Too wild and ugly for marriage, 17-year-old Marie is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey. Marie is determined to improve the lives of her sister at the abbey and create an impenetrable safe-haven for the women under her care. Bolstered by her devotion to her sisters and by her divine visions, she sets forth on a path previously un-trodden by women, but her actions will receive opposition from many sides.
Matrix is quite an outstanding novel. It doesn’t particularly have much of a plot – the story simply follows Marie’s life at the abbey – but it is gripping and compelling nonetheless.
It is beautifully written, with an outstanding level of detail of 12th-centuary life in an abbey and formidable characters. Marie herself is wonderfully well-developed. She isn’t an entirely likeable character, consumed as she is by her own power, but you still find yourself rooting for her and sympathising with the position she is in, even if you don’t agree with the direction her ‘visions’ take her in.
I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and the attention paid to different characters, but it needed a bit more plot-action to be a five-star read for me.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The Story Collector 