The Red Queen

The Red Queen

By Margaret Drabble

Review by Shelby

AHHA. okay I read a grown-up book everyone. The Red Queen is about two ladies whose lives are paralleled. Their lives are pretty much the same. The first one is Lady Hong, of 1800s Korea. She is married when she's ten years old to Prince Sado, who's crazy. Also, her first child dies in infancy. Well, we don't know he's crazy until he grows up but ANYWAY. Prince Sado's father, King Yongjon (or something, i forget their names) is really mean to him all the time, and doesn't really want him to become king. Anyway, she outlives basically everyone and tells her story in the first part, as a ghost. In the second part is Dr. Barbara Haliwell, an English woman. Her husband, Peter, is crazy too. And his dad thinks he's better than everyone, AND she had a kid that died too (she named him Benedict, so it serves her right). She is going to Korea for some scholar's convention. On the flight she reads Lady Hong's memoirs, and Lady Hong haunts her as a ghost (although she doesn't know it) and wants Babs to spread her story around. Anyway, in Korea, Babs makes friends with this Korean Dr, Doctor Oo, and makes better friends with a Dr. Jan van Jost. Anyway. They have an affair and... well I suppose I SHOULDN'T give away everything.

Anyway, this was a really good book. I learned lots of new words. And I promptly forgot them. :D