My 2018 Favorites: The Fourth Annual Pinecone Awards!.This book is pretty standalone, but there's for sure room for a sequel, which I'd be happy to read if it ever happens. And of course the big reason, I think, why Elizabethan English religious strife has been so popular in lit and film lately: a reflection of today's bitter political divisions. Crossdressing rooted not only in spycraft, but also in the first production of Twelfth Night - and with Shakespeare himself as a major supporting character, possessed of a sharp wit and more than a touch of madness. Queer rep, for one thing - Toby's bi, and very deep in the closet because of how rampantly phobic pretty much all of Europe was back then. Though Assassin's Guide is a little more slow than I'd like at times, and the two POVs of Katherine and Toby are sometimes a little hard to tell apart, it's got a lot going for it too. Earlier this year, Nadine Brandes gave it a magical twist in Fawkes, and now, Virginia Boecker makes her return to alternate-historical YA with a less magical but still pretty fun read. I feel like there's been a bit of an uptick in books rooted in the historical conflicts of Protestants and Catholics in Elizabethan England lately. An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason by Virginia Boecker
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