Lovely novel about grief and living despite the pain of the past. I loved the short chapters that were written from the Octopus' pov and would have honestly loved to have more of that. As it stands it is a nice little style choice but not that much more. The story still very much revolves around humans.

It's about time I gave this book the review it deserves. As a history student (soon to be a fully fledged historian) I am always on the hunt for good historical fiction. And this delivered exactly what I was looking for. It's still unbelievable to me, that Jo Harkin is not a historian and that this is the first historical fiction novel she has written. I really hope this gets the 'Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction'. Harkin has managed to bring late medieval Europe to life like no book has done for me before. This is historical fiction with a 'history from below' angle that is seldomly seen within medieval settings. While I understand, that the crudeness and levels of constant swearing might not be everyones cup of tea, i love how it gives the reader a feeling of people, who are just as human as we are over 500 years later. While I already knew the broad strokes of the historical events behind the novel I was still hooked by the book. It wasn't about finding out if the main character would succeed, it was about following this peasant boy turned young men as he grapples for agency and identity. I will be raving about this book to all my university friends for sure.