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iveysbananas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
alesehunter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Child death, Infertility, and Kidnapping
thegoblinempress's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Check out this review and more on my blog!
TW: I will be discussing sexual assault in this review
There are some books that you know from the very first page you’re going to love, and that’s exactly what happened to me when I opened Daughter of the Forest.
Set in medieval Ireland, this sweep-you-away story is a retelling of The Six Swans fairy tale, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a story about loyalty – to family, to friends, to countries – and how loyalties can change and how, ultimately, even our enemies are people. But it’s also a story about trauma and hardship and how we overcome it and, in overcoming it, can open ourselves up to people again.
Sorcha is the youngest of the master of Sevenwaters’ seven children. Sevenwaters is an ancient keep that has been owned by Sorcha’s family for generations and her father, turned hard by the death of his beloved wife after Sorcha’s birth, has devoted his life to fighting back the enemies approaching from all sides in this medieval world. There are Danes and Picts who would seek to conquer Sevenwaters if they could, and even other Irish warlords, but their fiercest enemies are the Britons from across the water.
When Sorcha and her brother, Finbar, rescue a captured Briton from their own father’s dungeons Sorcha begins to re-evaluate everything she’s been taught about how ‘evil’ these people really are, but it isn’t until their father unexpectedly remarries a sorceress, the lady Oonagh, who places a curse on Sorcha’s brothers and turns them into swans that Sorcha’s difficult, often heart-breaking adventure truly begins.
This novel is slow and gorgeously written. I hesitate to say that if you prefer fast-paced fantasy you might not enjoy this book, because even though it’s a chunky story the plot keeps moving. There are plenty of moments of stillness and character growth, but at no point does this book feel stagnant. Every single scene in this book contributes to the story, and I’m not sure that’s something we can say for every large book out there.
What I loved about this novel is while it is a fantasy story – Sorcha has many interactions with the Fair Folk who aid her on her long journey, and magic is real to these people even before Oonagh arrives – it’s also very much a piece of historical fiction. Marillier adds so much detail about these characters’ daily lives, from what they have available to eat to what they wear, that meant I was quite happy to believe I’d been pulled back into the Middle Ages.
What Marillier most needs to be praised for, however, outside of her beautiful writing, is her character work.
Sorcha, for a start, is one of those characters I’m sure is going to stay with me throughout the rest of my reading life. We follow this girl from her childhood into her adulthood and get to know her so well that it was difficult to leave her when I closed this book. She starts out as many fantasy and historical fiction heroines do, with a love for the outdoors and not wanting to grow into a lady, but she’s not a girl-hating, one dimensional ‘tomboy’. She’s a girl who’s been raised not by her mother, who has passed away, and not by her father, who is too wrapped up in his own grief, but by six older brothers who have tried to raise her as best they can. It’s only natural then that, during her younger years, she doesn’t quite know how to relate to other girls because she’s never had any practice.
Her brothers I also loved, and I so admire Marillier for how she wrote them. Each one of them felt different from the others and I was never confused as to which was which, which takes some skill considering Sorcha was so often with all six of them at once. Their relationship is one of my favourite things about this novel, as they consider themselves seven parts of the same whole rather than seven individual people, and what they’re willing to do for each other (and what Sorcha does have to do for them) is the kind of love that could have come across as saccharine in the hand of another writer.
All of the characters in this novel are complex (apart from one or two villains who, I must admit, felt a little cartoonish when compared with the other characters) and the romance that develops is such a slowburn that it’s a relief when it comes to fruition. In fact I sped through this novel, despite its length, because Marillier did such a wonderful job of keeping me in a permanent state of anxiety worrying about what was going to happen to these characters. Once one chapter ended, I needed to start the next.
Unfortunately Sorcha suffers a sexual assault during this novel and, I won’t lie, I found it difficult to read. It takes me a while to build myself up to books that I know involve sexual assault because I find it so upsetting to read, and this scene in particular was harrowing. I feel like I need to mention it because it is quite graphic and I know there will be people out there who will find it so much more difficult to read than I did.
All that said, Marillier doesn’t write it just to shock people. Sorcha suffers this dreadful assault, but the rest of the novel is about how she works through that trauma as much as it is about her saving her brothers. Sorcha is unable to speak throughout the majority of this book, thanks to Oonagh’s curse, so she is forced to literally suffer in silence as many people who have suffered sexual assault continue to do today. She is able to communicate in other ways, however, and the new friends she makes and the man she eventually falls in love with are patient and kind. She is surrounded by people who want to make sure such a thing never happens to her again, and while that event can never be forgotten, their love and her brothers’ love and her own self-love help her to realise that that one event in her life doesn’t need to define the rest of it. It was evil and it shouldn’t have happened, but she isn’t ‘stained’ because of it.
Daughter of the Forest ultimately reads like its own original fairy tale, but in the best way. Yes, some of the villains are rather one dimensional, but this book as a whole is nothing short of a masterpiece. How could I give it anything less than 5 stars?
TW: I will be discussing sexual assault in this review
There are some books that you know from the very first page you’re going to love, and that’s exactly what happened to me when I opened Daughter of the Forest.
Set in medieval Ireland, this sweep-you-away story is a retelling of The Six Swans fairy tale, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a story about loyalty – to family, to friends, to countries – and how loyalties can change and how, ultimately, even our enemies are people. But it’s also a story about trauma and hardship and how we overcome it and, in overcoming it, can open ourselves up to people again.
Sorcha is the youngest of the master of Sevenwaters’ seven children. Sevenwaters is an ancient keep that has been owned by Sorcha’s family for generations and her father, turned hard by the death of his beloved wife after Sorcha’s birth, has devoted his life to fighting back the enemies approaching from all sides in this medieval world. There are Danes and Picts who would seek to conquer Sevenwaters if they could, and even other Irish warlords, but their fiercest enemies are the Britons from across the water.
When Sorcha and her brother, Finbar, rescue a captured Briton from their own father’s dungeons Sorcha begins to re-evaluate everything she’s been taught about how ‘evil’ these people really are, but it isn’t until their father unexpectedly remarries a sorceress, the lady Oonagh, who places a curse on Sorcha’s brothers and turns them into swans that Sorcha’s difficult, often heart-breaking adventure truly begins.
This novel is slow and gorgeously written. I hesitate to say that if you prefer fast-paced fantasy you might not enjoy this book, because even though it’s a chunky story the plot keeps moving. There are plenty of moments of stillness and character growth, but at no point does this book feel stagnant. Every single scene in this book contributes to the story, and I’m not sure that’s something we can say for every large book out there.
What I loved about this novel is while it is a fantasy story – Sorcha has many interactions with the Fair Folk who aid her on her long journey, and magic is real to these people even before Oonagh arrives – it’s also very much a piece of historical fiction. Marillier adds so much detail about these characters’ daily lives, from what they have available to eat to what they wear, that meant I was quite happy to believe I’d been pulled back into the Middle Ages.
What Marillier most needs to be praised for, however, outside of her beautiful writing, is her character work.
Sorcha, for a start, is one of those characters I’m sure is going to stay with me throughout the rest of my reading life. We follow this girl from her childhood into her adulthood and get to know her so well that it was difficult to leave her when I closed this book. She starts out as many fantasy and historical fiction heroines do, with a love for the outdoors and not wanting to grow into a lady, but she’s not a girl-hating, one dimensional ‘tomboy’. She’s a girl who’s been raised not by her mother, who has passed away, and not by her father, who is too wrapped up in his own grief, but by six older brothers who have tried to raise her as best they can. It’s only natural then that, during her younger years, she doesn’t quite know how to relate to other girls because she’s never had any practice.
Her brothers I also loved, and I so admire Marillier for how she wrote them. Each one of them felt different from the others and I was never confused as to which was which, which takes some skill considering Sorcha was so often with all six of them at once. Their relationship is one of my favourite things about this novel, as they consider themselves seven parts of the same whole rather than seven individual people, and what they’re willing to do for each other (and what Sorcha does have to do for them) is the kind of love that could have come across as saccharine in the hand of another writer.
All of the characters in this novel are complex (apart from one or two villains who, I must admit, felt a little cartoonish when compared with the other characters) and the romance that develops is such a slowburn that it’s a relief when it comes to fruition. In fact I sped through this novel, despite its length, because Marillier did such a wonderful job of keeping me in a permanent state of anxiety worrying about what was going to happen to these characters. Once one chapter ended, I needed to start the next.
Unfortunately Sorcha suffers a sexual assault during this novel and, I won’t lie, I found it difficult to read. It takes me a while to build myself up to books that I know involve sexual assault because I find it so upsetting to read, and this scene in particular was harrowing. I feel like I need to mention it because it is quite graphic and I know there will be people out there who will find it so much more difficult to read than I did.
All that said, Marillier doesn’t write it just to shock people. Sorcha suffers this dreadful assault, but the rest of the novel is about how she works through that trauma as much as it is about her saving her brothers. Sorcha is unable to speak throughout the majority of this book, thanks to Oonagh’s curse, so she is forced to literally suffer in silence as many people who have suffered sexual assault continue to do today. She is able to communicate in other ways, however, and the new friends she makes and the man she eventually falls in love with are patient and kind. She is surrounded by people who want to make sure such a thing never happens to her again, and while that event can never be forgotten, their love and her brothers’ love and her own self-love help her to realise that that one event in her life doesn’t need to define the rest of it. It was evil and it shouldn’t have happened, but she isn’t ‘stained’ because of it.
Daughter of the Forest ultimately reads like its own original fairy tale, but in the best way. Yes, some of the villains are rather one dimensional, but this book as a whole is nothing short of a masterpiece. How could I give it anything less than 5 stars?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Minor: Torture
wardenred's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path.
I have read and enjoyed several other books by Juliet Marillier, but I've been putting this one off for ages because friends warned me there's rape as a major part of the character arc here. It's a triggering subject for me. I don't automatically discard books that deal with the matter, especially if they deal with it respectfully, but I do need to be prepared to read them. Which is why I've waited awhile to read this novel.
This was a pretty heavy read, and not just because of the subject mentioned above. While this is a fairy tale retelling that carries a lot of hope in it, the story goes into a lot of dark places and culminates in a highly bittersweet ending. I greatly admired the protagonist: her willpower, her determination, her quiet strength. I don't think I liked many of the other characters who surround her, so, probably with the exception of Red, Ben, and Lady Anne. The story itself is beautifully told, the historical fantasy setting vividly painted (no one does fairies like Juliet Marillier, I'm convinced), other stories woven into the fabric of the narrative as the characters tell legends to each other, or retell pieces of their own lives as stories and compare the events they go through to patterns from tales.
The tight bonds the heroine has with her brothers are well-explored, not only in the sense of there obviously being a strong familiar love connecting the group of them, but also in the sense that no matter how much they all love and treasure each other and to what great lengths they're willing to go for each other, there's still subtle conflict. Sorcha sacrifices everything to save her brothers, and she has their obvious gratitude, but, without going into too much spoilery detail, there are still two moments in the book where she acknowledges that, with all their love for her, they treat her as a part of their narrative, and more moments where she doesn't acknowledge it but it still happens. That's interesting and realistic and makes everyone more alive, but it's also sometimes hard to read about. But this is the case where "hard to read" actually equals "very well-written," with the way the author draws you in and makes you feel for these characters.
The one small flaw the story had for me was a certain side character who appeared late in the plot and largely turned the tide of events in the heroine's favor. Maybe it's just me, but his timely appearance in the story felt a bit coincidental, and if the character's presence in the storyspace was at least hinted at somewhere around midpoint-ish and he didn't just spring into being when he was needed for the plot to keep going where it's been headed all along, it would have felt more natural.
Overall, this was an engrossing and beautiful read that makes me want to immediately reach for something light and fluffy as a palate cleanser.
Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- Mythothon3: Animal on the Cover (there's a swan on the cover of the edition I have, and biologically speaking, birds are animals!:))
- I Read Sins Not Tragedies: Retelling
- Demonathon: Intense Love or Friendship
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence and Confinement
Child neglect
More...