This is a wonderful moving story that makes you believe this is the real story of Joan, and Katherine Chen has gone into such detail to imagine the realities and motivations that made Joan the remarkable woman that she was.

Totally convincing telling of the story of a girl who is formed through hardship and went on to achieve so much before being crushed by people without her own high ideals. You can't help but love the Joan that is described here, and to sympathize with her throughout her brutal story.

”There are no happy stories, just stories that make you feel grateful you weren’t born somewhere else.”


TW: rape, child abuse, suicide

SUMMARY
Katherine Chen narrates the life of Joan of Arc as she creatively sees fit. Joan is a bold, boisterous, fearless female with not much love in her life, with the exception of the sincere love of Joan’s sister, Catherine. This ends when the English raid their small French village of Domrémy and carnage occurs. Joan sets out on a quest of revenge and righteousness that feels guided by angels and condemned by men.

OPINION
An incredibly raw, feminist reimagining of the story of Joan of Arc. The writing is rich in description and utterly immersive. Chen is brutal in depictions of war. She somehow manages to simultaneously tug on heartstrings whilst readying reader fists for battle with her charismatic rendition of this heroine.

I enjoyed that Joan dealt with religion on her own terms, and that others in the story sought their own perception of Joan and spread that imagery. The journey I was taken on was nothing short of incredible. This book was a love letter to strong women everywhere who are expected to stroke the egos of men whilst saving the day.

This book actually surprised me in just how much I enjoyed it. I didn’t expect it to be so captivating and uplifting.

RECOMMENDATION
I recommend this book to those who enjoy feminist literature and historical fiction.

This isn't the first book that tries to tell Joan of Arc's story in a #feminist way, so I was a little sceptical at first. Feminist retellings can sometimes glorify historical characters, and I was hoping for a more nuanced picture. And the book did not disappoint in that regard! Well-researched and well-written.

An utterly gripping tale from the off. Katherine J Chen deconstructs the myth of St Joan and instead give us Joan the peasant daughter of an abusive father who despite her harsh upbringing is strong, kind and a born leader. Circumstances are thrust upon Joan which force her gifts of leadership and natural born strength to the fore. What follows is an engaging story of a woman rising to the upper echelons of France despite being neither high born or holy and her inevitable downfall at the hands of jealous and power hungry men.

I loved this as much as I hoped I would. Have read quite a lot about Joan of Arc so was really looking forward to this and I loved the fresh perspective this book offered.

A slow burn book and this won’t be for everyone but it really worked for me. The writing was wonderful and I enjoyed the development of the story. I feel the pacing really gave the reader a chance to watch Joan grow and build a relationship with her.

The book manages to portay a real sense of time and place from the struggles of the villagers in the small village of Domremy where Joan grew up, to the knights and people of the court and to the King.

The religious aspect of Joan is played down and in this and in many ways her character and her reactions to events and situations is almost modern. Again something else which made it easier to relate to her and root for her as the story moves along.

The author has done a great job of bringing Joan to life as a flesh and bones woman and not solely a saint/ warrior and I very much enjoyed seeing her portrayed as such. Feisty, determined but utterly fallible - a really wonderful, vivid reimagining of such a famous historical figure.

Fabulous debut from this author and I look forward to reading more.

Thanks to Net Galley and Hodder & Stoughton for the chance to read an early copy.

I’m really into historical fiction from female perspectives at the moment and this book is the perfect addition to the genre. It will be right at home next to the likes of The Wolf Den and Silence of the Girls. Joan was an incredibly engaging storyteller, making it impossible to put the book down for even a moment. Even the more mundane elements of her story were captivating and it makes it easy to believe that thousands of soldiers would follow her into battle, and the people of France would call her name in the streets. I could have happily read far more of her story and if we’re being honest, I don’t think I’ve ever admired a fictional character so much (albeit one based on a real person!).

Despite the power and fame Joan achieves, she isn’t corrupt. She fights for her country and for the people that need her help most. She’s a woman of the people. She’s clever and strong and talented, and it’s no wonder she’s such an inspiration. Watching her grow, and seeing how her childhood shaped her, gave the perfect insight into her character which couldn’t have been achieved if we’d met her later in life. I’d recommend this book for anyone who enjoys historical fiction and unputdownable books!

I have always been in awe of Joan of Arc since I was quite young. The story that a young peasant girl could lead an army and place the French Dauphin, later known as Charles VII, back on the throne instantly installed her as a hugely inspiring figure in my life.

This novel, as the author states in her notes, is a "reimagining" of the life of Joan. We begin in her early life seeing her as a child neglected by her father, yet incredibly resilient and independent. Right from the beginning, Joan's sense of conviction and what is right from wrong truly resonates from the pages and her character is a force to be reckoned with.

As the novel progresses, the writing is beautiful, vivid, lyrical even. However I did find the pacing rather slow which made it a bit harder for me to get into especially at the beginning.

In contrast to the Joan we know, in this retelling, she is a soldier first before anything else. Religion definitely takes a back seat. Joan strives to be seen more for her actions than her visions which gives it a uniquely modernist feel. I know this will be very popular with lots of readers and I found it interesting, however I did feel that with the subject matter and the historical nature, perhaps there could have been more consideration to religion. In the 1400s religion was often the very essence of a human being. This though is just my personal preference and as I stated previously, many will adore the modern approach to Joan's ideals.

What cannot be disputed is that this novel is a fresh perspective of a traditional and iconic story. For me, I would place it more in a "what-if" style of book rather than traditional historical fiction, but the author does state this as a "reimagining" which I think just goes to show that we can all have our own interpretations in the end.

Thank you to @hodderbooks and to @netgalley for allowing me access to read this fascinating novel.

Love historical fiction and loved this fierce, feminist re-telling of the Joan of Arc story. Thought it was interesting how it dealt with the holy woman element a little differently. It was a quick engrossing Kindle read too.

Girl. Warrior. Heretic. Saint?

France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. Yet out of the chaos, an unlikely heroine emerges.

Enter Joan!

This novel was riveting. I find sometimes that authors that write historical fiction can oversaturate with the details of their research, however that was not the case with this author. Not a single world was wasted.

Chen creates a stunning landscape for the readers to delve into. The character of Joan is wonderfully crafted, from the days of her youth to her final minutes the readers are travelling this journey with her. Each one of the characters stepped off the page and were brimming with personality.

This was a beautiful book that I would recommend to anyone.

I picked up this novel fully expecting to love it - a historical novel about Joan of Arc, in the vein of Wolf Hall? Sounds like it was written for me.

I was swept up by the fluid prose: while it's a little overly verbose at times, the narrative has an almost hynoptic quality which lends itself to the historical world of knights and battles. Chen writes with a real passion for her heroine, and Joan's childhood in Domrémy is vividly imagined.

But as Chen explains in her afterword, this Joan is an intensely personal one, and sadly, I found I couldn't relate. I couldn't help but feel that something important was lost in the modernisation of Joan's character - losing her sense of religion not only fundamentally changes her story, but the cultural psyches of her time (and I always find it a bit reductive when a 'strong' female character is portrayed as tough warrior, however sarky she may be). This Joan is completely out of context in the medieval world, and I found it difficult to reconcile this historical dissonance.

That said, while this wasn't the one for me, I can absolutely see why others loved this reimagining, and Joan is still a book I would recommend to others as a striking piece of historical fiction.

Joan by Katherine J. Chen

Modern Mythology

History is not always what it appears. Truths are told from one side of a battle or from one point of view. Historical fiction is my favourite genre for reading. I do not approach it with wanting to know what happened because I know that is not achievable. I am looking for an idea of what might have happened.
Joan of Arc is one of those historical figures that is a hero/ heroine of all free-thinking individuals.
We will never know the true story of her life.

The story told by Katherine J. Chen is exceptionally realistic. It is brilliantly imagined and brilliantly told.
It is not to my mind told form a feminist perspective, but told from a fair-minded perspective.
Katherine's Joan is even more of a hero to me now than was the Joan of Arc in my mind's eye.
You don't have to be pro-French to enjoy the story, but you do need to be open-minded.
I believe that Katherine's Joan should become the Modern Mythology of Joan of Arc.

I read the book in two sittings, just a little bit too long for me to finish in one. It definitely won't be the last time that I read this book, but first I will be searching around for other books and stories that she has written I have Mary B, and I will be reading that soon, and will be looking out for anything she writes in the future.

This is a gripping story, well researched, well told, totally believable.

What a brilliant job the author has done. First rate, Well done!

Thank you Katherine for a cracking good read, and the best of luck with your future offerings.

My thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy for honest review.

Thank you Hodder and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book before it's publication date.

"I am the battle cry, the JOAN"

wow, Katherine J Chen you have penned a beautiful book!

I have read lots of books about Joan of Arc and the 100 years war and while I've moved away from reading historical fiction of late it was such a pleasure to read this book and remember why I love the genre so much!

Chen has managed to give Joan of Arc flesh and bone, I loved the way her childhood story is told and how Joan ultimately comes full circle with the comparisons of her face in the closing chapters. The writing is rich, descriptive, beautiful I found myself utterly immersed. The book is well researched and true to any non fiction account that I have read.

This book puts Joan front and centre with all her uniqueness and strength, the true feminist icon that they are!

A truly wonderful read with a great premise and even better execution. Joan of Arc’s story is captured in a new and riveting way that adds depth and history to her life. We see her grow and develop into the renowned figure we all know. Strong and empowering, feminist novel. I highly recommend.

I'm absolutely loving this recent spate of feminist historical retellings! It's amazing to hear more about key women throughout history, and Joan was no exception. It was engaging throughout, and a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about her life or who just loves historical fiction ✨

I love historical fiction, and in particular from times centuries ago. I enjoy those reimaginings of how someone's life could have happened and to learn true facts in fiction form.

I was so ready to be fully invested in Joan and unfortunately it wasn't the case. I got to 15% and I decided to DNF. Is one of those books where is not the book, is just me. You can tell the author did good research. However, just the way is executed is not my cup of tea.

Katherine J Chen’s new book is a beautiful retelling of the story of Joan of Arc.

What I loved most about this reimagining of Joan’s short life is how Chen’s liberties add flesh to the famous ‘Joan of ‘Arc’ and the result is that she becomes deeply human. She is not just the courageous soldier and saint we read about in the history books. Instead, she’s imagined into this woman that, whilst still being brave and truly gifted, is also deeply feeling, smart, flawed, brazen and rash. A skilled warrior but also a force to be reckoned with off the battlefield. And, in Chen’s own words, written to have, ‘a complicated relationship with God and a mouth on her’. My kind of lady.

We won’t ever know the intimate details of what Joan was actually like, but the process of making her 3D, of imagining her humanity beyond her accomplishments and titles, I think only adds to her legacy.

One of my new favourites. It was a sumptuous read and I didn’t want it to end.

Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting view of a well known historical figure. I really enjoyed this book. I’ve read a lot of books about Joan of Arc and this was one of the best.

'I will tell you something that I have learned in my forty-eight years. Either a woman must be raised high, higher than the heads of men, or she will be crushed beneath their feet. So, we must raise you high.'

Rating: 3.5🌟

I won't lie, I really struggled with this book which is quite heartbreaking because I was so ready to get invested in it. I dont like to say bad things about a book, especially historical fiction, because of how much effort people put into writing them, but I was in a slump for about 95% of this. I was going to DNF after 30% then 50% but I persevered and I'm glad to say I really enjoyed the last 50 pages or so, the epilogue was particularly powerful.

We follow the infamous Joan of Arc from childhood to her capture, watching her rise from peasant to holy warrior. I personally don't know much about Joans story but Chen includes summaries of historical events every so often, which helped me understand the war and political context.

Joans childhood took up about half of the book which personally I found to be much too long to the point that after a while I felt like stuff was just being reiterated and I was like "when do we get to her warrior era?" I also had the same issue later on with speeches and internal monologues - everything said set the scene well but it just felt really long-winded

Despite these things, I absoloutely LOVED LOVED LOVED the direction that Chen took with Joan's character (her notes at the end of the book are a must read!) Rather than being portrayed as a religous woman who is visited by God, Chens Joan is a woman who uses religion as a means to create a seat for herself at the men's table. She doesn't have unshakeable faith in God and I would actually argue that she doesn't have any belief in the divine, but being projected as a holy woman was the only way she was able to be taken seriously as a soldier. Towards the end, when this holy woman persona is stripped, we see the maltreatment Joan receives simply for being a woman despite her achievements, and the double standards that exist. Joans character is physically and mentally strong, intelligent, strong willed, proud, honest and stubborn but caring, creating an amazing role model for women and girls today. I felt part of the admiration for her that the French people must have felt - particularly after the epilogue.
'I am the greatest warrior alive...I am the performer of miracles...what are you, other than a king?'
I felt such injustice over the mockery and disrespect aimed at her by the men around her, the book really highlights how women are not allowed to make mistakes (even if their male counterparts have made the same or more) and are discredited so easily, and also how we have to work twice as hard to be recognised. 'But for all your fancy dress, you are not one of us. You are a peasant. And you are a woman, which counts against you most of all.'

The last thing I'll say is that it wouldve been nice to see some references at the end of the book to see what sources the author used.

A Feminist Roar…
Deliciously sweeping reimagining of the life and times Joan of Arc. An unlikely heroine indeed. Steeped in history and richly described with characters that are so real that they leap from the page and a tale well developed and perfectly paced. An epic achievement and a feminist roar from deep within the books of history.

What an amazing book!
The book is super exciting and would love to read more from the author!

Thankyou netgalley for the ARC