Full title: The Everlasting
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Historical fantasy, romance

Summary

A knight bound to her abusively ambitious queen is stuck in a never-ending time loop, in which she is bound to die over and over again, all for the sake of love. The person facilitating the hastened death of said knight is a scholar who has been brainwashed by propaganda into believing that nation sits above life and liberty. Till of course, he learns that behind his nationalistic figureheads are deeply flawed people who can be benevolent as they can be nasty and evil.

Notes for writing

Plot: The book is interesting in its concept of utilizing the inciting incident over and over again to really solidify that groundhog day, time loop concept. It goes through various iterations of the same story five times, clearing plot elements in each arc. For example, in the first death of Una Everlasting, we get a very comprehensive world-building, in the second death, we get very intense characterizations of both Una, Owen and Vivian. She also sets up the rising tension and in the third arc, we get conflict.

Characterization: There are some really interesting characterizations in this novel. In fact, its probably the best thing about this novel. The devices used to flesh out these characters creates a vivid image, truly engaging the reader's pathos. Refer to linked mentions to see devices used

Themes: imperialism and it’s effects, patriotic indoctrination, xenophobia, intersectional feminism