The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World

by Shelley Puhak

Book Overview

National Bestseller

"A well-researched and well-told epic history. The Dark Queens brings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life."--Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Figures

The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639730753
• ISBN13: 9781639730759
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Better than Game of Thrones

Shelley Puhak did a fantastic job breating life into Fredegund and Brunhild, and I hope she keeps writing more nonfiction like this. Originally a poet, her prose is both vivid yet approachable. She infuses a narrative quality into her subjects as she tries to imagine what they might have thought or felt. Some might think this is taking too much liberty because we have no record of how someone would have felt, but I really appreciate this approach. While I know that everything should be taken with a grain of salt, I find the infusion of humanity really helps me understand the subject. Compared to a book like Weir's Eleanor biography, which I found dull at times and distant, this book is so poignant.

lives of these queens will interest everyone, not just historians

Extremely well written, engaging trip through a little-known era