Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Company of Liars

More of an invisible companion’s pov on a relocation than an adventure tale. Investing enough that I kept picking it up & finished it, but not engrossing enough to keep me from putting it down & walking away for a few days. (Good for a few-chapters-at-a-time-read vs a binge-it-all-read). The antagonist is overly clear but the character development of everyone other than that person is well done.

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snslayer's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was an interesting read but an absolutely brutal one. Very bleak so read with care, especially if you’re Jewish, queer, disabled, or a woman.

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miastr's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“The dancing orange flames cast huge grey shadows of us on to the wall of the cave, our every movement parodied in a grotesque form, like a mummers’ play performed for our mockery. Our shadows poured into one another, so that monsters appeared with two shaggy heads. Humpbacked dragons curled in sleep and mermaids flicked their sinuous tails. Shadows are such insubstantial things, yet they are bigger than any of us.”

TITLE—Company of Liars

AUTHOR—Karen Maitland

PUBLISHED—2008

GENRE—historical fiction/fantasy; folk horror; loose retelling

SETTING—medieval England, 1348 CE

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—storytelling & magic, hope & delusion, faith & lies, medieval worldbuilding, loose Canterbury Tales retelling, medieval England, the Black Death & pandemics, found family, wolves & werewolves, misfits & outcasts, xenophobia, a mix of Norse, Celtic & Christian metaphysics & mythology

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—I loved the MC and the narrative voice; also each character’s story was really good (except Zophiel’s lol but he sucks)

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️

EDITING—🤨 definitely some issues with a few things—especially continuity (i.e. characters participating in conversations after they’ve walked away from the group etc.)—that I feel like the editing team shouldddd have caught but 🤷🏻‍♀️

“Do you think words have the power to kill? Who knows where they go once they are spoken aloud; they drift off like seeds in the wind. ‘Speak no evil’, my nursemaid used to say, ‘for tiny demons lurk everywhere just waiting to catch your words and use them to tip their arrows with poison.’”

It’s been too long since I’ve read THE CANTERBURY TALES unfortunately so I can’t really talk about any connections between the classic and this loose retelling (though I intended to reread both books together later) but I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Part historical fiction, part folk horror, it is dark and gruesome and the medieval worldbuilding is really absorbing. I also thought the characters were really original for this type of historical fiction book (no monks! lol). I also thought the plot was compelling enough to keep me interested but slow enough to let me linger in the world and get to know the characters better.

Honestly my only real “criticism” (except for the big misses by the editing team 🤨) is that the character of Zophiel got *tiring* after a while and like while I “get it” like, I was ready for his character to just not talk anymore. 🤣 (Also I feel like his backstory didn’t even get close to justifying his character traits but whatever. 😂) I was also a *bit* underwhelmed by the ending but at the same time it was still pretty perfect, so.

I would recommend this book to readers who like medieval European historical fiction—you could do a lot worse than this book. If you don’t like medieval European historical fiction, you’ll probably want to skip this one. If you like gothic & folk horror stories that are a bit slow and tense, you might want to give this one a try.

Final thoughts: The gloomy, ghostly atmosphere was probably my favorite thing about this book after the MC’s narrative voice and the characters’ individual tales. I’d read this again. In fact I *will* read this again after I reread THE CANTERBURY TALES. This is also the kind of book where it seems like it would be fun to read again, knowing how it ends, and seeing all the clues everywhere…

“It was hard to adjust to, but the old laws and the old order were crumbling about our ears. There was a new king and his name was pestilence. And he had created a new law—thou shalt do anything to survive.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

TW // I mean it’s medieval England so there’s LOTS: some include graphic ableism, child abuse, animal cruelty & death, rape, misogyny, antisemitism, hanging, suicide, xenophobia, religious bigotry, incest (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

The Story of Silence, by Alex Myers
The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings, by Dan Jones
Lapvona, by Ottessa Moshfegh—TBR
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
Bernard Cornwell
Sharon Kay Penman

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ninaru's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I didn't really know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised - at least for the first 400 pages.

The 'Company' consists of nine very different characters with equally different and severe secrets. The author describes the characters and the setting in such a vivid - sometimes downright chilling - way that you feel as if you're a part of the group. ~~You really don't want to be but that's not the point.~~ With every chapter you learn something new about the secrets they're keeping and you start guessing what it could be. With some, you know quite quickly what it could be others are more surprising.

While it was page-turnerish it was just about 200 pages too long to be a 'quick' read. <s>~~Or maybe I just didn't take enough time off to continue reading...~~</s>

Unfortunately, I didn't like the ending. Mostly because I like the story to be finished and I want to know what happens to all the characters and not just the main one.

Overall, I really liked this book. It wasn't painfully predictable nor too 'twisty'. It had great morally grey characters and a clear storyline. Occasionally it was a bit gruesome and displayed some terrible mindsets of the middle ages - unfortunately, some still exist today. In other words, a few times I had to keep myself from throwing the book at a wall out of sheer frustration. So, maybe not for the faint-hearted or empathic.

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derigibleplums's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A solid audiobook for background noise while I was cooking. I actually really enjoyed this overall, it wasn't anything life-changing but I quite liked that, really well written though. Plus the twist at the end I actually wasn't expecting.

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beckyo's review against another edition

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88 pages in. I didn't enjoy the "wedding" scene, that really put me off. I wasn't interested enough in the characters or plot to continue after that. Not the historical fiction I was expecting.

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