Sisi: Empress on Her Own

by Allison Pataki

[Veronica 🦦]

Okay, I'm posting this a year and five months after I read the book, but my views still stand.

Allison Pataki's Sisi books are atrocities. Her portrayal of Sisi and company is horrendous. I get it. It's historical fiction and creative license is a thing. But Pataki essentially ran over history, pooped over the corpse, and then burned it before running over the ashes. You don't get points for tossing in sprinkles of research while making a mess of the story. Listing your sources doesn't suddenly make the book better, nor does it mean the information suddenly and magically translate into the writing. I had this problem back with the first one and Pataki never bothered to improve.

I mean, what can I expect from the writer who had Sisi who was repulsed by sex and thought sex was a waste of time, have sex with Gyula Andrassy aka one of her best friends. You know? It's possible for men and women to love each other without sex.

Was this book any better than the first? Sure, but only by a little.

Sisi is still reduced to this THING. She's not respected at all. Hell, no one is treated with respect, but ESPECIALLY Sisi. Sisi wasn't perfect. She had her flaws -- and oh boy they were PLENTY. However, Pataki's Sisi continues to be a laughing stock, a desperate, pathetic housewife whose entire existence was shattered because her husband didn't pay enough attention to her. Again, Sisi wasn't perfect, but she also wasn't this one dimensional, pathetic housewife pouting because no man would pay attention to her.

This book (and it's prequel) are poorly written and just terrible. This book deserves zero stars.