Let's Try Reviewing This Thing: Wolf Hall (Book One in the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy), by Hilary Mantel

(If you don’t want to read this whole spiel, go down to the bottom for a quick summary of my opinion)

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

This is supposed to be a great book. It won awards for how good it was, in fact—the 2009 Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and to top it off a New York Times Best Seller. It’s been critically acclaimed and praised as “a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII…Magnificent,” by the Boston Globe.

I hate this book.

I have no idea why I would hate a book that everyone else seems to love, but I do. As you can read in the summary, it’s about the life and reign of Henry VIII told through the eyes of his right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell. It’s the first in a trilogy, with the second book in that series already in the library (Bring Up the Bodies, which deserves props if only for excellent title choice), and pretty much every critic who’s ever read it eats it up. Except me, of course

Now, I know this is not because of the subject matter. While it may have become obvious by now I’m much more of a fantasy/sci-fi girl, I do like historical pieces and find Henry VIII a fascinating subject. In fact, The Other Boleyn Girl counts as one of my favorite books, and it covers pretty much the same time period that Wolf Hall does!

It didn’t take too long to figure out why I despised this book so much—the writing style is the end-all be-all for this particular piece, and it certainly didn’t live up to the glowing expectations the reviews set for me. The writing is tedious and exceptionally confusing, preventing me from even attempting to relate to Thomas Cromwell and his exploits through the book. Oftentimes instead of actually saying who is saying or doing what Ms. Mantel will just say ‘he’, which constantly kept pulling me out of the story in an attempt to figure out what the heck was going on.

Another strike against Wolf Hall is that it endlessly, incredibly boring. This is supposed to be about one of the most political and dangerous times in history, with the protestant reformation occurring, the first divorce of a queen and the emergence of the Church of England, and yet I found myself yawning the entire way through. Thomas Cromwell was just not that engaging of a character—in fact, I found him extremely unlikeable (when I could figure out what he was doing, that is).  I literally suffered through reading this cover to cover (I hope you’re happy).

Basically, I understand that some people, somewhere, really like this book. There’s a reason why it got a ton of awards and great reviews. I just couldn’t see it. If you want to give this book a try, go ahead, but if you can’t get too far than just stop—it’ll save you a headache. I give this a zero out of ten.

Tl;dr: A confusing writing style, boring portrayal of what is supposed to be an interesting time period, and tedious dialogue kept me from seeing what all the fuss is about.