The Dark Queens

What a wild ride.

The fact that these women are not more widely known is a travesty. Two women who ruled, conspired and helped shape a unified country during the 500s. Yes, 500s.

Fredegund and Brunhild should be a Hollywood (or film) dream star. Women in power. Murder. Revenge. Secret Plots. These women dealt with it all.

This book was written more like a fictionalized account of their life, but still drew on fact. The writing style made it easier to read than traditional nonfiction and I quickly flew through the chapters.

My one big disappointment with this book was the lack of a glossary of who is who. There is a brief one at the beginning, but that only covers the people in the first 1/4 of the book. Many characters have very similar names, making it difficult to keep track of who is who. I felt like I was only understanding at a surface level because I couldn't recall who was who.

Overall it was great to read about two powerful women who helped influence the Merovingian period of history, which is a history not widely recounted.