Instruct: Classify a given review as either positive or negative.
Query: Average.

I don't recommend this book. The plot of this book is engaging and it does unfold nicely, which kept me reading, but there were other elements that make it unbearable. The writing was stiff and plodding at times. You know the educated men are educated because they speak Latin. The author goes out of his way to explain some customs and behaviors of the time but ignores others altogether, which sometimes makes it laughable. There were kitchens in the 1600s? There's a journal written as if it the writer watched the events unfold on TV. And the rape/murder scene at the end was so morbidly horrific that I got out of bed and threw the book away. I didn't read the last chapter.