Once Upon a Bibliophile

My dear and (hopefully) devoted audience. I’m back! Sorry for the longish break, but I was too busy reading books to remember I was also supposed to be writing about them.

You’ll be glad to know that I am writing yet another review. My life is so exciting.

BOOK- Sherwood

AUTHOR- Meagan Spooner

GENRE- Romance, Fantasy, Legend Retelling, Historical Fantasy

RATING- 5/5

I’ve found that I’m becoming more captivated by legend retellings. It may or may not have something to do with my long and ongoing obsession with BBC’s ‘Merlin’, ‘Atlantis’ and ‘Robin Hood’. Actually, in all honesty, it’s probably a direct consequence of how much of my life was taken up by watching those serieses. Slight deviation from original review- go check them out. Very very good. Well, Robin Hood isn’t actually that good and Atlantis ends on a cliffhanger but they’re entertaining they’re fantasy and that’s all I need from TV.

Anyway.

Going back to what I’m actually supposed to be writing about here, I’ve been picking them up more- sometimes without realising, like with Brigid Kemmerer’s Beauty and the Beast retelling A Curse so Dark and Lonely¹, and sometimes on purpose. Sherwood was one I picked up both unconsciously and unphysically while scrolling on BorrowBox and ended up listening to the beautifully voiced audiobook whilst on a flight a few years ago.

Since then, I’ve read the physical novel approximately a bazillion times in the past few weeks after I got gifted it for my birthday. I am obsessed, yet it only dawned on me today that I should actually write about it on my blog.

PLOT

Robin of Locksley is dead. Maid Marian doesn’t know how she’ll go on, but the people of Locksley town, persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, need a protector. And the dreadful Guy of Gisbourne, the Sheriff’s right hand man, wishes to step into Robin’s shoes as Lord of Locksley and Marian’s fiance. Who’s there to stop them? Marian never meant to tread in Robin’s footsteps. But with a sweep of his green clock and a flash of her sword, Marian makes the choice to become her own hero.

I’m not really a massive fan of gender-bent retellings. Not that I have anything at all against how those kind of books break down the barriers around gender, but I just don’t enjoy them as much. When I pick up a legend retelling, I want it to be either one of two things:

1. a retelling in the sense that the author took inspiration from a legend to make an entirely new story
2. a retelling in the sense that the author has taken the original legend and, quite simply, re-told it, in their own words and own style, to suit a slightly younger or more modern audience or to adapt it for screen/film

However, I found that, surprisingly, the Marian/Robin Hood gender bend was one of my favourite parts of this retelling.

I think that the main reasons why I don’t really read gender bent retellings is that it is a bit of an overused trope. I feel like you can’t read a King Arthur retelling (for young people) any more without a gender bent Arthur or Lancelot, or a Robin Hood retelling without a gender bent Will Scarlett. Also, I dislike that it feels as if the character that has been gender bent has been replaced, the original story forgotten. That said, I don’t mind gender bends if the novel is like the 1st on the above mini-list (new word) because the story isn’t meant to be the same. But if a novel that is supposed to be like the 2nd has a gender bend, it just doesn’t feel like the same story any more.

But.

What saved Sherwood was one simple concept: instead of ‘Marian instead of Robin Hood’, this book was ‘Marian is Robin Hood’.

And it was written in a way that managed to both capture the spirit of Robin Hood and embrace the gender bent plot. It was the perfect balance between ” a fresh new take” and the old legends, and I really enjoyed revisiting well known storylines through new eyes.

Meagan really nailed the gender bend, but Sherwood stood out for other reasons as well. For one, it was meticulously researched. You might have noticed that I classed this book as historical fantasy, and this is why. The world felt alive and lived in, right down to the smallest details, but above that, it felt right. It wasn’t some whimsical re-imagining with knights and princesses and a fluffy villain. I really liked how Meagan wasn’t afraid to include some of the less fairy-tale-y bits of life during that period. It was this feeling of rightness that really brought the story to life. It felt like a legend but it also felt believable.

All of Marian’s adventures were of that kind of swashbuckling nature you expect from Robin Hood, yet they also made sense to the time period. I’ve come across a few retellings (*cough* BBC Robin Hood *cough*) where the events just couldn’t have happened during the time it was based, so though they carried some of the spirit, they didn’t feel real. Above all else, Sherwood was real.

And not only was it meticulously researched, it was also meticulously plotted. Sherwood is one continuous story, not just a series of episodic events. Each new adventure sparked a kind of action/consequence reaction that was the beginning of the next ‘thing’. There was very little sitting around waiting. Of course, no plot can be absolutely seamless, and some events felt like they were thrown in a bit at random, but altogether it melted into one continuous journey.

Also, there was a real story to it. It would have been easy for the author to fall into a trap of ‘this is Marian. Robin died. She’s sad that people are starving. I know, why not help them by stealing things?’, but instead there was a reason, on top of wanting to help people, that Marian donned Robin’s cloak. A chain of events building up to her becoming Robin Hood, instead of just a realisation that she could, and then a story to all her other adventures. In some ways, it felt more real than other Robin Hood retellings for this reason-it felt like someones life, not just a novel. Again, it felt real.

Yet another reason that Sherwood stood out was the ideas it explored within the story. It challenged ideas of heroism and class and love and politics and good vs. evil and everything. Honestly everything you wouldn’t expect to find in a Robin Hood retelling. Instead of just making Robin Hood the ‘good guy’, there was a bit of nuance around the concept of a hero. The question ‘is Robin Hood really a hero’ was posed more than once, and we got more of an insight into the more political side of the story-themes of justice, law and order.

I think that when I first listened to it a few years ago, I probably found those bits more than slightly boring. But now, rereading it with all my teenager-ish wisdom, I can’t really imagine a Robin Hood without this side to the story.

These parts added a lot of depth to the story, and, more than anything, it wasn’t dreary. I hadn’t and haven’t read or watched another Robin Hood retelling that includes these kind of themes, and I was genuinely interested in the things it explored. I think Meagan did a great job not making the whole book action scenes and taking time to dive into some deeper ideas.

And the romance. The romance! I don’t have nearly enough time to write about the romance. I could talk about it for days. I don’t want to spoil it for you guys, so I’ll just give a few hints: it’s what you would expect, and yet it isn’t at all. It’s an enemies to lovers. And not everything is as it seems…

CHARACTERS

If you think I was waxing lyrical about the plot, you definitely aren’t ready for this.

I loved the characters in Sherwood.

I loved Marian.

I loved Guy.

I loved Will.

I loved Alan and John.

I loved Guy.

I loved Elana.

I loved Will.

I loved Guy.

Did I mention Guy and Will already?

I even loved Robin and he dies at the start.

I think we should just get into it.

MARIAN

I think I may have mentioned what I’m about to write about briefly in one of my other posts, but I’ m going to take this opportunity to elaborate a bit more on this subject.

One thing I really don’t like about many popular BookTok romantasies is the ‘strong female character’ trope they seem add toxicity to. I just want to make myself clear before I start talking about this in relation to Marian: I have nothing against strong female characters. I applaude strong female characters. The only thing I don’t applaude is the way some books portray them.

One thing that I really believe in is that strength comes in many different forms. Especially in fantasy, I see ‘strong female characters’ being translated to ‘physically strong female characters’. What with the rise of BookTok romance, this has now become ‘to be strong, said female character must be hot, sassy and utterly independent’.

I hate this. I hate how there’s no other way for them to be strong.

Marian is just what I would want out of a strong female character. Yes, she does have physical strength, but she’s also clever, and a team player, and she makes sacrifices, and she’s fearless. I was so so glad that Marian wasn’t one of those characters. And for probably that reason alone, I loved her.

GUY

I think that Guy is one of my overall favourites, and by overall I mean in any Robin Hood adaptation ever. I think what I really like about Guy generally is the kind of ‘tortured love’ vibes he gives. You know that whole thing about how he’s in love with Marian but he can never have her? Sherwood was the perfect place to expand on this (what with Robin being out of the way). I loved it.

Guy is a really complex character and those are always the best kind. I really really liked how his character was slowly revealed through the book and, well…everything about him really.

There is nothing else to it, I now realise. I love Guy because of his tortured loved life and overall mysteriousness.

WILL

This is the point where my brain decides that logic is overrated. This happens quite regularly when I’m reading or blogging, as many of you will know.

Will is the best. Remember how I said that Guy was one of my favourite Robin Hood characters ever? I’ve changed my mind. It’s Will.

I think that my favourite characters will always defy logic, because, yet again, I don’t really have a reason. *laughs awkwardly*

He makes me smile. I guess that’s a reason. And he’s really sweet, but not in that kind of poetic book boyfriend way. He’s just a really nice, funny character.

I think the world needs more Will Scarlets.

I really want to talk about the Merry Men dynamic for a bit here. For a long time, the kind of ‘group of outlaws’ trope has been my favorite part of any Robin Hood retelling (I talked about this a bit more in my post my top three favorite character types).

I think the relationships built between Marian/Robin, Will, Alan and John are a really special part of the story. I guess that, like I mention in my ‘top three’ post, the kind of found family aspect really made this. I liked how it was kinda accidental that Marian met Alan and John and then she found out that they knew Will and then…well, you get the idea.

I enjoyed watching the relationships between Robin and the boys (as Marian refers to them) change and develop over the course of the story. At the beginning, the loyalty the boys felt towards Robin was simply because they believed him to really be Lord Locksley, and Will did care about him, but in a kind of detached way. Equally, the only obligation towards Will and the others that Marian felt was that Elana had asked her to help them and it was “what Robin would have wanted”.

However, as the novel progresses they start to genuinely start to care for each other, and their friendships grow.

And I just really loved that. The close-knit relationships remind me of my own group of friends, and it made my heart glow.

CONCLUSION

I loved Sherwood! Go read it! Everyone should read it!

The only thing I want to say is this: Meagan, if you’re reading this (doubtful, but it’s worth a try) I’m begging you, please write a sequel. I just can’t get enough of it.

1. yes, I talk about this a lot and no, you’ll never hear the end of it ↩︎