Customer Reviews

Wildwood Dancing

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a huge fan of Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy and was so excited to hear that she was delving into a more light-hearted, young-adult style with her latest novel. This is one of those rare books that captures you instantly and keeps you reading late into the night just so you can find out how it ends.

Wildwood Dancing is a whimsical twist on the story of the twelve dancing princesses. Juliet Mariller has chisled away at seven of the sisters and left us with a faerie tale about five young sisters who, on the night of the full moon, venture to the wildwood forest, a place of faeries and other creatures, where they can spend these nights dancing and being merry.

The heroine of the story is Jena, the second eldest of the sisters and the one who seems to be the most in charge. Jena's best friend is her pet frog Gogu, who she can communicate with.

The story has many themes and issues that are all very adult in context. The story starts out with Jena and her sisters being left alone as there father travels far away to do business. The girls are left to care for the castle and this is something they are fine with...until there conniving cousin Cezar comes into the mix. Cezar is one of the BEST villians I have loathed in a long, long time. He wants power, and when the girls get news that there father is ill and may not return, Cezar moves himself into the castle and decides he is in charge. The elements of sexism and women not having rights is strong and I was very irritated at the way the girls were treated by Cezar just because they are female.
There is plenty of magic and romance in this novel and it is beautifully written and elegantly paced. I relished every last page of this book!

If you are looking for a somewhat historical, magical, light-hearted, romantic tale, then you should definetly pick this book!

The only thing that bothered me about the book was the whole, "cousins in love" thing...which really bothered me...but, still, the writing was so fantastic and the plot was so engrossing that I can't help but give this one 5 stars!

I don't recall the last time I've read a fiction book based on classic fairy tales that was this excellent, and I've read many. The tone of this book does indeed feel a lot like the recent works of Patricia McKillip, but Marillier manages to make you care about the characters more (and this is coming from a huge McKillip fan). I don't cry easily at books, but I found myself moved to tears at several points.

The book takes the fairy tale of the 12 Dancing Princesses and sets it in Romania, telling of 5 sisters who journey through a secret portal at Full Moon each month to dance in the Realm of Faerie. Things start to turn when their father has to go away for the winter because of illness, and the oldest daughter falls in love with one of the Night People (vampires, more successfully incorporated into Faerie context than anything else I've read). Add a plot with an outstandingly rendered true soulmate friendship between the lead character and her pet frog, who communicates to her in her mind, and this book was the first book in literally YEARS that I truly couldn't put down at night, and stayed up late to finish. The "villain" of the book as well is a brilliantly rendered character, who you both loathe and feel sorry for at the same time.

I'd love to see Juliet Marillier do more books along the line of classic fairy tale retellings. It suits her so very well.

Even though this book is technically a young adult novel, it is one of the most fascinating and maturely written plots I've read in years, and can be appreciated by fairy tale lovers of all ages.

Based loosely on the fairytales of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "The Frog Prince" (but adding plenty of her own ideas), Juliet Marillier crafts an entertaining story of magic and faerie, set in the wild-lands of Transylvania. Jena is one of five sisters (Tatiana, Iulia, Paula and Stela) who have long-since kept a secret in their bedroom: a magical portal into the Other Kingdom, through which they can pass through every full moon to cavort with faerie-creatures in the Dancing Glade of the Faerie Queen.

The girls love their monthly excursions into the Dancing Glade and all the friends they've made there, but lately a shadow has been cast upon their lives: their father has grown sickly and must leave their estate of Piscul Dracului for the winter. Tatiana and Jena consider themselves perfectly capable of handling the estate in their father's absence, but their controlling and possessive cousin Cezar believes it is his duty to take over the household till his uncle's return. With a hatred of the Other Kingdom ever since the drowning of his brother in the faerie-haunted waters of Taul Ielelor, Cezar's grip over the household and the girls' lives quickly intensifies when he begins to suspect them of trafficking with faeries.

But Jena finds herself with further trouble: her elder sister Tatiana has fallen in love with a creature of Faerie, someone Jena believes is one of the dreaded Night People. With only her trusted friend and companion Gogu for a confidant, Jena delves further into the Other Kingdom to find answers; gambling with Night People, entering the Other Kingdom under the dark of the mind, searching for the witch Draguta, unraveling the events that took place the day her cousin Costi died...

Marillier creates a story in which the final result is better than the sum of its parts. Take any element of the story; whether it be Tatiana's love story, Cezar's takeover of the house, Marillier's portrayal of Faerie or Jena's friendship with Gogu and it is rather weak; however, because there is always so much going on throughout the story, the book ultimately fits together quite satisfactorily. Jena is a great protagonist; feisty and strong-willed, kind and courageous, without being too good to be true and she forms the backbone of the book. Her desire to protect what she loves, whether it be her sisters, her friends, her secrets or her household is the driving force of the story and she is entirely convincing in this capacity.

Unfortunately, what she is fighting for never comes across quite as strongly, and we are *told*, rather than *shown* what it is that Jena holds dear, such as her friendship with Gogu, her love of the Other Kingdom and her relationship with her sisters. We know that she holds them dear, but never really see *why* to any satisfactory degree. The same thing is true of Tatiana's romance with a Night Person; we are told they've fallen in love without getting the chance to place any sort of investment into why we should want them to be together. All we have is Jena's conviction, and though it is strong enough to convince us, I couldn't help but wish there was a little more depth in some of the bonds that Marillier forms.

Because K. Y. Craft lends her skills to create breathtaking cover-art (the saying "never judge a book by its cover" is always made null and void when it is Craft doing such artwork), one cannot help but be reminded of Patricia McKillip, another author that Craft often illustrates for. At the conclusion, I couldn't help but feel that though Marillier's story was enjoyable, in McKillip's hands it would have been unforgettable, especially in the portrayal of the Other Kingdom, which ultimately came across a little too structured and sentimental and not at all like the "wildwood" that the title suggests.

It's so easy to speak of faults rather than virtues, and looking over the review I feel I've been a little hard on "Wildwood Dancing". It is a sweet and mysterious book, with a bittersweet (and therefore satisfying) ending. It is an above-average fantasy novel - it's always refreshing to read a fantasy that doesn't involve magic swords, noble quests and loin-cloth-wearing heroes - with a couple of great twists and a quick-paced plot. I give it a solid three stars.

I was charmed with the idea of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" set in Transylvania. Oddly enough this book suffered because it was well-written and probably because I read 'Cybele's Gift' first. I kept expecting more of the plot, the characters and their interactions and was disappointed at how maddening and tiresome this story was. Jena raved throughout about how capable she was of taking care of her father's business but stayed helpless as her obnoxious cousin Cezar gradually took over, and then she kept needing male support to rescue the business and her sister. And if Jena was supposed to take care of the finances, the eldest sister was supposed to take care of the family. Instead, that responsibility also landed on an already overburdened Jena when Tatiana fell in love with a man whom we never actually get to know. Now, if one of the main characters was going to starve herself to death over love, at least the reader should know why the man was worth dying for. But very little is ever revealed of Sorrow. Furthermore, if she really loved him, Tati should have waited for actual word of Sorrow's death before pining away since he was on an impossible quest partly so they could have a future together. Imagine succeeding on such a quest and being unable to claim your reward because she has starved herself to death over you. It was also stretching credulity that everyone considered it acceptable for the eldest to waste away and shift her obligations off to Jena and to expect Jena to manage everything. No one thought it ironic that they were all making demands of someone who kept making poor decisions based on faulty judgment.

There were some bright points that didn't, however, make up for the protracted tedium of the rest. The wishes that guided the paths of the major characters, the descriptions of the wildwood and its inhabitants, the Transylvanian setting, and some of the intriguing plot turns all deserved high marks. The cover art was beautifully rendered, worthy of the theme of wildwood dancing. I admit I was also amused by the idea of a slimy frog continuously sharing pillow space with Jena. It's usually tears that dampen a maiden's pillow but with Jena, it's a frog.

Wildwood Dancing is a pleasant and entertaining read. It kept me up late at least once. The storyline is fairy tale-inspired: five sisters use a magic portal to pass into the Otherworld every full moon night. But while their father is ill, their domineering cousin Cezar begins to take over, and he plans to cut down the forest and slaughter its mystical denizens to avenge a dead brother. Throw in some vampires and an enchanted frog, and there's more than enough story for 400 pages. If it sounds a little cutesy, or heavy on the fantasy elements.... well, it is, more so than any other Marillier book I've read (and I've read almost all of them). There were moments that, in my mind, crossed the line from cute into just plain corny, but every reader has a different tolerance there.

Even for adult readers there's plenty to enjoy here, although if you haven't read any of Marillier's books yet, I'd recommend trying one of her adult ones first, preferably Daughter of the Forest. I liked the setting--Transylvania, it's different and exotic--and while the geographic scope of the book is quite small (the girls rarely ever leave their own estate and its surrounding forest) the setting felt well fleshed-out. The character development is decent but not exceptional, and the plot moves along briskly.

Now the problems. First, the male lead. Marillier's trying to weave in multiple fairy tales here, but an inherent problem with a "Frog Prince" is that the romantic hero has to appear as a frog. In this case, he spends most of the book as the heroine's pet: weak, childish, and stealing people's food. It didn't work for me, at all, and although I usually appreciate the way this author writes romance, this character was way too emasculated to be remotely attractive.

The thematics are a thornier issue. There are a lot of "character filibusters": the sisters give lectures on why women are capable, why people must respect nature, etc. This is lazy writing; readers should be given more credit. But it's not only that: since Marillier's opened the door by trying to "teach" young readers, let's look at what this book is actually saying. Despite the feminist rhetoric, the five sisters need a man to solve their problems. We're supposed to be outraged when the sexist Cezar takes over the family finances, but the sad truth is that he's far more responsible with them than the supposedly capable heroine. And once Cezar has tightened his grip on the household, the girls never reassert control; they require another man to go over Cezar's head.

Then there's the view of romance. Two of the sisters fall in love with men they have reason to believe are dangerous. Lip service is paid to caution, but in reality its advocates turn out to be wrong, since True Love is Always Right. Marillier misses an opportunity to distinguish healthy love from a dangerous infatuation with a sexual predator. Giving up everything for the person you love is presented as romantic, and one of the sisters literally starves herself because she doesn't get to see her boyfriend every day--and it's not presented as stupid or melodramatic. Now, I don't believe for a minute that young girls are going to emulate these behaviors simply because they encountered them in Wildwood Dancing, but for an author who's trying to convey a message, the one she actually sends isn't particularly uplifting.

I probably will read the sequel, because I was entertained by this book and because I generally like this author's work. Still, this isn't her best, and for a young adult book, the "moral" of this fairy tale is rather less than wholesome.

While I really did enjoy Marillier's Daughter of the Forest, I found this book (just like her Son of the Shadows one) rather lacking. For one, it had almost the same plotline as her Son of the Shadows book; the elder sister falls in love with someone she isn't supposed to, they endure many hardships and ultimately end up being together, blah blah blah. When I first got the "hint" of this being part of the plotline, I almost groaned aloud--"again?!" Luckily, the book did get better as it went on, though I found that the only interesting person in the whole book to be Cezar. Gogu, who ends up being Jenica's beloved, was a thoroughly boring, typical "princely" character who just got on my nerves. Sorrow, the elder sister's beloved, also turns out to be rather monotonous and frustrating to read about. Furthermore, the author's casual dismissal of Cezar is aggravating. He leaves, unloved by all, an almost inhuman character who "got what he deserved"; although he IS the sexist villain, he is the most original character in the whole book. I was also disappointed that Marillier outlined the faerie realm so shallowly--she barely skimmed the surface of what she could have done. Also, the book seemed to be too "right vs wrong"; just because it's a young adult book doesn't mean that it needs to be so shallow.

However, I did find that the plotline was intriguing. I've always enjoyed reading "faerie-tale"-style books, and this was not, by far, the worst faerie-based book I've read. I recommend this to those that feel like delving a little into light-hearted fantasy which never does get too serious.

Loved it! Wonderful fairy tale type story about a young woman and her sisters, a magical portal that takes them to a fairy forest, a controlling cousin who wants to take over their lives and destroy the forest, and a telepathic frog.

It was the frog who hooked me, although each sister is fun (Think the Bennet five) and the cousin becomes more and more despicable as the story progresses.

My only complaint is that the end was too predictable. With such fantastic writing and characters, I expected the plot to have a big twist. But it didn't. I could see the ending coming pretty early on. However, I still loved every moment of the story.

Set in Romania, this novel is about five very different sisters coping with life on their rural estate, Piscul Dracului, when their father goes away for the winter for his health. Uncle Nicolae and Cousin Cezar at the estate next door will be there to help if they need it. No one knows that the sisters have been crossing over into the Other Kingdom, a Fairyworld inhibited by the Fairy Court and other wondrous creatures. The girls have certain rules to protect them in the Other Kingdom. For many years the rules have kept them safe and kept the real world and the Other Kingdom separate. Now, one sister may have broken the rules and put them all in danger and events from the Other Kingdom are spilling over into Piscul Dracului.

The focus of this book is on Jenna, the "sensible" sister and her frog Gogu, who Jenna knows is a creature from the Other Kingdom. She's had Gogu almost from the beginning, when she and her sisters first started going to the Other Kingdom and the frog is her confident and best friend. But who is the frog, really? Do his alliances lie with the girls or with the Other Kingdom? Slowly, things start to happen that make you wonder how it all fits in, Cousin Cezar starts acting all paternal, and Night People show up in The Other Kingdom and haunt some of the sister's dreams.

I enjoyed this book, I like books about Fairylands, and I like the approach of this one, that Fairyland may not be all it seems, but that most people mean you no harm. The approach to the Night People is fascinating. It's Romania, you'd expect Vampires, right? Well, the Night People aren't exactly Vampires....or are they?

The only reason this didn't get 5 stars from me is that I found the characters of the sisters to be just a little stereotypical - the sensible one, the beauty, the brain, the vain one, the baby. Besides that they way the whole plot fits together a little too neatly. But all and all a good read, completely clean, no real violence.

Juliet Marillier's storytelling draws the reader in and, in my experience, never disappoints. Although "Wildwood Dancing" was intended for a younger reader, since I have read all of Marillier's books, I didn't want to miss out on this one. It was a delightful book which I enjoyed thoroughly and which now rests on the Marillier shelf of my small personal library. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds pleasure in a good, sure-to-be-a-classic, treasure of a fairy tale.

"Wildwood Dancing" is the tale of five sisters who live with their father in a Transylvanian castle situated amidst an ancient forest. The forest shelters the inhabitants of the Other Kingdom, who wield an equal share of respect and fear from the folk that live in the area. As small children, the sisters discovered a portal in their bedroom that leads to the Other Kingdom, and since then they have been making monthly visits to participate in the Full Moon festivities.

The story is narrated by Jena, the second eldest, who takes many of the family responsibilities upon herself. Her constant companion is a frog named Gogu, who she found at a young age and who she is able to communicate with. When their father falls ill and is forced to spend the winter elsewhere, Jena resolves to handle the business and family in his absence. But she faces continual challenges: one in the form of their cousin Cezar, who steadily gains more control over their home and business; and the second being the arrival of the mysterious Night People, one of whom captures the heart of her older sister, Tati.

This was a thoroughly enchanting read! Marillier has once again taken well-known fairy tale elements and worked them into a unique and captivating tale of love, loss, acceptance, trust, and change. Despite the multitude of characters and the first-person perspective, readers got a firm impression of the diversity and depth of many of the central characters' thoughts and feelings. The setting for the story was elaborative; the writing was flowing and lyrical. Despite the straightforwardness of the plot, I did find myself surprised by a couple of twists here and there.

There are only a few points I could nitpick about. One being that the Tati/Sorrow and Jena/Cezar angles were very reminiscent of Niamh/Ciaran and Liadan/Eammon from "Son of the Shadows". Seeing as how Marillier is a very skilled and creative author, I read through most of the book expecting some type of twist to make it different from "Shadwos", but none came, and that was a little disappointing. Also, as much as I adored the many characterizations, a few of the sisters did start to get annoying towards the end. Luckily that was quickly rectified, but it seemed to mar the otherwise excellent climax. But again, these are minor points, and I only mention them because I tend to hold Juliet Marillier to a higher standard than most other authors I've read.

Overall, this was an imaginative, engrossing, beautiful read! I highly recommend it not only for young adults, but more mature readers as well.