What do you think?
Rate this book
Bog Queen
The story of an anthropologist's monumental discovery and the clash of civilizations it sets off over the fate of the land that holds us
When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she has ever seen: Although its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved.
Soon Agnes is drawn into a mystery from the distant past, called to understand and avenge the death of an Iron Age woman more like her than she knows. Along the way she must contend with peat-cutters who want to profit from the bog and activists who demand that the land be left undisturbed. Then there is the moss itself: a complex repository of artifacts and remains with its own dark stories to tell. As Agnes faces the deep history of what she has unearthed, she is also forced to question what she thought she knew about her talent, her self-reliance, and her place in the world.
Flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with contemporary urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects two young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a mysterious and complex landscape.
When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she has ever seen: Although its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved.
Soon Agnes is drawn into a mystery from the distant past, called to understand and avenge the death of an Iron Age woman more like her than she knows. Along the way she must contend with peat-cutters who want to profit from the bog and activists who demand that the land be left undisturbed. Then there is the moss itself: a complex repository of artifacts and remains with its own dark stories to tell. As Agnes faces the deep history of what she has unearthed, she is also forced to question what she thought she knew about her talent, her self-reliance, and her place in the world.
Flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with contemporary urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects two young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a mysterious and complex landscape.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 14, 2025
About the author
Anna North
16 books938 followersAnna North is a novelist and journalist. She is the author of the novels Bog Queen (October 2025), Outlawed (a New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick), The Life and Death of Sophie Stark, and America Pacifica. She has been a writer and editor at Jezebel, BuzzFeed, and the New York Times, and is now a senior correspondent at Vox.
Follow her on Bluesky or Instagram.
Follow her on Bluesky or Instagram.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,522 reviews
August 12, 2025
I love bogs, and bog bodies. I love history, and archaeology and anthropology where they concern ancient, difficult-to-know histories. I love women's stories, especially. I was so hopeful that I would love this book because it has all of these things, but I think, unfortunately, this book would have been much more fun if I didn't know anything about any of those topics.
Anna North gets quite a few things wrong, and her depiction of ancient Britain is heavily dependent on her own speculation and on the fact that she just made a bunch of stuff up. I thought the split perspective was interesting at first because it gave readers a chance to see a potential perspective for this fictional bog body, and I thought giving the moss its own POV chapters was also unique, but it all felt rather pointless and incredibly boring about halfway through. Not to mention how frustrating it was to read any of the "bog queen's" chapters and wonder, "Now why did North write THAT?"
This book was fine, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who actually knows anything about bogs and bog bodies, or to any anthropologists or anyone considering becoming an anthropologist, unless they're deliberately looking for a pretty bad depiction of anthropology. I would also never call this "historical fiction." If I could offer one piece of advice to the publishers, it would be this: change how you're marketing the book. Call it YA. Scrap the "historical fiction" genre tag. Then you're home free.
Anna North gets quite a few things wrong, and her depiction of ancient Britain is heavily dependent on her own speculation and on the fact that she just made a bunch of stuff up. I thought the split perspective was interesting at first because it gave readers a chance to see a potential perspective for this fictional bog body, and I thought giving the moss its own POV chapters was also unique, but it all felt rather pointless and incredibly boring about halfway through. Not to mention how frustrating it was to read any of the "bog queen's" chapters and wonder, "Now why did North write THAT?"
This book was fine, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who actually knows anything about bogs and bog bodies, or to any anthropologists or anyone considering becoming an anthropologist, unless they're deliberately looking for a pretty bad depiction of anthropology. I would also never call this "historical fiction." If I could offer one piece of advice to the publishers, it would be this: change how you're marketing the book. Call it YA. Scrap the "historical fiction" genre tag. Then you're home free.
![Profile Image for Teres [on hiatus].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1625114818i/39438556._UX200_CR0,53,200,200_.jpg)
November 21, 2025
Anna North's new novel Bog Queen is a far cry from the Wild West of Outlawed (2021).
A woman’s body is found buried in a peat bog near Ludlow, England, in 2018.
Agnes Linstrom, a young forensic specialist in bones and teeth, discovers that this remarkably well-preserved body is more than 2,000 years old, dating back to the dawn of the Roman Empire.
Bog Queen focuses on these two smart, ambitious women born two millennia apart — a Celtic druid and a forensic anthropologist.
Alternating chapters are dated by the cycles of the moon in 50 BCE, when Romans are encroaching on the Celtic territories, and 2018 when the druid's body is unearthed.
How did she die? How did she live?
Agnes wants to excavate the peat more fully to answer these questions, but is met with two opposing forces: environmental activists trying to preserve the bog and developers eager to harvest the carbon-rich moss and build luxury apartments on the site.
The setting here is very much a character. In fact, North devotes occasional chapters to the collective voice of a moss colony that inhabits the bog.
Switching between the women’s stories allows North to transform a 2000-year-old murder into a thrilling, minute-by-minute whodunnit.
She certainly kept this reader turning pages to find out whether Agnes solves the mystery of the bog woman, and also left me pondering the impact we have on one another and on our environment.
August 1, 2025
Budding forensic anthropologist Agnes is nearing the end of a research project in England. She’s weighing up her future options, reluctant to return home to America but not confident she can secure a permanent footing elsewhere. The discovery of an eerily well-preserved body, in a bog close to Ludlow in Shropshire, presents an unexpected opportunity. Agnes is called in to aid in its identification. At first it seems the body is that of a woman missing for decades who may or may not have been murdered. But Agnes rapidly challenges that assumption, believing the body to date much further back in time. As Agnes becomes part of a wider investigation into the body’s origins and cause of death, Anna North’s narrative moves backwards and forwards in time. She primarily alternates between a distanced representation of Agnes’s experiences and a more intimate first-person account by the long-dead woman who once inhabited this newly-uncovered body.
The woman buried in the bog was a druid priest during the later stages of the Iron Age - but well before Boudicca’s time. She travelled between nearby communities providing counsel and performing ceremonial rites. As North’s story unfolds, she parallels the druid’s and Agnes’s experiences. The women are both portrayed as socially awkward, isolated and grappling with difficult family dynamics. Neither find diplomacy and negotiation easy. Both are living through periods of change, confronted by forces beyond their control. The Iron Age woman is invited to meet with a ruler based in Camulodunon (present-day Colchester); a Briton allied with encroaching Roman interests. As a result of which she’s caught between warring tribes and competing ambitions – those who want nothing to do with the Romans and those who do. Agnes meanwhile is living in an England in the throes of Brexit. Agnes also comes into contact with opposing interest groups: environmentalists concerned with the destructive impact of digging on endangered land and companies seeking to profit from peat harvesting.
Into this mix, North inserts a third perspective, that of the sphagnum moss essential to the formation of the wetlands which provide a unique habitat for a diverse range of species. The moss operates as a collective chorus, a networked organism that’s witnessed centuries of human activity, including those that threaten its continued existence. Its gnomic, lyrical pronouncements reminded me of Seamus Heaney’s memorable poem Bog Queen – which may well be an inspiration. Here it highlights historical continuities as well as issues around conservation, climate change and devastating corporate practices – the urgent need to ban the use of peat, to preserve and restore wetlands have been significant talking points in the UK in recent years. Like her earlier work, North’s intent on disrupting genre boundaries mixing the oral/poetic and eco-fictional with traditional historical fiction wrapped up with a play on the conventional murder mystery. All of which combines to form a broader cultural and political critique.
North is a skilled, fluid storyteller. I liked her careful reworking of events surrounding the discovery of Europe’s bog people. Her plot intersects with aspects of the real-life unearthing of Cheshire’s so-called Lindow Man which became entangled with an inquiry into the disappearance of Malika de Fernandez – prompting a spontaneous confession by her killer. But I wasn’t entirely taken with Agnes’s character, she fell a bit flat for me, her backstory didn’t mesh well with her forensic investigations. There was a tendency to fall back on stereotypes at times – why are environmental activists so often portrayed as inherently belligerent and spiky? I found the druid’s sections far more compelling and atmospheric – although I wish the timeline and historical context had been a bit less hazy. North raises some fascinating ideas around our duty towards the past, historical research versus the ethics of disturbing the dead. She also gestures towards intriguing tensions between archaeology and conservationists - which I’d liked to have seen explored in more detail. I was also uncertain about elements of the connections being traced between the Iron Age woman and Agnes’s circumstances. Opposition to the Iron Age woman’s support for closer links to Rome was suggestive of Brexit and resistance to sustaining ties to Europe. If that connection was intentional then North’s arguments seem a bit muddled - there’s a not-insignificant asymmetry between modern-day ties to Europe and an Iron Age in which Rome was essentially a colonising, imperial force. But, although this wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, I still enjoyed it, it was immersive, innovative, often entertaining, frequently informative.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Weidenfeld and Nicholson for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
The woman buried in the bog was a druid priest during the later stages of the Iron Age - but well before Boudicca’s time. She travelled between nearby communities providing counsel and performing ceremonial rites. As North’s story unfolds, she parallels the druid’s and Agnes’s experiences. The women are both portrayed as socially awkward, isolated and grappling with difficult family dynamics. Neither find diplomacy and negotiation easy. Both are living through periods of change, confronted by forces beyond their control. The Iron Age woman is invited to meet with a ruler based in Camulodunon (present-day Colchester); a Briton allied with encroaching Roman interests. As a result of which she’s caught between warring tribes and competing ambitions – those who want nothing to do with the Romans and those who do. Agnes meanwhile is living in an England in the throes of Brexit. Agnes also comes into contact with opposing interest groups: environmentalists concerned with the destructive impact of digging on endangered land and companies seeking to profit from peat harvesting.
Into this mix, North inserts a third perspective, that of the sphagnum moss essential to the formation of the wetlands which provide a unique habitat for a diverse range of species. The moss operates as a collective chorus, a networked organism that’s witnessed centuries of human activity, including those that threaten its continued existence. Its gnomic, lyrical pronouncements reminded me of Seamus Heaney’s memorable poem Bog Queen – which may well be an inspiration. Here it highlights historical continuities as well as issues around conservation, climate change and devastating corporate practices – the urgent need to ban the use of peat, to preserve and restore wetlands have been significant talking points in the UK in recent years. Like her earlier work, North’s intent on disrupting genre boundaries mixing the oral/poetic and eco-fictional with traditional historical fiction wrapped up with a play on the conventional murder mystery. All of which combines to form a broader cultural and political critique.
North is a skilled, fluid storyteller. I liked her careful reworking of events surrounding the discovery of Europe’s bog people. Her plot intersects with aspects of the real-life unearthing of Cheshire’s so-called Lindow Man which became entangled with an inquiry into the disappearance of Malika de Fernandez – prompting a spontaneous confession by her killer. But I wasn’t entirely taken with Agnes’s character, she fell a bit flat for me, her backstory didn’t mesh well with her forensic investigations. There was a tendency to fall back on stereotypes at times – why are environmental activists so often portrayed as inherently belligerent and spiky? I found the druid’s sections far more compelling and atmospheric – although I wish the timeline and historical context had been a bit less hazy. North raises some fascinating ideas around our duty towards the past, historical research versus the ethics of disturbing the dead. She also gestures towards intriguing tensions between archaeology and conservationists - which I’d liked to have seen explored in more detail. I was also uncertain about elements of the connections being traced between the Iron Age woman and Agnes’s circumstances. Opposition to the Iron Age woman’s support for closer links to Rome was suggestive of Brexit and resistance to sustaining ties to Europe. If that connection was intentional then North’s arguments seem a bit muddled - there’s a not-insignificant asymmetry between modern-day ties to Europe and an Iron Age in which Rome was essentially a colonising, imperial force. But, although this wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, I still enjoyed it, it was immersive, innovative, often entertaining, frequently informative.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Weidenfeld and Nicholson for an ARC
Rating: 3/3.5
June 20, 2026
Effective, seamless, connecting of two timelines, now and thousands of years ago. Two POVs, humane and human, touching over the centuries. A mesmerising story, coursing through time. Agnes, a somewhat assured, yet self-doubting young scientist and the Druid of Bereda, ancient and proud leader. There are vivid, cold, horrific descriptive passages of death and decay. And beautiful descriptions of life and growth. The writer has a deft hand at characterisation and spare, direct dialogue. A missing woman from modern times and a found woman of an ancient period, mixed in with a forensic anthropological mystery as well. A fascinating trek through two worlds. I found the book nestling my heart. My eyes swept the words, my fingers caressed the pages. Could I get enough? The history, the science, the studies, the relationships, the war, oh, to have it just continue!
November 5, 2025
I liked but did not love this novel, mostly because I think it failed to lived up to its premise and for a scattered few other reasons detailed below.
The story is told through three voices: 1) an American forensic anthropologist, Agnes, doing her post-doc in northern England in 2018; 2) a young Celtic woman, a Druid, from the same small town in northern England circa 50 BCE; 3) the sphagnum moss bog -- a kind of Greek chorus -- in which the Druid's body is found, which Agnes is called upon to investigate, and where there is a fight between a peat excavating company that has pretty much destroyed the bog and environmentalists who wish to protect it.
I liked these three voices -- the bog's was a particular risk, but I think a successful one -- and I liked the way the novel gradually unearthed (forgive me, puns seem to be lurking in every crevasse) information about the Druid's life through re-imagining it. I liked the links between the Druid's character and Agnes's, and between the broader themes (environmental degradation; societal change) in pre-Christian England and post-Brexit England.
There are some moments of really lovely writing, especially when North is digging into character motivations and self-reflections.
There's another body in the bog, which provides the novel with a parallel mystery to be solved / conflict to be worked through, and another set of characters who mix and match between all of these narrative streams in the 2018 timeline. I question whether this sub-plot was necessary. It stretches the contemporary timeline a bit thin leaving not a lot of focus on what is most interesting.
I think this novel is both not long enough and not well-researched enough -- the two being related -- or at least the research didn't end up on the page to provide enough world-building. This is particularly troublesome in the Druid's timeline. We needed to spend much more time with her, especially in the southern Roman town of Camulodunum, what is now Colchester in Essex. My quick search to get the spelling right just showed me how much North decided to leave out -- or rather, how much more flesh could have been put on the bare bones she chose to show us.
I imagined this part of the story, throughout, along the lines of Nicola Griffith's Hild -- it's roughly the same setting although about 600 years earlier -- and it fell short. I realize this is super unfair but there you have it.
All this to say Bog Queen needed more attention to detail, and more detail, more depth to be immersive and fully convincing. The Druid and her timeline were really interesting, but given short shrift. Agnes was a compelling character, socially awkward and an obvious child prodigy, but we didn't really get enough of her back story for the details to gel and link up with the broader narrative. (Unfortunately, we got a lot of superficial hints that were never followed up on -- which only made the absence of back story more apparent).
As one example, and one that really disappointed me, Ruby -- the daughter of an academic working with Agnes to untangle the mystery of who the bog body was and how she died -- was pivotal to the plot, and important to Agnes as a mirror of her own childhood and her character development. She wasn't featured prominently enough or woven more coherently into the narrative. Where she did appear, these scenes seemed almost random and unfinished.
There was both too much going on and not enough structure to hold it -- and it was all resolved too quickly and too neatly.
I really wish North had taken more time to develop this, with perhaps some better editorial guidance.
There is so much good here that could have been truly great.
I'm glad I read (listened) to it -- and Lily Newmark, the narrator, was up to the task of conveying the many voices and characters.
The story is told through three voices: 1) an American forensic anthropologist, Agnes, doing her post-doc in northern England in 2018; 2) a young Celtic woman, a Druid, from the same small town in northern England circa 50 BCE; 3) the sphagnum moss bog -- a kind of Greek chorus -- in which the Druid's body is found, which Agnes is called upon to investigate, and where there is a fight between a peat excavating company that has pretty much destroyed the bog and environmentalists who wish to protect it.
I liked these three voices -- the bog's was a particular risk, but I think a successful one -- and I liked the way the novel gradually unearthed (forgive me, puns seem to be lurking in every crevasse) information about the Druid's life through re-imagining it. I liked the links between the Druid's character and Agnes's, and between the broader themes (environmental degradation; societal change) in pre-Christian England and post-Brexit England.
There are some moments of really lovely writing, especially when North is digging into character motivations and self-reflections.
There's another body in the bog, which provides the novel with a parallel mystery to be solved / conflict to be worked through, and another set of characters who mix and match between all of these narrative streams in the 2018 timeline. I question whether this sub-plot was necessary. It stretches the contemporary timeline a bit thin leaving not a lot of focus on what is most interesting.
I think this novel is both not long enough and not well-researched enough -- the two being related -- or at least the research didn't end up on the page to provide enough world-building. This is particularly troublesome in the Druid's timeline. We needed to spend much more time with her, especially in the southern Roman town of Camulodunum, what is now Colchester in Essex. My quick search to get the spelling right just showed me how much North decided to leave out -- or rather, how much more flesh could have been put on the bare bones she chose to show us.
I imagined this part of the story, throughout, along the lines of Nicola Griffith's Hild -- it's roughly the same setting although about 600 years earlier -- and it fell short. I realize this is super unfair but there you have it.
All this to say Bog Queen needed more attention to detail, and more detail, more depth to be immersive and fully convincing. The Druid and her timeline were really interesting, but given short shrift. Agnes was a compelling character, socially awkward and an obvious child prodigy, but we didn't really get enough of her back story for the details to gel and link up with the broader narrative. (Unfortunately, we got a lot of superficial hints that were never followed up on -- which only made the absence of back story more apparent).
As one example, and one that really disappointed me, Ruby -- the daughter of an academic working with Agnes to untangle the mystery of who the bog body was and how she died -- was pivotal to the plot, and important to Agnes as a mirror of her own childhood and her character development. She wasn't featured prominently enough or woven more coherently into the narrative. Where she did appear, these scenes seemed almost random and unfinished.
There was both too much going on and not enough structure to hold it -- and it was all resolved too quickly and too neatly.
I really wish North had taken more time to develop this, with perhaps some better editorial guidance.
There is so much good here that could have been truly great.
I'm glad I read (listened) to it -- and Lily Newmark, the narrator, was up to the task of conveying the many voices and characters.
August 5, 2025
Audiobook review coming soon! Thank you, Libro FM for the ALC
Title/Author: Bog Queen by Anna North
Format Read: ALC from Libro FM
Pub date: October 14th, 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page Count: 288
Affiliate Link: Format Read: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978163557...
Recommended for readers who enjoy:
- Bog bodies- a naturally preserved human corpse found in a peat bog, often dating back thousands of years.
- Historical fiction- post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era
- Dual timelines
- light romance
- Science/Environmental
__
Minor complaints:
- This wasn't exactly what I was expecting/anticipating-I thought maybe there would be more mystery/suspense
- I was entertained but it was pretty slow
- I felt like I needed more from the main character
Final recommendation: Thank you, Libro FM for the advanced listening copy. I think I might have enjoyed and ultimately finished this book because I listened to the audiobook. I might have had a harder time staying invested if I was reading the physical book. I thought the beginning was stronger than the rest of the book--really engaging set-up. I liked the historical narrative more than the present-day one with Agnes.
I thought the POV from the peat moss was so clever--I found myself anticipating those interludes. I'm kind of a junky for bog body stories but most of the ones I have read were horror or dark & disturbing so this one left me wanting more from the mystery--some intricately plotted twists or turns--maybe something sinister? But it fell just shy of that expectation. Readers who love historical fiction and forensic science should be pleased with this one, it's well written, it just wasn't quite what I was looking for
Comps: Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths, Mere by Danielle Giles
Title/Author: Bog Queen by Anna North
Format Read: ALC from Libro FM
Pub date: October 14th, 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page Count: 288
Affiliate Link: Format Read: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/978163557...
Recommended for readers who enjoy:
- Bog bodies- a naturally preserved human corpse found in a peat bog, often dating back thousands of years.
- Historical fiction- post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era
- Dual timelines
- light romance
- Science/Environmental
__
Minor complaints:
- This wasn't exactly what I was expecting/anticipating-I thought maybe there would be more mystery/suspense
- I was entertained but it was pretty slow
- I felt like I needed more from the main character
Final recommendation: Thank you, Libro FM for the advanced listening copy. I think I might have enjoyed and ultimately finished this book because I listened to the audiobook. I might have had a harder time staying invested if I was reading the physical book. I thought the beginning was stronger than the rest of the book--really engaging set-up. I liked the historical narrative more than the present-day one with Agnes.
I thought the POV from the peat moss was so clever--I found myself anticipating those interludes. I'm kind of a junky for bog body stories but most of the ones I have read were horror or dark & disturbing so this one left me wanting more from the mystery--some intricately plotted twists or turns--maybe something sinister? But it fell just shy of that expectation. Readers who love historical fiction and forensic science should be pleased with this one, it's well written, it just wasn't quite what I was looking for
Comps: Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths, Mere by Danielle Giles
June 23, 2025
BOG QUEEN is a delicately wrought, quietly moving story of progress and preservation—cultural, historical, and ecological. The narrative weaves past and present in a rich tapestry that depicts two intelligent women trying to see across time, one forward and one backward.
Agnes is a forensic anthropologist called to help with evaluating a body recovered from the bog. At first, it’s assumed to be the body of a woman who went missing fifty years ago, but Agnes realizes the woman is far older: her body has been mummified by the moss and peat all this time. Agnes’s story is interwoven with the story of a young druid, trying to lead her people through a period of change brought on by the arrival of the Romans to what is now the northern part of England. And it’s interspersed with the perspective of the moss colony itself, which has endured so many centuries of ecological change.
It’s a story that combines mystery, history, and a thoughtful meditation on how we value the world and its constituent stories, so many lost inevitably to time. I really enjoyed this. Thank you to the publisher for a free ARC through NetGalley.
Agnes is a forensic anthropologist called to help with evaluating a body recovered from the bog. At first, it’s assumed to be the body of a woman who went missing fifty years ago, but Agnes realizes the woman is far older: her body has been mummified by the moss and peat all this time. Agnes’s story is interwoven with the story of a young druid, trying to lead her people through a period of change brought on by the arrival of the Romans to what is now the northern part of England. And it’s interspersed with the perspective of the moss colony itself, which has endured so many centuries of ecological change.
It’s a story that combines mystery, history, and a thoughtful meditation on how we value the world and its constituent stories, so many lost inevitably to time. I really enjoyed this. Thank you to the publisher for a free ARC through NetGalley.
October 24, 2025
bury me in the bog please
February 7, 2026
I’m a writer and sometimes it means sitting down and tap tap tapping out a scene and you have no idea where it’s going or maybe even why this character has popped up from somewhere, who knows where, and you just keep going, to see if anything good happens, and usually it doesn’t, but even so you’re left with this strange, dream-like fragment of a scene that compels you to keep at it, to keep writing forward, until the day comes when you understand how that scene fits, and you begin to weave it tight into the novel’s story, OR the day comes when you think: “this scene has no purpose,” and away it goes, poof.
What does this have to do with BOG QUEEN? I’ll tell you. To me, every scene in the book still feels like one of those day-dreamy scenes that are a necessary part of writing a novel, but that need to be either tossed in the end, or alternatively, revised so completely that the original scene you wrote is woven seamlessly into the rest, and becomes part of the tapestry. In the case of this novel, the tossing and the weaving never happened.
I loved this reading experience, though. Seriously. Even if it feels like a first draft I felt such a rush of less-loneliness to see, committed to the page, all the wandering what-ifs and the dangling character arcs that typically are hidden away when a book is published.
Ok. I hope this doesn’t sound too mean. An enjoyable read for very strange reasons.
What does this have to do with BOG QUEEN? I’ll tell you. To me, every scene in the book still feels like one of those day-dreamy scenes that are a necessary part of writing a novel, but that need to be either tossed in the end, or alternatively, revised so completely that the original scene you wrote is woven seamlessly into the rest, and becomes part of the tapestry. In the case of this novel, the tossing and the weaving never happened.
I loved this reading experience, though. Seriously. Even if it feels like a first draft I felt such a rush of less-loneliness to see, committed to the page, all the wandering what-ifs and the dangling character arcs that typically are hidden away when a book is published.
Ok. I hope this doesn’t sound too mean. An enjoyable read for very strange reasons.
July 19, 2026
3.5 ⭐️ There were elements that I truly enjoyed but much of it felt unfinished. The rough draft feeling wasn’t helped by the ending. It arrived suddenly without tying up the books themes. I particularly liked the POV sections that were modern. I’m curious if anyone who’s neurodivergent has strong opinions about the characters portrayal. She had me rooting for her from the get go!
As others have pointed out the historical accuracy isn’t great but it was never portrayed as that type of historical fiction. I wasn’t bothered by it after all the story is fiction!
As others have pointed out the historical accuracy isn’t great but it was never portrayed as that type of historical fiction. I wasn’t bothered by it after all the story is fiction!
November 10, 2025
I loved this book from the first page.
It opens from the POV of the bog, which set the tone for Anna North's dual timelines and her two female protagonists who a struggling to carve a place in the world.
Agnes, a forensic anthropologist, was a sensitive, flawed, and brilliant character. The respect and tenderness she shows the dead moved me, as did her struggles with her personal relationships. When she is called in to help identify the cause of death of the Bog Queen, a Bronze Age woman, she encounters more than a mystery when she is thrown in the middle of a fight between developers and environmentalists.
The dead woman is a Celtic druid who is also caught between opposing sides. She must choose between her people's long-standing traditions or stride boldly into the future by forming an alliance with the Romans occupying Briton.
The genre-blending is so well done in this novel. It's part-mystery, part climate fiction, part historical fiction and it all works. I loved the exploration of women's roles, neurodivergence, environmental conversation, and how artifacts can reach across time to influence the present. Highly recommend.
It opens from the POV of the bog, which set the tone for Anna North's dual timelines and her two female protagonists who a struggling to carve a place in the world.
Agnes, a forensic anthropologist, was a sensitive, flawed, and brilliant character. The respect and tenderness she shows the dead moved me, as did her struggles with her personal relationships. When she is called in to help identify the cause of death of the Bog Queen, a Bronze Age woman, she encounters more than a mystery when she is thrown in the middle of a fight between developers and environmentalists.
The dead woman is a Celtic druid who is also caught between opposing sides. She must choose between her people's long-standing traditions or stride boldly into the future by forming an alliance with the Romans occupying Briton.
The genre-blending is so well done in this novel. It's part-mystery, part climate fiction, part historical fiction and it all works. I loved the exploration of women's roles, neurodivergence, environmental conversation, and how artifacts can reach across time to influence the present. Highly recommend.
November 3, 2025
Wayyyy too many ideas stuff in here for such a brief book. Three loosely connected novellas in a trenchcoat that never gives you a chance to truly settle with any one in particular. The bog sections were interesting, but otherwise it felt like reading two not-very-interesting short stories in VERY different genres.
June 9, 2025
“A colony of moss does not experience emotions like fondness or intimacy, but if it did, it might say this: We held her. We kept her safe under the surface, in our bath of earth, for many times her lifespan. That we give her up now may seem to be purely random, an accident of excavation. In fact, the hour of her service is at hand.”
📚
After a bog body is unearthed in northwest England, American forensic anthropologist Agnes is called in to investigate. Unlike any body she’s examined before, this one is almost entirely preserved, and the bones indicate it was buried during the Iron Age, more than two thousand years ago. What was the woman’s story, how did she die, and how did she come to be entombed beneath the peat?
To solve this ancient mystery, Agnes must excavate the bog and exhume whatever artifacts remain. The stakes are sky-high, as standing in her way are destructive, corporate peat-cutters and a group of preservationist activists. Can Agnes find her place in the world, prove her talent and self-reliance, and bring to light the land’s dark stories before it’s too late?
Moving between timelines and points of view, Bog Queen is a beautiful and devastating tale that gradually unfurls primeval secrets and ageless struggles through the past (a European Celtic druidic order at the start of the Roman era), the present (England in April–May 2018), and the unique, timeless vantage point of a moss colony. The narrative imparts an omnipresent sense of urgency, juxtaposing the heartless essence of capitalist destruction, the desperate fight of preservationism, the enduring perils of politics, and the all-seeing wisdom of nature. These elements seamlessly combine to form a storyline pulsing with weight and realism, imparted via two women attempting to navigate their lives and utilize their skills in fraught and mysterious environments.
Gorgeous writing, concise chapters, and a cast of vulnerable, believable characters make for an arresting and binge-worthy account that transcends time. The gravity of each woman’s challenges feels relatable and universal. How does one balance personal struggle and aspiration amid larger issues — warring civilizations, clashing communities, dying planets — and can a contemporary society truly understand or avenge a woman who lived so long ago?
Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for sharing a physical ARC of this incredible forthcoming novel (won via Goodreads giveaway), which releases on October 14, 2025. It’s a quietly powerful, deeply resonant reading experience that utterly enraptured this reader.
📚
After a bog body is unearthed in northwest England, American forensic anthropologist Agnes is called in to investigate. Unlike any body she’s examined before, this one is almost entirely preserved, and the bones indicate it was buried during the Iron Age, more than two thousand years ago. What was the woman’s story, how did she die, and how did she come to be entombed beneath the peat?
To solve this ancient mystery, Agnes must excavate the bog and exhume whatever artifacts remain. The stakes are sky-high, as standing in her way are destructive, corporate peat-cutters and a group of preservationist activists. Can Agnes find her place in the world, prove her talent and self-reliance, and bring to light the land’s dark stories before it’s too late?
Moving between timelines and points of view, Bog Queen is a beautiful and devastating tale that gradually unfurls primeval secrets and ageless struggles through the past (a European Celtic druidic order at the start of the Roman era), the present (England in April–May 2018), and the unique, timeless vantage point of a moss colony. The narrative imparts an omnipresent sense of urgency, juxtaposing the heartless essence of capitalist destruction, the desperate fight of preservationism, the enduring perils of politics, and the all-seeing wisdom of nature. These elements seamlessly combine to form a storyline pulsing with weight and realism, imparted via two women attempting to navigate their lives and utilize their skills in fraught and mysterious environments.
Gorgeous writing, concise chapters, and a cast of vulnerable, believable characters make for an arresting and binge-worthy account that transcends time. The gravity of each woman’s challenges feels relatable and universal. How does one balance personal struggle and aspiration amid larger issues — warring civilizations, clashing communities, dying planets — and can a contemporary society truly understand or avenge a woman who lived so long ago?
Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for sharing a physical ARC of this incredible forthcoming novel (won via Goodreads giveaway), which releases on October 14, 2025. It’s a quietly powerful, deeply resonant reading experience that utterly enraptured this reader.
August 12, 2025
I look forward to putting this in readers' hands who love complex dual narratives with insight from thoughtful-provoking strong young women. One in the distant historical era --1st century northwestern England. Another very recent is introverted, sensitive, insightful, and determined to maintain her independence and seek the truth. Oh, and the omniscient moss may reveal many secrets from the depths.
This intricate and engaging place-based thriller offers three female perspectives -- revealing to readers the inner-thoughts of a contemporary newly trained forensic anthropologist, a young druid healer from centuries past, and a voice from the wild peat moss bog.
If you love reading literary fiction with multiple perspectives from different time periods and character-driven stories as in There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, you'll want to pick this up!
Thanks to Anna North, her publisher, and Libro.fm for early access to the digital audio for review!
notes:
mystery in both timelines
historical thriller -- sibling rivalry and Roman warlord conflict
coming of age
magical realism in getting to hear from the moss
character-centered
nature, eco-themes, herbal healing druid, spiritual leader
place-based northwest England
Celtic Europe
Roman era
dual timelines
fast-paced
This intricate and engaging place-based thriller offers three female perspectives -- revealing to readers the inner-thoughts of a contemporary newly trained forensic anthropologist, a young druid healer from centuries past, and a voice from the wild peat moss bog.
If you love reading literary fiction with multiple perspectives from different time periods and character-driven stories as in There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, you'll want to pick this up!
Thanks to Anna North, her publisher, and Libro.fm for early access to the digital audio for review!
notes:
mystery in both timelines
historical thriller -- sibling rivalry and Roman warlord conflict
coming of age
magical realism in getting to hear from the moss
character-centered
nature, eco-themes, herbal healing druid, spiritual leader
place-based northwest England
Celtic Europe
Roman era
dual timelines
fast-paced
they-told-me-to-read-it
August 3, 2025
August 12, 2025
I’ve read a few bog woman books within the last few years that were either horror or horror adjacent. By the time I started listening to Bog Queen, I’d either forgotten the synopsis, or else I hadn’t really read it at all, as I fully expected a creepy story here. Instead, it was a beautiful tale of two women who pushed the boundaries of societal expectations, centuries apart from each other.
Had I entered into this with proper expectations, I may have enjoyed it more. It wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but Anna North‘s lush prose sang to my poet heart. I also found all of the forensic anthropology details deeply fascinating, so much so that I’m ready to go back to school to earn a degree in that field. (My desire to go back to school for whatever fixation I’m currently stuck on is one that surfaces frequently, so don‘t get your heart set on me following through with this, haha.)
3.5 stars
I am immensely grateful to Libro.fm and Bloomsbury Publishing for my copy. All opinions are my own.
Had I entered into this with proper expectations, I may have enjoyed it more. It wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but Anna North‘s lush prose sang to my poet heart. I also found all of the forensic anthropology details deeply fascinating, so much so that I’m ready to go back to school to earn a degree in that field. (My desire to go back to school for whatever fixation I’m currently stuck on is one that surfaces frequently, so don‘t get your heart set on me following through with this, haha.)
3.5 stars
I am immensely grateful to Libro.fm and Bloomsbury Publishing for my copy. All opinions are my own.
January 23, 2026
How do you make such a great concept so boring?
September 12, 2025
Bog Queen is a two timeline novel. One timeline focuses on Agnes, a forensic anthropologist still early in her career, still figuring things out. She's been called in to give her opinion on a set of female remains that may be a woman murdered by her husband several decades ago. Agnes quickly realizes that that the remains in question are actually a bog body.
The second timeline is the story of the woman whose remains have been discovered. She's a "druid," which in this context means a healer of some sort with responsibilities to her community. She's traveling to a meeting with a king who is likely untrustworthy, but whose invitation can't be ignored.
There's a third element in the novel—the site where the bog body has been found is slated to be used for a high-end housing development and, as a result, is the site of an occupation by eco-activists. These activists are refusing to leave the site making further archaeological/anthropological investigation impossible.
That's a good bit of summary, but I'm including all of it because the potential for interesting complexities seemed inviting when I first came across this novel. Contemporary politics, forensic anthropology, a bog body—to me that sounded like a can't-miss.
I found that that can't-miss potential wasn't really fulfilled. Agnes is somewhat vague as a character; the druid narrative reads rather like fantasy; the politicking sets up familiar tensions between issues of profit and natural preservation, but doesn't offer surprises.
If the elements of the novel appeal to you, it is worth checking out. the novel's elements that struck me as near misses could well be right on target for another reader.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
The second timeline is the story of the woman whose remains have been discovered. She's a "druid," which in this context means a healer of some sort with responsibilities to her community. She's traveling to a meeting with a king who is likely untrustworthy, but whose invitation can't be ignored.
There's a third element in the novel—the site where the bog body has been found is slated to be used for a high-end housing development and, as a result, is the site of an occupation by eco-activists. These activists are refusing to leave the site making further archaeological/anthropological investigation impossible.
That's a good bit of summary, but I'm including all of it because the potential for interesting complexities seemed inviting when I first came across this novel. Contemporary politics, forensic anthropology, a bog body—to me that sounded like a can't-miss.
I found that that can't-miss potential wasn't really fulfilled. Agnes is somewhat vague as a character; the druid narrative reads rather like fantasy; the politicking sets up familiar tensions between issues of profit and natural preservation, but doesn't offer surprises.
If the elements of the novel appeal to you, it is worth checking out. the novel's elements that struck me as near misses could well be right on target for another reader.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
January 3, 2026
I wish I would've enjoyed Bog Queen more. I certainly appreciated its themes, but it just didn't resonate with me the way I'd hoped.
This is the story of two women separated by more than two thousand years: Agnes, a forensic anthropologist who is called to investigate a body found in a bog in Northwest England; and an unnamed druid who lived in Celtic Europe during the Iron Age, in the early years of the Roman occupation. Although the women's circumstances and experiences are vastly different, their narratives are linked by what they have in common: respect for nature and the natural order of things, a willingness to push boundaries, a refusal to conform to societal norms.
These characters are thoughtfully-crafted, and it was particularly refreshing to read about a neurodivergent character like Agnes and experience her growth arc. Anna North's writing is vivid and lush, with a clear reverence for the natural world, and the dual timeline structure works well for this quiet, literary story. I appreciated all the research that went into this novel, and I found the forensic anthropology aspects fascinating.
Technically all the ingredients are there, but yet, Bog Queen was missing something for me. I didn't feel invested in either timeline and actually found them both tedious at certain points - I really struggled to keep all of the characters straight. There's not much tension in either of the women's narratives, even though there should be given the circumstances; the words are all there, but there's not much force behind them. I felt like North kept me at arm's length for the entire book and never really explored the rich, emotional heart of this story in a meaningful way.
My favorite parts were the sections narrated by the peat moss. That choice could've gone so wrong, but it really worked here, and I looked forward to those chapters and wanted more of them.
This is the story of two women separated by more than two thousand years: Agnes, a forensic anthropologist who is called to investigate a body found in a bog in Northwest England; and an unnamed druid who lived in Celtic Europe during the Iron Age, in the early years of the Roman occupation. Although the women's circumstances and experiences are vastly different, their narratives are linked by what they have in common: respect for nature and the natural order of things, a willingness to push boundaries, a refusal to conform to societal norms.
These characters are thoughtfully-crafted, and it was particularly refreshing to read about a neurodivergent character like Agnes and experience her growth arc. Anna North's writing is vivid and lush, with a clear reverence for the natural world, and the dual timeline structure works well for this quiet, literary story. I appreciated all the research that went into this novel, and I found the forensic anthropology aspects fascinating.
Technically all the ingredients are there, but yet, Bog Queen was missing something for me. I didn't feel invested in either timeline and actually found them both tedious at certain points - I really struggled to keep all of the characters straight. There's not much tension in either of the women's narratives, even though there should be given the circumstances; the words are all there, but there's not much force behind them. I felt like North kept me at arm's length for the entire book and never really explored the rich, emotional heart of this story in a meaningful way.
My favorite parts were the sections narrated by the peat moss. That choice could've gone so wrong, but it really worked here, and I looked forward to those chapters and wanted more of them.
March 1, 2026
3.5 stars — firmly in the middle. I want to say it rounds up, but a few weeks after reading it, I can neither remember the finer details nor remember my feelings on it.
December 5, 2025
2.5? After briefly going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on bog bodies, I was excited to read this. Unfortunately, it was pretty meh for me.
December 7, 2025
I can’t take any historical fiction seriously where a character from 50 CE uses the words “stupid idiot”
October 23, 2025
Forensic anthropologist + druids + a mysterious body found in a bog. If any of that intrigues you at all, stop reading this and get yourself a copy of this book!
Very quickly:
--I rarely like historical novels told in parallel timelines, but it was skillfully and purposefully done here. I loved the writing as well.
--I liked the characters and relationships, though I think delving even deeper into the two women would have made this even richer.
--I enjoyed the choice to narrate some sections from the sorghum moss' point of view. This type of device can go so horribly wrong, but because they are short, humorous, and offer unique insights, they work in the context of this story.
Most of all, however, I loved how Agnes approaches her job and the responsibility she bears towards her unknown bog queen. There is a solemn respect and care that I feel an affinity for (it reminds me of Cassie Raven's tenderness for her mortuary guests in Body Language), in a weird way; one of the reasons I went to the National Museum of Scotland a couple of years ago was to see the peat bog mummies. It was incredible to see them in person and take a moment to imagine these figures, transformed by time and natural elements into something both unfamiliar and recognizable, as living beings. I still haven't absorbed the enormous privilege of seeing preserved human remains that were thousands of years old.
It also moved me unbearably towards the end of the iron age woman's story when I realized what was going on and what had happened to her. I didn't expect it, and the very restraint with which it was written and the lack of definitive explanation for the modern timeline made it all the more poignant.
It's not perfect. But I loved it.
Audio Notes: Lily Newmark's narration was everything I wanted and more.
Very quickly:
--I rarely like historical novels told in parallel timelines, but it was skillfully and purposefully done here. I loved the writing as well.
--I liked the characters and relationships, though I think delving even deeper into the two women would have made this even richer.
--I enjoyed the choice to narrate some sections from the sorghum moss' point of view. This type of device can go so horribly wrong, but because they are short, humorous, and offer unique insights, they work in the context of this story.
Most of all, however, I loved how Agnes approaches her job and the responsibility she bears towards her unknown bog queen. There is a solemn respect and care that I feel an affinity for (it reminds me of Cassie Raven's tenderness for her mortuary guests in Body Language), in a weird way; one of the reasons I went to the National Museum of Scotland a couple of years ago was to see the peat bog mummies. It was incredible to see them in person and take a moment to imagine these figures, transformed by time and natural elements into something both unfamiliar and recognizable, as living beings. I still haven't absorbed the enormous privilege of seeing preserved human remains that were thousands of years old.
It also moved me unbearably towards the end of the iron age woman's story when I realized what was going on and what had happened to her. I didn't expect it, and the very restraint with which it was written and the lack of definitive explanation for the modern timeline made it all the more poignant.
It's not perfect. But I loved it.
Audio Notes: Lily Newmark's narration was everything I wanted and more.
March 1, 2026
This book was just not good. All three threads are boring!!
The 2018 thread makes the popular-these-days error of conflating extensive information about a character's past with compelling narrative. This strategy almost always feels to me like when you bump into a stranger at the grocery store and they start telling you in detail about something that happened to them 25 years ago. Just make that stuff part of the present-day narrative! It would have at least injected some opportunities for drama and tension and character growth. There were also too many subplots in this timeline, all of which presented opportunities for exciting story developments and none of which delivered on their promise. Just makes for a murky, bloated half of the book.
The 2000 years ago thread also didn't give much to latch onto. In essence, it's a road trip, meeting some new people, and then going home--these events gave me very little intrigue or insight into the main character of this section. When she dies, things are left a little too vague and mysterious to really draw any kind of meaningful conclusion from; even the potential tension of how she dies is unexplored! So why did I read any of it??
The moss thread was the coolest part, but it doesn't really go anywhere either, and by the end when the moss keeps saying "well I don't have any feelings" I kept asking "then why did we bother personifying you."
Overall this feels like it should have been a tight short story--I think what this book wants to convey could have been covered in a much more distilled span that makes effective use of summary and time jumps. Instead, we got this really stretched out narrative that lacked tension.
1/5
The 2018 thread makes the popular-these-days error of conflating extensive information about a character's past with compelling narrative. This strategy almost always feels to me like when you bump into a stranger at the grocery store and they start telling you in detail about something that happened to them 25 years ago. Just make that stuff part of the present-day narrative! It would have at least injected some opportunities for drama and tension and character growth. There were also too many subplots in this timeline, all of which presented opportunities for exciting story developments and none of which delivered on their promise. Just makes for a murky, bloated half of the book.
The 2000 years ago thread also didn't give much to latch onto. In essence, it's a road trip, meeting some new people, and then going home--these events gave me very little intrigue or insight into the main character of this section. When she dies, things are left a little too vague and mysterious to really draw any kind of meaningful conclusion from; even the potential tension of how she dies is unexplored! So why did I read any of it??
The moss thread was the coolest part, but it doesn't really go anywhere either, and by the end when the moss keeps saying "well I don't have any feelings" I kept asking "then why did we bother personifying you."
Overall this feels like it should have been a tight short story--I think what this book wants to convey could have been covered in a much more distilled span that makes effective use of summary and time jumps. Instead, we got this really stretched out narrative that lacked tension.
1/5
December 15, 2025
This was one of those books that I enjoyed while I was reading but didn’t really feel compelled to pick up. An interesting premise, but wasn’t quite what it was sold in the blurb. I think either of the timelines could have made a good novel in their own right, but in this form, neither went anywhere in particular for me.
June 17, 2026
Trigger Warnings:
* Violence
* Murder
* Environmental destruction
* Grief
* Colonialism
Bog Queen by Anna North is set in northwest England in 2018 and in Iron Age Britain more than 2,000 years ago, Bog Queen follows Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist who is called to examine a remarkably preserved body discovered in a peat bog. The story alternates between Agnes’s investigation in the present and the life of the young Celtic woman whose body was placed in the bog centuries earlier. As the mystery surrounding the discovery unfolds, the novel explores archaeology, environmental issues, spirituality, community, and the connection between past and present. Through both timelines, Anna North examines how people leave their mark on the land and how history can resurface long after it has been buried.
* Violence
* Murder
* Environmental destruction
* Grief
* Colonialism
Bog Queen by Anna North is set in northwest England in 2018 and in Iron Age Britain more than 2,000 years ago, Bog Queen follows Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist who is called to examine a remarkably preserved body discovered in a peat bog. The story alternates between Agnes’s investigation in the present and the life of the young Celtic woman whose body was placed in the bog centuries earlier. As the mystery surrounding the discovery unfolds, the novel explores archaeology, environmental issues, spirituality, community, and the connection between past and present. Through both timelines, Anna North examines how people leave their mark on the land and how history can resurface long after it has been buried.
November 4, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this dual-timeline novel. It follows Agnes, a neurodivergent forensic anthropologist, who is involved in a discovery of a woman's body. As it turns out, the body is not that of a recently murdered woman but a druid-era priestess/leader. I found the Iron Age woman's storyline to be just as engaging as the current time period and Anges's research process. As a fellow individual on the spectrum, Agnes's character and difficulties with social interactions resonated.
The writing is beautiful and I thought the pacing was very strong. I did not feel bogged down or bored at any point. The audiobook narration was good. Highly recommended!
The writing is beautiful and I thought the pacing was very strong. I did not feel bogged down or bored at any point. The audiobook narration was good. Highly recommended!
January 7, 2026
I was disappointed by this book because I loved Outlawed. This novel was underdeveloped and underwhelming. It’s unfortunate because it has a great premise.
January 13, 2026
Disappointing
February 19, 2026
Dr. Agnes Linstrom is an American forensic scientist in Manchester for a postdoctoral fellowship. When a woman’s body is found in a patch of peat bog in Ludlow, she’s called down to give her expert opinion. Police think they’ve finally solved a 1960s spousal murder, but it soon becomes clear that the corpse is much, much older. Alternating chapters follow Agnes’s 2018 investigation, complicated by competing claims on the bog (a peat company vs. environmental protesters, who have occupied the site); and the story of the Iron Age druid who came to be buried in the bog.
As per usual with a dual-narrative novel, I was more engaged with the contemporary storyline, so rather felt I had to push myself through the historical material so I could get back to the good stuff. Luckily, though, North doesn’t spoil the Celtic Britain segments with too much research or attempts at archaic speech. Occasional short sections from the point-of-view of a colony of moss were unnecessary but harmless. Subtle parallels emerge between Agnes and the druid, both young women who have to fight to be taken seriously, hope to live up to family expectations, and struggle to see the way forward.
Agnes works with other female scientists who seem to represent different ways of living: Sunita, who’s married to a woman and has a teenage daughter, Ruby; and Danielle, who’s easing back into work after a difficult childbirth. I thought the connections to Agnes’s past and potential future were a little heavy-handed in the party scene where she commiserates with Ruby over mental health and holds Danielle’s baby. If I were being unkind, I might also say that the characters are designed to tick boxes (Sunita = South Asian and queer; Nicholas, the lead protester = Black). Overall, though, this is illuminating about women’s lives then and now – not as different as one might hope – and kept me turning the pages to find out what happened to the not one, but two, bodies the bog disgorges.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
As per usual with a dual-narrative novel, I was more engaged with the contemporary storyline, so rather felt I had to push myself through the historical material so I could get back to the good stuff. Luckily, though, North doesn’t spoil the Celtic Britain segments with too much research or attempts at archaic speech. Occasional short sections from the point-of-view of a colony of moss were unnecessary but harmless. Subtle parallels emerge between Agnes and the druid, both young women who have to fight to be taken seriously, hope to live up to family expectations, and struggle to see the way forward.
Agnes works with other female scientists who seem to represent different ways of living: Sunita, who’s married to a woman and has a teenage daughter, Ruby; and Danielle, who’s easing back into work after a difficult childbirth. I thought the connections to Agnes’s past and potential future were a little heavy-handed in the party scene where she commiserates with Ruby over mental health and holds Danielle’s baby. If I were being unkind, I might also say that the characters are designed to tick boxes (Sunita = South Asian and queer; Nicholas, the lead protester = Black). Overall, though, this is illuminating about women’s lives then and now – not as different as one might hope – and kept me turning the pages to find out what happened to the not one, but two, bodies the bog disgorges.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,522 reviews