I’ve loved the Tudors ever since I was a kid, and I specifically chose to do the modern/early modern hybrid History A Level at my sixth form because it gave me the chance to study more of the Tudors. Cleves is the only girlfriend to come out of her relationship with Henry unscathed-but most breakups are messy, right? And sometimes tragic accidents happen…twice…Īs I mentioned at the top of my review, I’m a massive Tudor history nerd. Girlfriend number four and the narrator of The Dead Queens Club, a young adult retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives. Otherwise known as the reason I’ve already helped steal a car, a jet ski, and one hundred spray-painted water bottles when it’s not even Christmas break yet. But anyway, here’s your answer: we’ve all had the questionable privilege of going out with Lancaster High School’s de facto king. Well, unless my life is the joke, which is kind of starting to look like a possibility given how beyond soap opera it’s been since I moved to Lancaster.

What do a future ambassador, an overly ambitious Francophile, a hospital-volunteering Girl Scout, the new girl from Cleveland, the junior cheer captain, and the vice president of the debate club have in common? It sounds like the ridiculously long lead-up to an astoundingly absurd punchline, right? Except it’s not. Told from the perspective of Annie Marck (“Cleves”), a 17-year-old aspiring journalist from Cleveland who meets Henry at summer camp, The Dead Queens Club is a fun, snarky read that provides great historical detail in an accessible way for teens while giving the infamous tale of Henry VIII its own unique spin. Mean Girls meets The Tudors in Hannah Capin’s The Dead Queens Club, a clever contemporary YA retelling of Henry VIII and his wives (or, in this case, his high school girlfriends). I’m glad to say though, that I really enjoyed this book! It’s super funny, very feminist and I loved how the author interwove Tudor history to a contemporary setting, it worked really well. The Dead Queens Club was my August #RockMyTBR challenge book and I have to admit, I was a little nervous for it because although I love the Tudors and this book seemed right up my alley, I was very disappointed by Capin’s second novel, Foul Is Fair earlier this year.

BECHDEL TEST: PASS-Numerous instances of conversations between women about topics other than men.Ĭontent warnings: Gaslighting, physical violence, gun violence, partner abuse, slut shaming, implied previous statutory rape, murder

4 dead queens