Matrix

4 stars, not because I loved the book but because it's impressive as hell. Groff has immersed herself in 12th Century Angevin, and eventually, I gave up looking up the words I didn't know for the animals, things, rituals, etc. that would have been commonplace at the time. And I read to the end in order to find out what becomes of Marie de France, the Abbess of a great monastery, even though, as a man, I felt unwelcome. In Marie's world, men are rapists, invaders, and meddling priests, and so she walled them out with her matrix. Nor does she need men for physical gratification, which she finds in her sisters and daughters, the other nuns. Is this Groff's message? I've always enjoyed her work and was wowed by Fates and Furies, but this one I find unsettling and off-putting.