Kit S. reviewed on 4/13/2007 + 33 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 5

Gillyflower is the third witch, one of the three crones who foretell his future to Macbeth in Shakespeare's play... but here, we have Gilly's own side of the story. She lives amongst the woods with Nettle and Mad Helga, robbing the dead of the battlefields of Scotland and selling potions to suspicious villagers, never far from accusations of witchcraft. She remembers the happier life she once led, and the man who destroyed it, whom she has sworn to destroy in her turn. When he saves her life, she finds out his identity, but for a peasant girl to come close enough to the greatest lord in the kingdom to kill him seems an impossible task, and would be, for anyone less than the resourceful Gilly.

Disguising herself as a servant boy, she gets work in the castle, moving ever closer to Macbeth. But in doing so, she risks not only her own life, but the lives of the servants who have befriended her, as well as Nettle and Mad Helga when she tries to persuade them to perform outlawed witchcraft.

This is a fabulous story, wonderfully told and full of humour to offset the harsher realities of mediaeval Scotland. Anyone who knows Macbeth will be amused by the intrusions of Shakespeare's lines into the dialogue, but it isn't absolutely necessary to know the play well (or maybe even at all) to enjoy the book. Though the twist in the tail is somewhat predictable, and the ending is pure gilt-covered romance, this is still a highly enjoyable combination of historical novel and boy's own adventure.

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