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This novel, as well as “The Maid�� by Kimberley Cutter, may be shelved as historical fiction, but the emphasis should be on fiction, not on historical. Both are undoubtably inspired by Luc Besson’s film “The Messenger�� (Cutter even mentions this film in her author’s note), and much of what is wrong with this film applies to these novels as well.

From a review by film critic Ronald F. Maxwell (

“The film begins with the child Joan witnessing the brutal murder and rape of her sister Catherine by marauding English soldiers. There is no evidence in the historical record that this ever happened and, in any case, it was not English soldiers who ransacked Domremy, but Burgundians from the other side of the river Meuse. Aside from the now antiquated notion that an artist should strive for the truth, why does this matter? It matters because, with the subtlety of a pole-axe, the filmmakers are desperate to provide the young Joan with "motivation." Revenge, the all-purpose motivator of nineties movies! This graphically filmed scene (qualifying the film for an R rating, thereby keeping young people away from a story about a young person) is followed by a scene with a priest in which she rails at God for permitting these atrocities. There were many horrors that took place in the Hundred years War, and much to rage at both God and man, but this made-up incident wasn't one of them.��

In reality, Joan’s sister Catherine died in childbirth, not by rape, and her made-up death at the hands of the English (as Maxwell says, it should have been Burgundians raiding Domremy) in both the film “The Messenger�� and Chen’s work of fiction serves to give Joan a motivation of revenge, as late 20th and 21st century society is suspicious of anyone with religious motivations. This ignores the fact that the Middle Ages was a deeply religious era in a way that few 21st century people understand, and Joan was not the only Medieval person who ever heard voices. Her visions were also physical entities she could touch, and some of her colleagues also saw and touched them (). Ignoring Joan’s true motivation—that she believed she was led by God to save France—in favor of revenge and ignoring the religiosity of the Middle Ages in favor of 21st century secular ideas is anachronistic, disrespectful, and damages the real Joan’s life and legacy.

Chen says her version of Joan of Arc is her own (), and it may be, but it is a fiction. For the real, historical Joan of Arc, read Régine Pernoud’s excellent “Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses�� or Willard Trask’s “Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words.�� You will find the living, breathing Joan who never existed in the pages of a novel.