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I picked up this novel fully expecting to love it - a historical novel about Joan of Arc, in the vein of Wolf Hall? Sounds like it was written for me.

I was swept up by the fluid prose: while it's a little overly verbose at times, the narrative has an almost hynoptic quality which lends itself to the historical world of knights and battles. Chen writes with a real passion for her heroine, and Joan's childhood in Domrémy is vividly imagined.

But as Chen explains in her afterword, this Joan is an intensely personal one, and sadly, I found I couldn't relate. I couldn't help but feel that something important was lost in the modernisation of Joan's character - losing her sense of religion not only fundamentally changes her story, but the cultural psyches of her time (and I always find it a bit reductive when a 'strong' female character is portrayed as tough warrior, however sarky she may be). This Joan is completely out of context in the medieval world, and I found it difficult to reconcile this historical dissonance.

That said, while this wasn't the one for me, I can absolutely see why others loved this reimagining, and Joan is still a book I would recommend to others as a striking piece of historical fiction.

*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*