Feminism in 900 AD

Hidden
- Donna Jo Napoli

This book begins just after Brigid escaped from a slave ship off the coast off Denmark in 900 AD. Brigid as an Irish princess had known a privileged life but her new situation - alone and in a distant country - places her suddenly at the bottom of the pecking order. As a foreigner, a female and with no family she has very few rights and very few people to rely on. She is constantly vulnerable to being used and possessed but Brigid is a fighter and she refuses to be controlled just because she is a female. She goes from being a virtual slave to an adopted daughter of a queen to a pirate captain. Through the years her single aim is to find and rescue her sister who had been kidnapped at the same time. 

One of the reason I love historical fiction so much is because I feel transported into another time period and I can have a view into that time's different lifestyle and traditions. "Hidden" didn't conceal the harshness of the time period and I really felt like I experienced the effort it would have taken just to live and function during this period of history. Some historical fiction is almost written like contemporary literature just with everyone living in castles and wearing long dresses or tunics. However in this novel the differences between my life and Brigid's life were stark and shocking.

This novel started slowly but the last half was so suspenseful and engaging it made up for this and I stayed up late finishing it. I would not recommend this to someone who is more interested in frou-frou/ romance historical fiction but if  you like Rosemary Sutcliff novels I think you will enjoy this book.

My rating-

4.5 stars



"You are a pirate? Alfhild, my Alfhid?"
"I am Brigid."
"Brigid?"
"I was hidden before. But I'm Brigid inside."