Carr succeeds admirably in depicting the joylessness of Mary’s incarceration and the various indignities to which she is subjected ... Only the epilogue seems ill-advised; a few pages devoted to what happened to the various characters in the years leading to Mary’s execution reads as non-fiction, while the chapter that precedes it ends so poetically that it made me long for a second instalment.
The Tower feels exhaustingly "2024" ... It’s admirable that Carr wants to strip these historic figures of the dowdiness that the passage of centuries can confer, but her attempts to force them into 21st-century moulds can be cringe-inducing. Carr’s prose, though mostly fine, is occasionally overladen with the kind of similes that only go down well at creative-writing workshops ... Still, there’s much to enjoy in The Tower.
Tells the grim story of Mary’s incarceration in the island castle and is a very good one despite being written in the tiresome present tense, so often ill-suited to narrative ... Of course a historical novel and one faithful to historical fact, but it is history viewed from a 21st century angle, being also a feminist novel ... Accomplished and engaging.
A bold and intimate retelling ... Much of the novel’s power comes from its pungent atmosphere. The realities of the prolonged confinement of four women in a single room are well evoked ... The prose, too, can be a little overblown. Yet in general it maintains a sharp immediacy in keeping with the bristling antagonisms and power plays that take place within the castle walls.
Carr dexterously explores how the seductive allure of royalty is undimmed by Mary’s grim circumstances, which are depicted with earthy physicality. Despite Mary’s foreshadowed downfall, this pulled-from-history novel resounds as a victory for female camaraderie and cleverness.
