Review: The Guinevere Deception

Title: The Guinevere Deception Author: Kiersten White   Publisher: Delacorte Press Pages: 340  Synopsis: (from the publisher) Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur.  With magic clawing at the kingdom's boarders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution: send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife...and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fall. The catch?  Guinevere's real name - and her true identity - is a secret.  She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot. The keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old - including Arthur's own family - demand that things continue as they have been, and the new - those drawn by the dream of Camelot - fight for a better way to live.  And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land.  Arthur's knights believe they are strong enough to face any threat, but Guinevere knows it will take more than swords to keep Camelot free. Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long, knotted black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods towards Arthur.  Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

All right.  Back in the saddle.  Let's see if I remember how to write one of these.  It's only been... (checks notes) five years.  Yeah, okay.  Hi everyone, I'm back.

This is probably the most conflicted I've been about a book in a long time.  There are parts of it I love.  I love them so much.  They are so original and engaging and smartly done.  And then there's, well, the ending.  But we will get to that!

Warning for Spoilers

The Twist

So the book seems to start off straight forward enough with Guinevere traveling from the convent to Camelot for her marriage to Arthur.  Except surprise!  This isn't actually Guinevere.  The daughter of Leodegrance died in the convent (of an illness, thankfully) and Merlin decides to have his, er, 'daughter' magically take her place as a wife for Arthur to protect him while Merlin is banished.

That is actually just the first twist in the book.  There are delightful twists and turns throughout, on both the legend and within the story.  Lancelot is a woman!  Isolde and Brangien are the ones in love!  Mordred is...eh...  But the biggest twist on the story itself is that Merlin didn't send this not!Guinevere to protect Arthur, he sent her to be protected by Arthur because he knew he was about to get his ass locked in a cave by the Lady of the Lake.  I have lots of feelings about this twist, which is one of my two big disappointments.  The other, as I'm sure you've guessed, is the handling of Mordred.  Because I am always disappointed with the handling of Mordred.

The Plot

The book can pretty easily be divided into two parts - the part where not!Guinevere believes she was sent to Camelot to protect Arthur and the part where not!Guinevere believes she was sent to Camelot to be protected.  From the beginning of the book until this reveal, not!Guinevere has a single-minded focus on protecting Arthur from this magical threat Merlin has warned her of.  Her primary form of magical protection is knot magic, usually done with her hair.  She spends a fair amount of time getting thin iron wires made so she can create knots that will disrupt any magic trying to enter Camelot and places them at the entrances to the castle.  This work is quite difficult for her because a- magic has a price and b- magic is banned in Camelot so not!Guinevere has to do everything in secret and on her own. 

Early on in her arrival in Camelot, not!Guinevere's maid Brangien takes her out to see the training grounds where the knights train and aspiring knights fight each other in the hopes of earning a chance to become a knight through a tournament.  The crowd favorite right now is known as the Patchwork Knight and yup, it's exactly who you think it is.  Not!Guinevere is immediately suspicious of this knight because this is how a magical threat could potentially get close to Arthur.  Despite Arthur's assurances that he's set things up so that it isn't possible for fae creatures to approach him this way, not!Guinevere tries to follow the Patchwork Knight and ends up finding an associate of theirs.  A woman named Rhoslyn who, outside of not!Guinevere's work, is soon brought before Mordred, Arthur's nephew and closest companion/regent, for judgement after it is discovered that she is using magic.  She is banished for this crime and not!Guinevere follows her out of the city, where men are waiting to attack Rhoslyn as soon as she is alone.  The Patchwork Knight arrives to fight them off and they disappear into the forest.  Not!Guinevere wants to follow them, but before she can Arthur summons her north to help him with a treaty with the Pictish King.

It is on the way back from this meeting that we see the danger that magic and the fae can pose to Camelot as Arthur and his entourage are attacked by creepy, poison wolves as they try to journey through the forest at night.  Tristan is poisoned and nearly dies, but not!Guinevere risks using magic to save him, which is noticed by Mordred.  He promises to keep her secret which deepens the already growing friendship between them.

A few days later, during a hunting outing, not!Guinevere is once again attacked by a creepy forest creatures.  This time the Patchwork Knight saves her.  Not!Guinevere is injured in the process and the Patchwork Knight takes her to Rhoslyn for healing.  It is here that we learn a- that the Patchwork Knight is Lancelot and that Lancelot is a woman and b- that Rhoslyn means no harm to Arthur, she was just unwilling to give up the power that she learned from her mother and grandmother.  Uncertain since all of her suspicions were incorrect, not!Guinevere decides to go see Merlin, with Lancelot's help, so she can learn from him what the threat is and perhaps get a little more direct help.  When they arrive at Merlin's cave, not!Guinevere in her impatience tears down his magical ward, allowing the Lady of the Lake to find him.  The Lady accuses him of stealing something from her and then buries him in his cave.

Not!Guinevere and Lancelot race back to Arthur and not!Guinevere tells him what happened to Merlin and begs him to come and help.  It is here Arthur reveals that Merlin knew that this was coming and that he sent not!Guinevere to Arthur not so that she could protect him, but so he could protect her.  This twist is kinda meh because it completely deflates not!Guinevere and removes what little agency she had.  It also doesn't really do anything as a reader because we have been treated to little interludes between the chapters of something that is trying to use magic to get to Arthur.  So it rings hollow and is frustrating to watch not!Guinevere shift to believing that she is nothing more than a burden because we know that she isn't.

After the reveal of why she was sent to Camelot, not!Guinevere is left someone aimless as she tries to figure out just what, exactly, her role is in Camelot.  Arthur asks her to take on her queenly duties and she ends up overseeing the tournament that will see Lancelot made a knight.  Lancelot defeats four knights - Tristan, Gawain, Bors, and some yahoo named George- and fights Arthur to a draw.  She gets made a knight and the tournament is followed by a celebration.

At the celebration, not!Guinevere is kidnapped by Meleagant, who has been a minor thorn in Arthur's side throughout this whole book.  Lancelot eventually shows up to rescue her, with Mordred waiting in the wings to aid the escape.  When Meleagant gives chase, Mordred convinces not!Guinevere to wake the trees in the hopes that they'll stop Meleagant and his men.  She does so and Meleagant is killed.  It is then revealed, in a WTF twist (and not a good WTF twist) that Mordred has been working with the fae Dark Queen for...a time (possibly the whole time?) and has been working with Morgan Le Fay to try and bring her back after Arthur destroyed her.  Not!Guinevere and Lancelot try to stop him, but they are no match for him and not!Guinevere doesn't have the power to control the trees now that the Dark Queen is awake again.

Arthur shows up, intending to kill the Dark Queen again, but Mordred puts not!Guinevere between them.  Excalibur has the power to unmake magic and not!Guinevere is just enough magic that if Arthur were to go through her to reach the Dark Queen, he would kill her.  For the first time in the entire book, Arthur puts someone else above his kingdom and chooses not!Guinevere, allowing Mordred to escape with the Dark Queen.  Not!Guinevere, Lancelot, and Arthur return to Camelot where they await the Dark Queen's next move.

The Characters

The identity of not!Guinevere is a mystery the entire premise of the book is built on and also one the book isn't all that interested in answering.  Sometime before the book begins, Merlin uses magic to implant memories in not!Guinevere's mind of the real Guinevere's life so that she'll more easily be able to fit-in at Camelot.  Not!Guinevere eventually comes to realize that in doing this, he also wiped away much of her memories before that moment, including her real name.  There's also evidence that Merlin changed aspects of her mind to make her more malleable to his will.  Not!Guinevere seems incapable of questioning Merlin.  Even after it's revealed over and over that he lied to her, she still trusts him and looks to him for guidance.  I believe he also instilled within her a deep-seated fear of water.  Not!Guinevere cannot cross water without descending into a panic attack that makes her borderline catatonic.  I am eagerly awaiting the moment she finally falls into the water because I think that's the moment we'll finally learn just who (or what) she really is and what exactly Merlin did to her.

As far as her characteristics go, she's really difficult to pin down because she is so driven to do what Merlin wants.  But at her core she is a kind character and a good friend, especially to the women she meets along the way (specifically Bragien and Lancelot).  She wants to do the right thing but struggles with the fact that she doesn't know what the right thing is.  She's good at magic and sees uses for magic and isn't quick to condemn people who use it like Bragien or Rhoslyn, but at the end of the book she has made the choice to let magic die in service to Arthur and Merlin's vision.  That choice felt so hollow, especially since there is reason to suspect that Merlin has terribly violated this character's very sense of being.  I'm interested to see just who this character becomes once she is finally free of Merlin's influence.

The Arthur-guilt is strong with this version of Arthur.  As is so often the case for Arthur, guilt drives him to inaction.  Guilt over the death of his first love, Elaine, drives him to keep his distance emotionally from not!Guinevere.  Guilt over his handling of Meleagant's initial betrayal keeps from actually doing anything to stop the man who keeps threatening everything he built in Camelot.  Guilt over the thought of those who may die in war keeps him from doing anything when not!Guinevere is kidnapped by Meleagant.  In the end, he can't even stop the Dark Queen because that would mean hurting not!Guinevere.  It is clear from the reaction of the characters around him that Arthur is a dearly loved King who is trying to build Camelot into something great.  As usual, the Arthur-guilt isn't really presented or interrogated by the text as a flaw, it's just Arthur making hard but right choices.  But I am hopeful that this is something that is looked at more closely in future books, especially since not!Guinevere is already so unsatisfied with the way Arthur holds her at arm's length.

I rolled my eyes so hard when Lancelot first appeared in the book as the ~mysterious~ Patchwork Knight who was so good at fighting and who everyone was so impressed with and wanted to meet.  I was not impressed when not!Guinevere became suspicious of Lancelot for working with Rhoslyn because this was Lancelot--of course Lancelot wasn't actually going to be a threat to Arthur.  But then Lancelot rescued not!Guinevere from evil magic animals and was revealed to be a woman and suddenly I had heart eyes.  Lancelot as a woman is so much better than Lancelot as a man.  Everything that bothers me about Lancelot's character was suddenly new and exciting and worth exploring now that the character was a woman.  I was impressed and ecstatic that she was the best and cheered her on as she beat up on Arthur's knights and fought him to a draw in the tournament.  I was really charmed by her friendship and loyalty towards not!Guinevere.  I got mad at Mordred for hurting her at the end.  I was so happy to see her named as the Queen's protector at the end of the book.

Merlin ends the book locked up in a cave and good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.  His presence looms large over the entire book even though he himself only appears in two short scenes--one where the Lady of the Lake locks him in that cave and one where not!Guinevere tries to contact him in a dream after she has been kidnapped by Meleagant and he is useless in both cases.  Not!Guinevere and Arthur both have a lot of faith in him, so it's hard not to get caught up in that as you're reading the book.  But over time you learn about his lies to not!Guinevere and the way he stripped away her memories and possibly freewill to the point where he becomes somewhat sinister presence lurking beneath the surface.  I was so frustrated when we see him again in not!Guinevere's dream--where she cannot find her past because Merlin ripped it away and he warns her that if she stays, she will be found.  I so badly wanted her to be found.  To see her grow beyond whatever limitations this sinister old man has placed on her. 

Meleagant received a pretty interesting take for a character who is so often portrayed as a one dimensional villain.  He gains a connection to Arthur as he is the brother of Elaine, Arthur's first love who died in childbirth.  Meleagant used her to try and destroy Arthur, intending to kill Arthur after they were married and use their child as a means to steal the throne.  When this plot was discovered, Elaine intervened and begged Arthur to spare her brother's life.  He banishes both of them and has regretted that decision ever since as Elaine died and Meleagant continues to threaten his hard earned peace.  There was a lot that could have been interesting here as Meleagant is shown to be quite cunning and it was a nice change to see his kidnapping of Guinevere tied entirely to an obsession with Arthur instead of a sexual obsession with her.  Unfortunately, Meleagant is killed by trees at the end of the book and we will not get to see him develop further as a villain.

Brangien is delightful.  I especially enjoyed the twist that saw her as Isolde's love interest instead of Tristan.  She's quite prickly while also loyal and devoted to her job as not!Guinevere's maid.  It takes some time for not!Guinevere to become friendly with her and it's not until after not!Guinevere catches Brangien using magic to try and contact Isolde that a close friendship really begins to develop between the two.  I'm interested to see how Brangien continues to develop going forward, not just with her relationship to Isolde but regarding her illegal use of magic as well.

Well, I suppose there's no putting it off any longer.  It's time to talk about Mordred.  I was very wary of this character to begin with because not!Guinevere was nervous about the fact that he was always watching her and Brangien didn't like him.  I was thinking 'oh, here we go again, evil Mordred alert'.  And then he proceeded to spend pages and pages not doing anything to warrant that suspicion.  He was kind to not!Guinevere and Brangien (if not a little snarky) and he seemed to have a close relationship to Arthur more akin to Lancelot or Kay that a traditional Mordred.  Early on in the book there's a moment where they're all at the market and not!Guinevere notes how Mordred never haggles with the vendors--he always pays their asking price.  His logic is that he can afford it, so why shouldn't he pay full price?  At that moment, I couldn't take it anymore and jumped to near the end of the book and read the bit about Lancelot rescuing not!Guinevere from Meleagant with Mordred's help.

That was all I needed to hear.  Mordred was good and was going to stay good so I wholeheartedly threw myself into enjoying his character.  And he was just wonderful.  He was a good friend to not!Guinevere and Brangien.  When he sees not!Guinevere use magic to save Tristan from murder wolves, he agrees to keep her secret.  He and not!Guinevere developed a romantic attraction for each other that I was ALL IN on because finally, a Guinevere/Mordred ship that wasn't going to squick me out because it was all about Arthur or she was trying to be a mother figure to him.  It was so good and I was really enjoying it and then...

...and then the rug got yanked out from under me and I just really don't know what to make of Mordred's turn or the way the book ended.  Like, I can almost understand.  I can almost make it work because it's revealed that Mordred is half-fae, the son of Morgan le Fay and the Green Knight, grandson of the Dark Queen.  And I could very easily see this half-fae siding with Arthur and Merlin in the hopes of forging a peace between men and fae, only for Arthur and Merlin to essentially turn on him in the 11th hour by banning all magic.  If that's the back story, then it makes some amount of sense.  But there is a great deal of ambiguity regarding just how long Mordred has been working for the Dark Queen.  I am hoping that it is a recent turn but it might not be.  It's never said outright when he joined forces with his grandmother and a reader could fall either way depending on where you put the emphasis in his dialog.

But it just doesn't make sense.  Either way, really.  Like, if it's revealed in later books that it was a recent turn, I think I'll be able to make peace with it (if it's revealed he was working for the Dark Queen the whole time, that's going to break the series for me--there's no coming back from that), but I won't be happy about it.  This isn't the character I spent 318 pages delighting in--who was so unfailingly kind to everyone he met.  Who took not!Guinevere and Brangien to a shitty play and giggled with them about it afterwards.  Who claimed to love Arthur so much that he struggled with his growing feelings for not!Guinevere.  This twist came out of nowhere and not in a good way.  Not in a way where I can look back through the book and see this being set up.  This twist wasn't earned and honestly, it kind of ruins the book for me.  Not just because I am a Mordred fangirl, but because I hate twists that aren't earned.  They're cheap and they're lazy and I wish they would go away.
There are ways the series could recover going forward, but man, I don't have the same faith in it that I did for the first 318 pages.

The Lady of the Lake shows of briefly to accuse Merlin of stealing something from her and then locks his ass up in a cave.  It's pretty obvious that she was referring to not!Guinevere, so I am interested to see how that unfolds going forward.  Kay and Ector show up briefly.  They're hired swords who raised Arthur and are pretty boorish.  Not!Guinevere comes to the conclusion that Arthur is as good as he is because he grew up under the hardship of living with them.  Tristan is there as a Knight of the Round Table and a good friend to Brangien.  He was banished along with Brangien for some reason even though she was the one in the romance with Isolde, so we'll see if his story unfolds further as we go on.  Percival, his wife Blanchefleur, and sister Dindrane all are part of a minor side story about Dindrane being unmarried and depending on Percival for everything, which Blanchefleur doesn't like.  Not!Guinevere strikes up a friendship with Dindrane, which causes her to rise in stature and at the end it looks like she is probably going to marry Sir Bors.  Perhaps this is the foundation for a Grail Quest down the line?  Bors also nearly slays a dragon but not!Guinevere intervenes to save it and gives Bors a falls memory (and a fairly disgusting one so he won't dwell on it) of killing the dragon.

Overall

There was so much I was enjoying about this book.  It has some truly delightful turns, the mystery regarding not!Guinevere is engaging, the characters are fleshed out and enjoyable.  I was prepared to give this book 5 stars for the first 318 pages.  But man, that ending.  That ending ruined the book for me.  That's hard to say because I liked so much of it and I think it can be salvaged in future books...but it could also be made worse.  And not knowing where it's going leaves me with just this book and a lot of conflicted feelings.  So I guess I'm going to have to settle for a conflicted rating.

3 Stars.