RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksSteadily shifts from a convincing portrayal of 16th-century political life and material culture, where the only thing amiss is Anne’s undead status, to a more magical, mythical story ... Lehmann resists the temptation to celebrate her protagonist through presentist fantasy ... Lehmann’s 16th-century world is well researched and persuasive ... The author never uses history as set dressing ... Lehmann proposes a kind of restoration of female strength that has always been with us, if we know where to look ... Lehmann encourages us to think about Anne’s influence less in terms of her too-short life than in terms of her long-lasting legacy, which still courses with—well, if not lifeblood, then nevertheless something vital, not quite real but still true. Lehmann captures this uncanny energy in her speculative rewrite of Anne Boleyn’s death, offering something that is less an \'alternative history\' than a cultural study of what exactly keeps her so alive in our minds nearly 500 years after the fact.
