This is a real hidden gem. It takes place in a society where magic has a dingy, back-alley type reputation, and witches and wizards are shunned by polite society. The heroine, a witch named Kyra, was kicked out by her father years ago. But now, Kyra keeps seeing omens predicting that her little sister's going to be murdered on her wedding night! This leaves Kyra no choice but to crash the wedding and cause a major scandal, and hopefully find out who's planning to murder her sister before it's too late.

Kyra herself has a charmingly bitchy and sarcastic personality, very fun to read about. She's got a bit of a mean streak which she's trying to overcome. The background characters all have a bit of depth to them; Kyra's a bit judgemental and her first impressions of people aren't always fair.

I'm avoiding spoilers for this review because I'm hoping some people see it and check the book out, but I also want to say, wow the plot came together in a way I wasn't expecting it to! It also got a lot heavier than I thought it would, but it was very well done.

This was a lot of fun to read, so I was a little surprised to find out that C.S. Lewis described the writing process as "not fun" and resolved not to write any sequels. But, taking into account the mindset the book seems to be written from, I shouldn't have been surprised. From this book's point of view, devils are always trying to get into your head and make you Turn From The Path Of God. Every action, emotion, and even thought you take could be Wrong and leading you on the path to HELL. Falling in love? Could cause you to marry a heathen. Making fun of things you don't like with your friends? Engenders a wicked mindset. Having political opinions? Better be careful that you don't start seeing politics as more important than God. By the end of the book, we see a longing for an early death. Living to old age only gives you more time to become Worldly, and Turn From The Path. You're much better off dying young, so you can go to heaven, and finally be free of the endless, agonizing struggle to follow Christianity day after day. Perhaps this explains why C.S. Lewis chose to end the Narnia Chronicles the way he did.

Not what I expected. It very much feels like a part of the time and place it was written; 1930's England. Stylistically, it's a lot closer to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe than Lord of the Rings, and this remains true even as the books get more adult-oriented. It's permeated with quaint, old-fashioned, British-style whimsy. That was off-putting at first, I went in expecting something timeless and mythical, but eventually I came around on it.

The Once and Future King is a modernized (to the 1930's) retelling of Sir Thomas Malory (a real knight, omg)'s 1485 classic Le Morte d'Arthur. I happened to be reading both Le Morte and TOAFK concurrently for a while, and the little in-jokes and references to Le Morte were what really won me over to TOAFK. For example, in Le Morte we have this charming scene in the middle of a long battle sequence:

...and he slew a great giant named Galapas, which was a man of an huge quantity and height, he shorted him and smote off both his legs by the knees, saying, Now art thou better of a size to deal with than thou were, and after smote off his head.

This is referenced cheekily in The Sword in the Stone:

After they had waited for several minutes, Wart said, “If I were a knight in armour, and met a giant, I should smite off both his legs by the knees, saying, ‘Now art thou better of a size to deal with an thou were,’ and after that I should swish off his head.” “Hush,” said Sir Ector. “Never mind about that.”

It was very funny to me to see that TH White thought that bit of Le Morte was as funny as I thought it was, but that whole section seems to have been omitted from the 1958 edition of TOAFK, leading me to think I hallucinated it when I first tried to look it up for this review. In another section of Le Morte, the knight Sir Turquine is said to throw knights in his dungeon after "beating them with thorns all naked", in response to which TH White comments that if Sir Turquine were alive today "his friends would certainly have urged him to be psycho-analysed." So, if you're thinking of reading Le Morte D'Arthur at some point, try reading it along side The Once and Future King. Thomas Malory even makes a cameo at the end.

The Once and Future King is actually a collection of five books, all of which are very different from each other:

The Sword in the Stone - Clearly a kid's book, lots of whimsy and talking animals and episodic adventures.

The Queen of Air and Darkness - A bit of a tonal whiplash, 50% of the book is family drama involving negligent mother Queen Morgause and her terrible children, and 50% is a comedy subplot. It's kind of a chimera of a book, not sure which way it wants to go, sort of like two people wearing the front and back half of a homemade Questing Beast costume.

The Ill-Made Knight - This is the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, in which they're briefly happy, spend the next several decades fighting all the time and being miserable, and then become happy together again in old age. It's a good story even though TH White is sexist, but reading it did make me miserable.

It also has this quote:

[Sir Bors] had some news for Lancelot, which he told him in a whisper after dinner—but unfortunately he was a misogynist, and, like most people of that sort, he had the female failing of indiscretion. He told the news to some of his bosom friends as well. Soon it was all over the court.

I have never heard "being a misogynist means you're like a woman" before. Reads like some kind of primeval precursor to "being homophobic means you're gay."

The Candle in the Wind - This is the downfall book, the well-known tragic end to King Arthur and his knights. It's actually my favorite book in the series.

The Book of Merlyn - The story is already over, this is more of a philosophical meditation than a continuation. I recommend reading it if you'd like to see TH White's political views expressed through a counsel of talking animals.