About the Book
-
Author:
- Sarah Raughley
- Genre:
- Historical Fiction
- Voices:
- African Diaspora
- Cis Girl
- Straight
Cover Story: A True Royal
Drinking Buddy: God Save the (African) Queen
MPAA Rating R (Sexuality, Violence, Racism)
Talky Talk: Anachronistic
Bonus Factor: Victorian Obsession With Death
Anti-Bonus Factors: White Man’s Burden, Arranged Marriage
Bromance Status: Until Next Time
Cover Story: A True Royal
This cover reminds us that Sally is not only the queen’s goddaughter and a member of high society, but also a queen in her own homeland. That knife isn’t just for show. Watch your back, people. Watch your back, Your Majesty.
The Deal:
Historically, Sara ‘Sally’ Forbes Bonetta was born to the Yoruba people in what is now Nigeria in the 1840s. Her parents were royals, but during local fighting, she was kidnapped by African slavers. She was later rescued by an English captain who took her to England, where she caught the eye of Queen Victoria. The queen made Sally her goddaughter. Sally later married a prominent Afro-English captain and returned to Africa.
But is this the whole story? Sally’s real name was Ina, and her parents were important people. How did she feel about being taken far away from her homeland and made into a toy for the British royals?
In this book, Ina is a princess, and the hell she went through, losing her parents, her family, and her identity have left her seething with rage. She does not feel thankful for being forcefully ‘civilized’. Maybe Victoria is a queen, but so is Sally. And when one disrespects a queen, there’s hell to pay.
Drinking Buddy: God Save the (African) Queen
Sally/Ina never once lets us forget that that she’s royalty, just like Victoria. And she’s consumed with an all-encompassing desire for revenge. The captain who ‘saved’ her, but threw her sickly friend overboard. The photographer who who humiliated her. The society people who forced her to dance–naked–for their amusement (all historically real people, by the way). And let’s not forget Victoria. Sally is no one’s plaything, and she’s not sparing Regina Victoria. It’s a chess match which is going to come down to the black and white queens.
MPAA Rating: R (Sexuality, Violence, Racism)
Sally is too busy gaslighting, framing, exposing, and mangling her oppressors to really want to date, per say. But she is a young woman, and she can’t help but notice that Rui, her co-conspirator and leader of a Anglo-Chinese gang, is also a handsome young man. And then there’s Bertie, Queen Victoria’s son. He’s known Sally all her life. And though he’s a sleaze and a drunk, he’s also a prince. A prince who seems to have taken a shine to Sally. Not that he’d ever admit that in public, but perhaps Sally can use this to her advantage.
Talky Talk: Anachronistic
Sally pretty much talked like a 21st century woman, which was fine. Sometimes it’s hard to read books where historical characters speak in period language. That being said, this book takes place in 1862, and there were a lot of anachronisms. People wearing tuxedos, thirty years before they were invented in America. Referring to the nation of Sri Lanka, which was known as Ceylon until 1972. Using phrases like ‘he hadn’t showered’ or ‘he’d been home schooled.’ It’s a pet peeve of mine when an author of historical fiction is sloppy like this.
Bonus Factor: Victorian Obsession With Death
It’s well-documented that Queen Victoria took the death of her husband, Albert, kind of hard. She had the servants still lay out his clothes and hot water every day. She wore black for the rest of her life. She once chastised Bertie for writing her a letter with insufficiently thick black borders.
But death was kind of a fad at the time in England. Seances, spiritualism, death masks, spirit photography…the things people did before television was invented. And if the queen thinks her late husband is trying to talk to her, maybe Sally can relay a message of her own.
Anti-Bonus Factor: White Man’s Burden
The sun never set on the British Empire, and that was true. From Africa to the Caribbean to India to Hong Kong to Australia. All those poor, dark savages, wallowing in ignorance. It was the duty of the white man to civilize those poor wretches, to teach them how to dress and behave and pray.
Sally is held up as an example of the civilizing effect of England. Why now she dresses and acts just like a normal person! True, she’s not completely accepted into British society. True, when she goes out with one of the queen’s servants, Sally is taken for the maid. True, if it wasn’t for the queen’s protection, no one would look twice at her.
Sally bridles at being described as malleable, and she’s sure as hell not grateful. She’ll never forget the hellish years in that boarding school in Sierra Leone, where the white headmistress beat her for holding onto her culture. But she got her revenge. Unfortunately, there’s a young man with the same last name who’s been looking for Sally…
Anti-Bonus Factor: Arranged Marriage
Not everyone gets to pick their spouse, especially if one is connected to royalty. When the queen gets wind of Sally’s scheming, she decides to marry her off, before she becomes an old maid at 18. And Captain Davies, the groom, is a nice enough guy. Handsome, brave, an officer in the Royal Navy…a girl could do worse. But he’s sixteen years older than Sally (he’d actually met her when she was ten years old at the boarding school). And Sally doesn’t love him. She’s not interested in a husband. Unfortunately, no one, not even the Captain, is interested in Sally’s opinion on the matter.
Bromance Status: Until Next Time
I’m a sucker for a good historical adventure, and I love it when forgotten historical figures are thrust into the limelight. Sally came alive for me here, and I hope the author continues to bring the past alive.
Literary Matchmaking
Reader, I Murdered Him, by Betsy Cornwell, also deals with a Victorian woman determined not be be oppressed and married off by the patriarchy.
Read about another African princess (though from another part of the continent) who refuses to settle down or be married off in Patricia C. McKissack’s Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba.
Want a slightly more lighthearted look at the Victorian underworld? Try Terry Pratchett’s Dodger.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, but no money or fancy food. The Queen’s Spade is available now.
