The Maiden by Kate Foster

Longlisted Woman's Prize for Fiction 2024; 379 pages; Published by Mantel, 27/04/24; Dimensions: 13 x 2.4 x 19.7cm

A beautiful book. I just had to buy the Waterstones exclusive with its stunning sprayed edges, please do see photo further down the review. I just love a historical novel especially one inspired by real life characters.

I was really excited for Kate Foster’s The Maiden. I feel this remarkable story gives a voice to women that were silenced throughout history - very compelling and un-put- downable. 

I found this book to have been well researched and the characters believable. A few times in this book, my heart was thumping with adrenaline for what is to come and that is quite rare and I know a book is great if it has that effect on me. I’m confident this will go on to make the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

The book itself is about right for the length of the narrative. I love the beautiful sprayed edges and the decorative cover even with its harrowing execution device, however I am a little disappointed in the overall appearance.

There are two reasons I am saddened by the cover. Firstly, I feel quite uncomfortable with the feel, it is like a smooth matte but wet feel and one that picks up your fingerprints. I’m definitely not a fan of covers that do this.

My other slight niggle is with the image of the woman on the front, to me it feels a little too childish. It is an adult orientated book. For me It didn’t need the figure, but it could also have worked without the face, similar to the image on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I found it distracted slightly from a beautiful narrative, and overall appeal of the book.

For sensory inside the book it’s all positives for me. The Maiden has soft pages and space around the text. The text is small but not in a daunting way as it doesn’t fill the page. There are good page breaks and chapter breaks and I enjoyed the little newspaper reports throughout.

This is one of those books where each chapter is named with the character it is focusing on, along with locations and dates - I like this. I also like how I have read the book and it still looks brand new, with no creases or any marks to the spine and even the sprayed pages closed back up like it hasn’t been touched.

I keep my books in a splash proof bag for protection when not reading and for this book in particular I highly recommend a cover as just holding this book the front cover does mark. This is one book that will remain in my home library for posterity.

At the end we have a fantastic informative author’s note along with the acknowledgments and an advert for Kate Foster’s next book The King’s Witches due out in June 2024.

If anyone knows of any ARC copies I would be most grateful thank you. Holly