Disappointing
I found this novel disappointing, even somewhat offensive. The liberties taken with the lives of Sylvia, Ted, and Assia seemed in poor taste, and much of the "poetic language" of the book was forced and overwritten. I'm as much of a Hughes/Plath fan as anyone, and I enjoy reading biographical and analytical books about their relationship and respective poems, but this quasi-fictional rendition of their lives (especially so soon after Hughes's death) left me uncomfortable; the early sections describing Assia's "coquettish" youth were the most troublesome in this regard. Interested in Sylvia and Ted (the poets)? My advice is to buy Birthday Letters, the new Plath unabridged journals, or Rough Magic instead.