ; Elizabeth Wein’s Webpage

If you liked this book you might also like: Hawk of May by Gillian Bradshaw; The King Must Die by Mary Renault