Morgan Is My Name

The is the origin story of Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's half-sister and a powerful magician. It's told in the first person by Morgan, which makes it an enthralling read. New book in the series coming in less than a month.

This book is so good. I don't remember much of the King Arthur story and nothing of Morgan in that story, but you didn't need to know any of that to thoroughly enjoy this retelling. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction or good writing generally.

I expected a lot more going into this book. I wanted revenge, Arthurs story hold from morgaras POV and while this is Morgan's story its more of her life before she turned evil (though love her for it).

You could take the magic from this book and nothing would change. Why is it their in the first place? There was no explanation on the magic either which is fire, but I would have liked to see Morgan learn how to use is on page other than she simply can.

Uther is a large part of the story and yet the conflict between him and Morgan don't appear much. I felt a bit let down at how that part of the story ended.

Here was a few decisions Morgan makes that didn't seem like she would as a character. The love story aspect of the book was dropped and then she agrees to something she's adamant she will never do as Uther says and yet she does. it doesn't mesh with her character.

I found il strange to set the story in England when I expected Wales. Each time London was mentioned it pulled me from the story.


Originally when I heard this book was about moorland I thought it would be like Morgan from the show Merlin. I loved Morgan in the show but in the book we don't see that part of Morgana until the end. That was the only part I loved about this book

Perhaps I am thinking too much about the show as I loved it, and that could be clouding what I expected from this book.
But it was a disappointment from what I expected this book to be especially when I thought it was a standalone when its not.

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of all retellings with a female lead being proclaimed to be ‘feminist' retellings. It's not necessarily true, for one — you can have a retelling with a female lead and the book be almost misogynistic. Having a female lead doesn't mean you're feminist. Luckily, Morgan is My Name does have feminism coming off of it in waves — but don't expect a woman to lead a queendom or anything inside it's pages. This is Dark Ages Britain we're talking about here. There's only so much Keetch could get away with here without losing the historical accuracy that she was so clearly going for.

Because yes, while this book does have magic in it, there is very much a layer of historical realness here that isn't usually present in these sorts of books. It truly feels like we're right beside Morgan in these cold and drafty castles, watching as war after war is started. Morgan is My Name reminded me very much of Lucy Holland's Dark Earth that I read last year and loved. These are both dark books with a heavy dose of female companionship and love. The Arthurian legend is here, but it's very much in the background at first. Arthur isn't even born until maybe halfway through the book. What we start with, and where we're based is in Morgan's childhood.

The aforementioned Morgan is, of course, Morgan le Fay or Morgana of the Arthurian legend. While she's usually painted as something of a villain, in this particular book she's just a wild-at-heart girl eager to learn everything she possibly can about healing. We see her heal someone miraculously with just her hands, and we see her dip into what we are supposed to assume is dark magic to bring someone else back from the brink of death. Morgan has magic, and she's desperate to use it. Unfortunately for her, her brute of a husband all but forbids her. (She ends up going behind his back and doing it anyway.) We see all sorts of familiar names and places in this book, but a great deal of it seems to be pulled from either history or made up. It's fine! It works wonderfully.

I really enjoyed Morgan is My Name — I love the Arthurian legend and always have. This was a fresh new look at a character that is most often shoved to the side or painted in rather broad strokes. I loved getting a look at what her childhood must have been like, at what forced her to become what she does.

I truly thought this was a standalone novel, but the end of the book proves that to be absolutely false. I am very much looking forward to where Keetch is going with this. Right now, I can't see this Morgan doing what Morgana does in the original legends, but I guess we'll see how she gets there! Four stars!