I have not read this book, but this review is awesome.
it bothers me a bit that a lot of readers are going to come away with a flawed/incoherent view of this historical moment (also: Vergil). ...Does historical fiction have an obligation to present the truth?
I don't know, I think it does have such an obligation, and particularly YA fic where it may be the kid's first introduction to whatever-history-it-is. That being said, I'd be satisfied with an Author's Note saying "hey, so, Vergil wasn't really like that..." I think so not least because in thinking of all the historical fic I've read (mostly adultfic, they didn't really have historical YA as such when I was growing up), I could very well have ended up believing some very odd things if not for helpful Author's Notes pointing out the liberties they were taking with history.
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it bothers me a bit that a lot of readers are going to come away with a flawed/incoherent view of this historical moment (also: Vergil). ...Does historical fiction have an obligation to present the truth?
I don't know, I think it does have such an obligation, and particularly YA fic where it may be the kid's first introduction to whatever-history-it-is. That being said, I'd be satisfied with an Author's Note saying "hey, so, Vergil wasn't really like that..." I think so not least because in thinking of all the historical fic I've read (mostly adultfic, they didn't really have historical YA as such when I was growing up), I could very well have ended up believing some very odd things if not for helpful Author's Notes pointing out the liberties they were taking with history.