Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Daughter of the Forest

Daughter of the Forest is a retelling of the Six Swans fairy tale - six brothers are turned into swans by their evil stepmother. Their sister Sorcha flees and must sew six shirts for them out of a barbarous weed in complete silence in order to break the spell. Her journey to complete her task spans years of heartbreak and suffering, and takes her far from her homeland into the land of her enemies, the Britons.

I first read this book in either 2001 or 2002, as a pre-teen/young teen. I picked it up at my local library, where I used to spend everyday after school. I went on to read the rest of the Sevenwaters Trilogy and loved these books so very much. I credit them with getting me into the fantasy genre. I spent a long time away from fiction, not feeling like I had the time to read fiction because who has time to read for fun as a grown up? I'm happy to say I finally found the time to re-read this after a long time away. These are my thoughts re-reading this book after TWENTY (yikes) years:

Juliet Marillier is still a brilliant writer and gifted storyteller. Beautiful, moving prose. Characters you will love with your whole heart and characters you with hate with every fiber for your being.

But I have found that I was not nearly as comfortable with some of the plot points as I was when I first read this book, as a kid. I don't know if this is because some of these things went over my head, if I just forgot the impact they made on me at the time, or if my sensitivity has changed after so much time and life has happened. In any event, here are some major content warnings you should be aware of, that I will put behind a spoiler tag:

This book features graphic sexual assault of a child, animal abuse, and animal death.

These books will always be so special to me. However, they are in the same vein as A Song of Ice and Fire, where very bad things happen to good people with little respite. And that's no longer my idea of a good time. Read with care.

Content Warnings

comityoferrors's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

A seventh child of a seventh son pursues her fae-crossed destiny, despite the loss and torture along the way. A fae-retell of the Six Swans mythology set in Ireland, in the middle of conflict between the Irish, the Britons, and the invading Norse forces.

I liked the story well enough, but the narration and characters were not what I hoped. The writing isn't bad, but IMO it's just "good" and the author writes in a way that feels like it should be great. There were some vivid and impactful scenes that I really loved, but others fell short or even detracted from the overall story due to baffling differences in characterization. In particular, Conor didn't seem to have a consistent characterization in the final acts --

for most of the book he was portrayed as the kind and level-headed brother, one of the most willing to accept that Britons are people too and the only one trusted to help Finbar and Sorcha rescue Simon. He took particular care to check in with Sorcha and comfort her during the solstices that they met. Then, suddenly, he's extremely hostile to Red and Red's family just for being Britons, and he doesn't spare even a second to check on his sister who extremely narrowly escaped being burned to death and who is obviously bonded with the unthreatening people who are offering shelter and kindness to the whole set of siblings. He had also been really aware of Sorcha's sacrifice for most of the book, but when returned to (permanent) human form, he's too preoccupied with hatred for the Britons to do anything except pick fights with the Britons and insist that they mistreated her? Where the fuck did that come from?

It was very jarring and made his ending feel a lot less satisfying.

Unfortunately, Sorcha also felt weirdly characterized to me. She was simultaneously precocious, careful, brilliantly learned in lore and mythology...and too stupid to recognize anything about people and mythological structures, except for the times where she was uncannily tuned in to those exact topics. She was whatever the plot needed to move forward at the time. It also bugged me that so much of her later characterization was that: 1) she suffered for men, willingly and unwillingly, and that's a really noble womanly trait :) and 2) btw she was SUPER hot the whole time! Like, every other minor character commented on how wildly beautiful and shapely she was. I think there were a small handful of times that characters praised her intelligence or resilience or compassion, and that was usually in addition to praising her obedience and physical attractiveness

(from YEARS OF LITERAL STARVATION)

. The narrative focus on entirely the wrong reasons to love Sorcha was off-putting.

Despite all that, I did mostly enjoy this book lol. I like most anything set in Ireland, especially ancient Ireland, and it's obvious Marillier did her homework with the setting. I appreciated the message of harmony and humanity from the main conflict in the story. I actually did like the romance, or at least I liked

the romantic interest, Red

. I thought the ending came together nicely, though I'm not really sold on reading any follow-ups at this point. The depiction of PTSD

from rape

was largely accurate to my own experience, and I felt genuine empathy for Sorcha's pain as she processed that.

I think I was ultimately let down by my high hopes for what this could have been, but that doesn't mean the end result isn't worth reading -- just be sure to go in with the right expectations.

Content Warnings

missgarceau's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Content Warnings

aarynn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

deathmetalpainter's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

elderlingfool's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

This was a reread for me and I like this book even more now, even though it has faults and some elements I don’t like. This was the first book published by the author and, as such, it’s really impressive.

This historical fantasy novel is a retelling of the Six Swans fairy tale, but expanded and with enough originality added. In this first book of the Sevenwaters series, we follow Sorcha, the seventh child of Lord Colum that looks very much like her deceased mother. Sorcha’s father decides to remarry with a woman called Oonagh that later transforms her brothers into swans. Sorcha manages to escape and The Lady of the Forest, queen of the Fair Folk, tells her that her brothers will regain human form twice a year and that the spell can be undone if she keeps silent and sews six shirts made from a painful nettle plant. Alone on her mission and without the possibility to return home or ask for help, Sorcha is determined to complete the task even when she arrives in enemy territory.

I really like the writing style, even though it can get repetitive at times and fall into the trap of too much telling instead of showing. However, there is enough character complexity and dialogue to make me forgive that.

The characters are great. I especially love the bond between Sorcha and her brothers and how distinct each of them is. Conor is still my favourite though, but I like all of them very much. Sorcha has a quiet strength that some people might not like. She is aware of her limits, especially being so young, and she takes advantage of all the protection she can get. I really liked Lady Oonagh, but Richard is one of the most annoying villains ever and I got tired of his disgusting and repetitive monologues.

There is a romance in this book, but very slow and doesn’t take over the entire plot. However, it happens between a minor and someone who is an adult, which always bothers me. There is also the hint of a marriage between cousins.

This book also has a graphic rape scene. This moment affects the character for the entirety of the story, but it was still too unnecessarily descriptive.

I really like the role of the Fae Folk and how they intervene solely to fulfil their mysterious goals. They aren’t completely good or evil and there is the feeling that they only to what they do to entertain themselves.

Even though this book can be read as a stand-alone there are still some questions left to be answered at the end and I hope the rest of the series provides some answers for I will be continuing it.

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