When I first heard of The
Barefoot Queen by Ildefonso Falcones, its premise drew me in immediately. The story of a freed
slave and a gypsy befriending each other seemed different from anything I'd
read before, as did the fact that it was set in the middle of the eighteenth
century in Spain.This book features cultures and locales that I have had
minimal exposure to, and I was excited to explore a historical novel to which I
brought virtually no prior knowledge.
This book includes everything from feuding to murder to
political persecution. Caridad, a slave, is freed by her dying master as they
sail from Cuba to Spain, and she is left completely alone as she arrives in a
new land. She soon falls in with young gypsy Milagros and is soon swept up in
the tense relations between gypsy families. Everything is shaken up when the
king orders a roundup of all gypsies, and those who are not captured and
imprisoned scatter across Spain. This book is the story of the struggles
several characters endure while they try to find their way back to each other.
I have to admit, the size of this book had me putting it off
for a long time. At 641 pages, it's a great investment if you're trying to fill
your bookshelf. When I did finally get around to it, the book kept calling me
back. Though it took a long time, I was reading it consistently all the way
through. The book is divided into six parts, though I don’t think that was
necessary. I don’t know if this was the publisher’s way of making the book seem
less daunting, but for the most part the extra blank pages just threw me out of
the otherwise seamless story for a few seconds. While the book is definitely
near the cap of readable length for a standalone novel, there were sections of
this book that I felt could have had much more detail. It’s a testament to how
much I enjoyed the writing and the story that I wanted to read more since the
book is already so long.
The Barefoot Queen
is a great historical novel with a refreshing setting and compelling
characters. My one warning is that it does involve several scenes of rape, both
graphic and implied, and they are throughout the book. If you can handle the
heavy subject matter (and the heavy weight of the 600 pages), definitely give
this one a try.
4 out of 5 stars
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
This
is definitely a book I would recommend to anyone interested in the STEM fields.
I don’t think it would do much to dispel an existing dislike for science or math,
but it would definitely be inspiring to someone who has an interest in science
or learning in general. This book is straightforward enough for upper
elementary schoolers, so it’s a good opportunity to introduce a fascination
before too many worksheets make science seem boring. There are a few sections
where a background in chemistry might be helpful, but then I enjoyed learning
about Sally Ride and my rocket science expertise is non-existent. This feels
like the kind of book a precocious protagonist would find invaluable, and it’s
definitely a very readable gateway to nonfiction. 
