“Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland” by Susan Fraser King

Title: Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland
Author: Susan Fraser King
Publisher: Crown
Year: 2010
Genre(s): historical fiction
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 

Why I read it: It was recommended by Amazon years ago

Summary: Margaret is a princess without a kingdom. Her father was supposed to take the throne of England but died before he could do so. And when the king protecting her family dies, they are even more at risk. They flee to Scotland, hoping to find protection with King Malcolm. He grants it to them and Margaret ultimately marries him to secure their alliance. Margaret works to help reform what kind of king he is and her own spirituality pushes her to help those less fortunate in Scotland as well as push them closer to the church in Rome.

Eva is the granddaughter of Macbeth and there is still tension between her family and Malcolm. She is sent to his court in order to discover if he has really ordered a book written to detail Scottish history and if so, to find out how he has ordered Macbeth to be depicted. She is also to provide information to her grandmother about Malcolm’s court. And while Eva and Malcolm clash, she develops a close friendship with Margaret. Her loyalties are soon divided and she must choose between her grandmother and her friend.

Review: For a book about Margaret of Scotland, she’s not really the star. About halfway though, I felt that King connected more with Eva, a character of her own creation though with some basis in historical fact, and wondered why she didn’t just write the book completely from Eva’s point of view.

It was even more frustrating when I read the author’s note at the end of the story. The Margaret that King described there sounded amazing and like she would be an awesome character. If we had read about that Margaret, it would’ve been a much better book. But King said she felt she couldn’t write about someone who was pious and who spent most of her first few years of marriage pregnant. And I think King did a disservice to herself and to the book then. She either should’ve challenged herself more or reconsidered writing a book about Margaret of Scotland at all if that was the case.

Especially as for most of the book, Margaret isn’t even likeable. She can come across as sanctimonious and almost so pious, it is almost like a mental illness. Margaret will not compromise when it comes to her faith, even at the cost of her own health and no matter what even her spiritual advisers tell her. (For example, it seems likely that her devotion to fasting was actually an eating disorder). She seems to steamroll over people, including her husband, to pursue what she believes is right and doesn’t listen to the reasons why they are hesitant to let her get her way. While like most Christians she acknowledges she is a sinner, it seems she fails to see her true sins and is more focused on her perceived sins.

And I suppose it can be hard to write someone who is a saint. But the whole point of saints is that they are supposed to be people we the faithful can connect with, examples we can see ourselves in because they have the same struggles and issues as us. Margaret was human and I think King did her a great disservice.

Eva, though, managed to humanize Margaret –especially at the end. We finally saw a more relatable and human side to the queen. And that’s why I wonder if the story would’ve been better if it was just told from Eva’s point of view.

Malcolm is more of a side character than a main character, even in parts told from Margaret’s point of view. We just don’t see much of her relationship with him. And I get the feeling King just maybe doesn’t know how to write romance. We are told rather than shown that Eva has feelings for Edgar and that he may return them. But the book isn’t marketed as a romance so there’s no letdown, though it would’ve been nice to see more of Margaret and Malcolm’s relationship.

So why did I give this three moons instead of less? Because the parts told from Eva’s point of view really do save the book – she has more of a character as the hostage princess in a hostile court who finds friendship with the queen who should be her enemy. And Eva’s predicament – torn between her loyalty to her grandmother and her loyalty to Margaret – does provide some good drama for the book.

Bottom line: A good book that probably would’ve been better had the author either really connected with her main character or just relied on another character to be the narrator.

Sex: Margaret and Malcolm’s wedding night is touched on but glossed over.

Moonlight Musing

Writing historical figures is hard but is writing saints even harder?