An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason by Virginia BoeckerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I feel like there's been a bit of an uptick in books rooted in the historical conflicts of Protestants and Catholics in Elizabethan England lately. Earlier this year, Nadine Brandes gave it a magical twist in Fawkes, and now, Virginia Boecker makes her return to alternate-historical YA with a less magical but still pretty fun read. Though Assassin's Guide is a little more slow than I'd like at times, and the two POVs of Katherine and Toby are sometimes a little hard to tell apart, it's got a lot going for it too. Queer rep, for one thing - Toby's bi, and very deep in the closet because of how rampantly phobic pretty much all of Europe was back then. Crossdressing rooted not only in spycraft, but also in the first production of Twelfth Night - and with Shakespeare himself as a major supporting character, possessed of a sharp wit and more than a touch of madness. And of course the big reason, I think, why Elizabethan English religious strife has been so popular in lit and film lately: a reflection of today's bitter political divisions. This book is pretty standalone, but there's for sure room for a sequel, which I'd be happy to read if it ever happens.
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