What do readers think of The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty? Write your own review.

The title of Linda Lafferty's book Bloodletter's Daughter gives a clear picture of what will be found in its pages. Early 1600 in Bohemia, using leeches to suck the bloody bad humors from the human body, a barber doctor attempts to treat a "mad" prince. With his young daughter as an able assistant they naively seek to correct the royal's behavior. Don Julius, the violent prince; Marketa, the smart daughter and Annabella, the neighborhood witch along with priests, doctors and memorable characters from the old world community are woven into a tapestry as colorful, confounding and mysterious as the bewitching imagery in the Coded Book of Wonder, the source of the prince's "bad humors."



This book readily draws in the reader and keeps him/her turning the pages until the end. Recommended for a long winter weekend.

I selected this book since my heritage is Bohemian and I was drawn to the potential of learning some history of my ancestors. Although a bit of a slow start, within the first 100 pages I was drawn into the story and the characters and found it hard to put the book down. I really enjoyed the short chapters, as I usually end up reading in bits. It was easy to pick the story back up each time. Loved the way the author took liberty and expanded the interest of the main character, Marketa to include her attraction to medicine and healing, even though that was beyond the reach of women of the time. A good book for those who like historical fiction. Don't be put off by the length - a fast read.

I would categorize this book as historical fiction/folklore set in 1600 Bohemia. I did enjoy the story, especially the details about early medicine and science. The writing was bland and immature at times but the story and characters held my attention.The book is simply not very exciting!

I like the idea of it being based on a true story/myth, and I liked the ending although it was not a surprise. The author does provide a glimpse into religion and politics of the time.

Ottoman Empire, Bohemia, Hapsburg, Prague, Vienna, are all names and places that I have heard of, but really had no knowledge nor understanding of what and where they are. This book is a great, simplistic introduction to all of the above and is a fast read. At times, I found it a bit childish, but became so engrossed in the characters that I plunged ahead always very eager to get on with the plot. That the main characters are all real made this book fascinating even though a lot of creative license was used to cobble the story. So what?
Will, I recommend it to my book club? No. I think they are probably not as thirsty as I was for the history of the Hapsburgs and their inbreeding. I would love to see another historical fiction with this same setting.

The true story of obsession, murder, royalty, illegitimacy, passion, and mystery. The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty is set in 1600's Prague and tells the story of Don Julius, illegitimate son of Emperor Rudolf II, the bloodletter, Zigmund Pichler, & the bloodletters daughter, Marketa who are commanded to cure Don Julius' obsession with the Book of Wonder. Don Julius' encounter with Marketa, who he believes is the women in the coded Book of Wonder, leads to Marketa's fascination with Don Julius. A dark, tragic story the reader will find both fascinating and repelling.

I thourghly enjoyed this book, the building of the characters, how they all seemed independant of each other but relied heavily on one another. Each person had an entirely different view on each other and how they could use each other for their own advancement. Great Book, love the time period, and how the author described sience vs medicine vs religion.

I was surprised at how poorly written this story was - it has an interesting storyline and the potential for intriguing characters. However, the dialogue and descriptions left much to be desired.

I admit that I don't know very much about 17th century Bohemia but even without doing a bit of fact-checking, I got the sense that historical context was not important to the author's version of this story, and yet it is clear that Lafferty had a wealth of details to share. Feeling the need to do a bit of research on my own, I lost any suspension of disbelief I might have had with the story.

The story definitely had potential - Marketa, in particular, was a character I wanted to know more about but at times it seemed as if she acted out of character, especially with relation to her & Don Julius. The characters all felt either over -dramatized or flat. The story overall was much the same.

Clearly a fair bit of research went into this tale but that is part of the problem - we see the research not the characters or a believable narrative.

Lastly, the ending is an unbelievable twist making the whole novel feel like it was only a detailed but poorly written romance, rather than compelling historical fiction.

The Bloodletter's Daughter sets the stage with a mad prince and a (not so) simple maid. It has everything you could want in an historical fairy tale, the prince, the maid, a forbidding castle and a situation fraught with all sorts of dangers, both moral and physical. The first several chapters live up to the premise with the introduction of several interesting characters and the plot that moves forward at a brisk pace. Unfortunately somewhere around half-way the book looses its way. The characters behave, well, out of character, the smart one does stupid things, the slightly sinister one does benevolent things, strange scenes that appear to have no bearing on the plot show up and then are never mentioned again, and in general the story square dances around until its hard to keep track of what is going on and who is important to the plot.
I find that I am always more disappointed with a book that starts out strong and really grabs my imagination and then fails to live up to its early promise I always feel the need to find that early promise again when I should just put it down.