Shelley Puhak is a novelist, so her first nonfiction, The Dark Queens, reads like a thrilling novel about two dueling monarchs. Some of the details of this history are so bizarre and gruesome that it sounds as though it came straight out of Game of Thrones instead of the history books. But Brunhild and Fredegund were very, very, real– and no matter how hard men have tried to write them out of history, Puhak gives them the power to have their stories heard. 

This book is about two queens’ attempts to consolidate power in a time when women were a subservient class. Both outsiders– one a former slave girl and the other an arranged betrothal– the women spend their lives clinging to the power they have and getting rid of the people who try to stop them. While doing so they face assassination attempts, executions, slander, grief, and isolation to remain on top. These women are no saints, however, and I loved how Puhak detailed just what they were willing to do to have control. 

This book is also one steeped in feminism. The consequences of the patriarchy are made very clear, both in the middle ages and in how we teach its history today. I loved how puhak detailed the sources and their biases against women, and she does a great job of using those sources to imagine the lives of all women in this period. 

If you support women’s rights, and most importantly, women’s wrongs, I highly highly recommend you check this one out.