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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I think Juliet Marillier's writing is phenomenal. She is such a talented storyteller and really underrated. I plan to read everything she's written
Based on the twelve dancing sisters, it has a little bit of a twist on it that I simply loved. I found it particularly enjoyable toward the end. It was a little hard to get into, but I still liked it. If you haven't read it, give it a shot.
This book is simply beautiful! There's a sister to love for everybody. Each sister has her own strengths and flaws, but are all positive influences... ok maybe not Tati... well I suppose she could be, but not for me. Jena and her sisters can escape every full moon to their own magical heaven, until Cezar, their cousin wishes to destroy it all. Read this if you love magic and fairy tales.
It starts out slow... but once you get to the end, you won't regret reading it!
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’ve heard it said that girls can’t keep secrets. That’s wrong: we’d proved it.
Can I tell you how much I loved this book? I'm gonna tell you how much I loved this book.
Wildwood Dancing has been on my TBR since I was in middle school. I'm 19 now!! That's a long time!
I say it in every review, but I'm really into fairytales. I always have been. I actively seek out good retellings and I have done so for years. I always intended to read Wildwood Dancing, but there was always a reason why I didn't. There was another, newer book out; the bookstore didn't carry it; I couldn't afford it at the time…the list goes on. I finally got off my lazy ass and asked for it for Christmas--my laziness was foiled!
Then it took me till April to read it. Laziness not foiled.
But it was so good. I'm almost glad that I didn't read it when I was younger. I don't know if I would have had the patience, or the understanding, or simply the cerebral development required to truly appreciate a book so good.
The center of this book is Jena. She's fifteen, the daughter of an ailing merchant, and has four sisters. Each of the sisters has her own personality and interests, but my favorite hands down is Jena. She's the sensible one. The reliable one, the one who shoulders the weight of her family when her father must leave to preserve what's left of his health. Jena carries this book.
“Sometimes you’re so sensible, you make me angry.”
“Someone has to be,” I said, swallowing my annoyance. “I’m just trying to keep you safe. To look after things while Father’s away.”
When their father leaves for a warmer climate, the sisters refuse to give up their monthly visits to the Other Kingdom, where the fae and their realm gather on the full moon to host their revelry. The sisters have always gone ever since they found the portal in their bedroom when they were children. It's their special time--when they can dance and laugh and play. But then the Night People come.
The Night People are this world's vampires. They're shady (ha ha) and mysterious, and not even the Queen Ileana knows exactly their motive. Jena's older sister Tati becomes infatuated with one of them, and that my friends the beginning of the end. She's distracted and lovelorn, and not at all helpful when it comes to reining in the sisters' greedy cousin, Çezar. With the girls' father out of the way, he invades their space and makes their business his business.
With the Night People and Tati's emotional distance, Çezar's bullying, and the potential razing of their beloved Wildwood, Jena's only comfort and friend is her pet frog, Gogu. But even there, all isn't as it seems…
“You’ve upset him,” I said. “Frogs have feelings, too, you know.”
I loved Jena. I loved her practicality, her pragmatism, her willingness to stand up for herself and take matters into her own hands. She was smart, even when rendered powerless, and I really respected her. I also LOVED the take on The Twelve Dancing Princesses that Wildwood Dancing took--it's set in Transylvannia, and the love and lore that went into this retelling is evident on every page.
The relationship with the sisters is very good. Don't get me wrong, I DID think the sisters had a great relationship. Buuut, I was upset with Tati, the eldest. She was supposed to be the sweet one, the mothering one, but most of the book she spent pining! I won't spoil, but some of her decisions and her lack of ANY support or action made me really frustrated with her as a character. Jena is the standout in this novel--as is her growth and her, ahem, other relationships.
But I’m going to play the tease. Let’s talk about the antagonist! Çezar, oh boy. HE WAS SUCH A DICK!!! Oh my God. He’s the kind of asshole you don’t even realize he’s an asshole till you get stuck with him for an extended period of time. Then you see it. You see. This guy is fucking nuts. He makes the sister’s lives--especially Jena’s--a living hell. He does it subtly, integrating himself into their business affairs, but then. THEN. He takes where nothing is given, including far more things than managing accounts and ledgers.
"The real monsters aren't folk from the Other Kingdom, Çezar. They're men like you: men who won't stop grasping for power until they've destroyed everything. You think you're going to put an end to the folk of the forest. But if you don't take a step back, you're going to end up destroying your own life."
Gogu was the best. He was Jena's companion but always very much his own, erm, frog. He was the snarky commentary, the wit of the book, always gracing the reader with a blatant and unsympathetic comeback to any ridiculous notions from our antagonists.
“You’d be surprised,” she said. “Love makes people do some odd things. I mean, Jena loves Gogu best in the world, doesn’t she? A frog. That’s just about the weirdest thing you could imagine.”
It's pretty obvious when, in a fairytale retelling, a girl has a pet frog the outcome of said relation. BUT for the sake of not being accountable for potential spoilers, I won't mention anything else. About anything. Not even the possible teeny weeny POSSIBILITY that Gogu the frog may or may not be AN ADORABLE LOVABLE LOVABLE PERSONBOYFROGTHING AND ALSO MY FAVORITE CHARACTER.
I love this book. I love the story, the way it was slow-burning and slow-building like a Jane Austen novel. There is so much intricacy and depth and feeling in the pages. This style may not be for everyone; I know a lot of readers don't find the idea of classical-type storytelling interesting, per se, but if you just stick out the kind-of-wordy beginning, PLEASE, you will probably end up loving it!
That's my biggest problem, other than Tati--the slow beginning. It's not fast. I was a little bored, I'll admit. I had to FORCE my sister to keep going. On the front cover of my copy, an author lauds the book as a page-turner and I laughed LOUDLY when I started. Because it was quite dull. BUT I swear, I revoke that laughter! I was very happy to be proven wrong. Once you're into it, Wildwood Dancing is SO hard to put down.
When you're forced to put it down, your mind wanders back to it. You need to know what happens. It's this sort of all-consuming world, you feel like you're THERE, feeling the wildwood wind and smelling the coffee and stepping on the cold tiles of their family mansion's floors. You feel the warmth of the kitchens and the eery, otherworldliness of the Night People's realm. You need to know who reaches their happiness, if it's even attainable; you care so much for the characters, you even find yourself pitying the ones you hate. When immersed in this new kind of world, you can understand why the sisters are drawn to the wildwood, even with its dangers. Its free and fresh and new and yet so like home, you just can't leave it.
Read it. Please?
Can I tell you how much I loved this book? I'm gonna tell you how much I loved this book.
Wildwood Dancing has been on my TBR since I was in middle school. I'm 19 now!! That's a long time!
I say it in every review, but I'm really into fairytales. I always have been. I actively seek out good retellings and I have done so for years. I always intended to read Wildwood Dancing, but there was always a reason why I didn't. There was another, newer book out; the bookstore didn't carry it; I couldn't afford it at the time…the list goes on. I finally got off my lazy ass and asked for it for Christmas--my laziness was foiled!
Then it took me till April to read it. Laziness not foiled.
But it was so good. I'm almost glad that I didn't read it when I was younger. I don't know if I would have had the patience, or the understanding, or simply the cerebral development required to truly appreciate a book so good.
The center of this book is Jena. She's fifteen, the daughter of an ailing merchant, and has four sisters. Each of the sisters has her own personality and interests, but my favorite hands down is Jena. She's the sensible one. The reliable one, the one who shoulders the weight of her family when her father must leave to preserve what's left of his health. Jena carries this book.
“Sometimes you’re so sensible, you make me angry.”
“Someone has to be,” I said, swallowing my annoyance. “I’m just trying to keep you safe. To look after things while Father’s away.”
When their father leaves for a warmer climate, the sisters refuse to give up their monthly visits to the Other Kingdom, where the fae and their realm gather on the full moon to host their revelry. The sisters have always gone ever since they found the portal in their bedroom when they were children. It's their special time--when they can dance and laugh and play. But then the Night People come.
The Night People are this world's vampires. They're shady (ha ha) and mysterious, and not even the Queen Ileana knows exactly their motive. Jena's older sister Tati becomes infatuated with one of them, and that my friends the beginning of the end. She's distracted and lovelorn, and not at all helpful when it comes to reining in the sisters' greedy cousin, Çezar. With the girls' father out of the way, he invades their space and makes their business his business.
With the Night People and Tati's emotional distance, Çezar's bullying, and the potential razing of their beloved Wildwood, Jena's only comfort and friend is her pet frog, Gogu. But even there, all isn't as it seems…
“You’ve upset him,” I said. “Frogs have feelings, too, you know.”
I loved Jena. I loved her practicality, her pragmatism, her willingness to stand up for herself and take matters into her own hands. She was smart, even when rendered powerless, and I really respected her. I also LOVED the take on The Twelve Dancing Princesses that Wildwood Dancing took--it's set in Transylvannia, and the love and lore that went into this retelling is evident on every page.
The relationship with the sisters is very good. Don't get me wrong, I DID think the sisters had a great relationship. Buuut, I was upset with Tati, the eldest. She was supposed to be the sweet one, the mothering one, but most of the book she spent pining! I won't spoil, but some of her decisions and her lack of ANY support or action made me really frustrated with her as a character. Jena is the standout in this novel--as is her growth and her, ahem, other relationships.
But I’m going to play the tease. Let’s talk about the antagonist! Çezar, oh boy. HE WAS SUCH A DICK!!! Oh my God. He’s the kind of asshole you don’t even realize he’s an asshole till you get stuck with him for an extended period of time. Then you see it. You see. This guy is fucking nuts. He makes the sister’s lives--especially Jena’s--a living hell. He does it subtly, integrating himself into their business affairs, but then. THEN. He takes where nothing is given, including far more things than managing accounts and ledgers.
"The real monsters aren't folk from the Other Kingdom, Çezar. They're men like you: men who won't stop grasping for power until they've destroyed everything. You think you're going to put an end to the folk of the forest. But if you don't take a step back, you're going to end up destroying your own life."
Gogu was the best. He was Jena's companion but always very much his own, erm, frog. He was the snarky commentary, the wit of the book, always gracing the reader with a blatant and unsympathetic comeback to any ridiculous notions from our antagonists.
“You’d be surprised,” she said. “Love makes people do some odd things. I mean, Jena loves Gogu best in the world, doesn’t she? A frog. That’s just about the weirdest thing you could imagine.”
It's pretty obvious when, in a fairytale retelling, a girl has a pet frog the outcome of said relation. BUT for the sake of not being accountable for potential spoilers, I won't mention anything else. About anything. Not even the possible teeny weeny POSSIBILITY that Gogu the frog may or may not be AN ADORABLE LOVABLE LOVABLE PERSONBOYFROGTHING AND ALSO MY FAVORITE CHARACTER.
I love this book. I love the story, the way it was slow-burning and slow-building like a Jane Austen novel. There is so much intricacy and depth and feeling in the pages. This style may not be for everyone; I know a lot of readers don't find the idea of classical-type storytelling interesting, per se, but if you just stick out the kind-of-wordy beginning, PLEASE, you will probably end up loving it!
That's my biggest problem, other than Tati--the slow beginning. It's not fast. I was a little bored, I'll admit. I had to FORCE my sister to keep going. On the front cover of my copy, an author lauds the book as a page-turner and I laughed LOUDLY when I started. Because it was quite dull. BUT I swear, I revoke that laughter! I was very happy to be proven wrong. Once you're into it, Wildwood Dancing is SO hard to put down.
When you're forced to put it down, your mind wanders back to it. You need to know what happens. It's this sort of all-consuming world, you feel like you're THERE, feeling the wildwood wind and smelling the coffee and stepping on the cold tiles of their family mansion's floors. You feel the warmth of the kitchens and the eery, otherworldliness of the Night People's realm. You need to know who reaches their happiness, if it's even attainable; you care so much for the characters, you even find yourself pitying the ones you hate. When immersed in this new kind of world, you can understand why the sisters are drawn to the wildwood, even with its dangers. Its free and fresh and new and yet so like home, you just can't leave it.
Read it. Please?
PLEASE STOP WRITING ABOUT ROMANIA LIKE YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT OUR LANGUAGE, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, CULTURE!!!!
This was an excellent fairy tale! Setting it in Transylvania gave it a very intriguing backdrop. The main character, Jena, is sensible and intelligent (even though she misses some obvious facts!), and is doing her best to protect her four sisters while her father is away recuperating from a serious illness.
The prose is very dense and there is a lot going on, but it never got boring or overwhelming. The five girls' trips to the Dancing Glade (obviously an interpretation of the Twelve Dancing Princesses story), Tati's perhaps-ill-advised relationship with the pale, mysterious Sorrow, and Jena's abiding friendship with her frog, Gogu (whose thoughts she can hear, by the way), all play out in interesting and satisfying ways. Cezar is a maddening villain, partly because it's not just happening because his own nature makes him a tyrant, but because the society at the time gave him a tyrant's power, and there's very little the girls can do about it despite the beliefs of their forward-thinking father.
I really enjoyed the fact that Marillier often hints at things JUST enough that we can understand what is really going on, even if Jena doesn't get it yet. It didn't feel like she was smacking me in the face with it, but I was definitely reading a lot more into several occurrences than Jena was.
Oh, and I loved Gogu. :) He added just a touch of humor without it going too far.
I'd definitely recommend this book, and look forward to checking out more by Juliet Marillier.
The prose is very dense and there is a lot going on, but it never got boring or overwhelming. The five girls' trips to the Dancing Glade (obviously an interpretation of the Twelve Dancing Princesses story), Tati's perhaps-ill-advised relationship with the pale, mysterious Sorrow, and Jena's abiding friendship with her frog, Gogu (whose thoughts she can hear, by the way), all play out in interesting and satisfying ways. Cezar is a maddening villain, partly because it's not just happening because his own nature makes him a tyrant, but because the society at the time gave him a tyrant's power, and there's very little the girls can do about it despite the beliefs of their forward-thinking father.
I really enjoyed the fact that Marillier often hints at things JUST enough that we can understand what is really going on, even if Jena doesn't get it yet. It didn't feel like she was smacking me in the face with it, but I was definitely reading a lot more into several occurrences than Jena was.
Oh, and I loved Gogu. :) He added just a touch of humor without it going too far.
I'd definitely recommend this book, and look forward to checking out more by Juliet Marillier.
Star Rating: 4 stars
After loving Marillier’s adult historical fantasy works, I decided to pick up some of her YA works, and the one I decided to start with is Wildwood Dancing. I have to admit that I prefer her adult work, although this was a really good read. This tells the story of 5 sisters, - Tatiana, Jenica, Iuila, Paula, and Stela- and their adventures at their father’s woodland estate of Piscul Dracului. They are perfectly happy exploring the woods and having adventures until their father gets ill and leaves to go to the coastal town of Constanta over the winter in order to heal. He believes that his girls will be okay by themselves because he has taught them skills that many women didn’t learn in this time period. He had not anticipated that their cousin, Cezar that lives in the neighboring fortress of Varful cu Negura would, through a series of schemes seize control of every aspect of the girl’s lives due to his obsession with Jenica, our main character. However, Jenica has unseen allies, as she and her sisters have been visiting the Wildwood, also known as the land of the fey, since they were children through a portal that they found in their room. As well as the fey, Jenica has a pet frog named Gogu who may be more than he seems, but I won’t spoil that. Will Jenica overcome her evil cousin without having to sacrifice what makes her unique?
The best thing about this book is the main character of Jena or Jenica as she is a person that I aspire to be. First off, she is educated in a time that is unusual. Although, we don’t know exactly what time period this book is set in, we can tell that it is set in a time in which women don’t have much of a voice, and I think it is quite admiring that Jenica had the courage to pursue education, even when everyone is telling her that she should just let the men handle it. Also, she is very out-spoken, opinionated, and not afraid to stand up for herself, even when everyone is telling her to shut up and take whatever is being dished out to her. Repeatedly, Jenica is told that she weak and has no right to fight for her and her sister’s well-being. Instead of sitting down and giving up, she comes up with a plan to get past her evil cousin and get the best future she can for her family. Very admirable!!
I also loved the fairy-tale elements that are woven throughout this story. There are allusions to The 12 Dancing Princesses, The Frog King, and Midsummer’s Night Dream to just name a few. The 12 Dancing Princesses allusions are obvious with the fact that Jenica has 4 sisters and they are all expert dancers due to the practice they get from their monthly visits to the fey kingdom. The kingdom that the sisters’ visit is clearly the Summer Kingdom as it is always warm even in winter and all the fey that live there are all bright in disposition and clad in colorful garments. In the book, we get visitors from and even visit the Night Kingdom where darkness reigns and everyone has evil intent. If you have ever read Midsummer Night’s Dream, then you will be able to see the allusions. Finally, there is an enchanted frog in this story that needs a kiss from his true love in order to become a real person. Princess and the Frog or The Frog King (These are essentially the same tale, but they have different titles. This one takes more from the Frog King than Princess and the Frog, though.), anyone?
There were some things in this story that didn’t work for me, though. First off, I understand that Cezar was supposed to be this misogynistic idiot, but after a while his comments and actions really started to grate on my nerves. I wanted to step into the story and smack him, which I guess was the reaction Marillier was going for, but he really started to irritate me after a while. Also, I don’t think that Tatiana’s storyline was necessary for the story. Although, it was interesting, I felt like the book focused on Jenica more. In my opinion, it would be cooler if she had taken each sister and given them each a fairy-tale romance in their own book in the series, instead of trying to cram all of them into two books. I do appreciate that the 2 main characters are the 2 sisters, Jenica and Paula that I relate to the most.
After loving Marillier’s adult historical fantasy works, I decided to pick up some of her YA works, and the one I decided to start with is Wildwood Dancing. I have to admit that I prefer her adult work, although this was a really good read. This tells the story of 5 sisters, - Tatiana, Jenica, Iuila, Paula, and Stela- and their adventures at their father’s woodland estate of Piscul Dracului. They are perfectly happy exploring the woods and having adventures until their father gets ill and leaves to go to the coastal town of Constanta over the winter in order to heal. He believes that his girls will be okay by themselves because he has taught them skills that many women didn’t learn in this time period. He had not anticipated that their cousin, Cezar that lives in the neighboring fortress of Varful cu Negura would, through a series of schemes seize control of every aspect of the girl’s lives due to his obsession with Jenica, our main character. However, Jenica has unseen allies, as she and her sisters have been visiting the Wildwood, also known as the land of the fey, since they were children through a portal that they found in their room. As well as the fey, Jenica has a pet frog named Gogu who may be more than he seems, but I won’t spoil that. Will Jenica overcome her evil cousin without having to sacrifice what makes her unique?
The best thing about this book is the main character of Jena or Jenica as she is a person that I aspire to be. First off, she is educated in a time that is unusual. Although, we don’t know exactly what time period this book is set in, we can tell that it is set in a time in which women don’t have much of a voice, and I think it is quite admiring that Jenica had the courage to pursue education, even when everyone is telling her that she should just let the men handle it. Also, she is very out-spoken, opinionated, and not afraid to stand up for herself, even when everyone is telling her to shut up and take whatever is being dished out to her. Repeatedly, Jenica is told that she weak and has no right to fight for her and her sister’s well-being. Instead of sitting down and giving up, she comes up with a plan to get past her evil cousin and get the best future she can for her family. Very admirable!!
I also loved the fairy-tale elements that are woven throughout this story. There are allusions to The 12 Dancing Princesses, The Frog King, and Midsummer’s Night Dream to just name a few. The 12 Dancing Princesses allusions are obvious with the fact that Jenica has 4 sisters and they are all expert dancers due to the practice they get from their monthly visits to the fey kingdom. The kingdom that the sisters’ visit is clearly the Summer Kingdom as it is always warm even in winter and all the fey that live there are all bright in disposition and clad in colorful garments. In the book, we get visitors from and even visit the Night Kingdom where darkness reigns and everyone has evil intent. If you have ever read Midsummer Night’s Dream, then you will be able to see the allusions. Finally, there is an enchanted frog in this story that needs a kiss from his true love in order to become a real person. Princess and the Frog or The Frog King (These are essentially the same tale, but they have different titles. This one takes more from the Frog King than Princess and the Frog, though.), anyone?
There were some things in this story that didn’t work for me, though. First off, I understand that Cezar was supposed to be this misogynistic idiot, but after a while his comments and actions really started to grate on my nerves. I wanted to step into the story and smack him, which I guess was the reaction Marillier was going for, but he really started to irritate me after a while. Also, I don’t think that Tatiana’s storyline was necessary for the story. Although, it was interesting, I felt like the book focused on Jenica more. In my opinion, it would be cooler if she had taken each sister and given them each a fairy-tale romance in their own book in the series, instead of trying to cram all of them into two books. I do appreciate that the 2 main characters are the 2 sisters, Jenica and Paula that I relate to the most.