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eleanor_hadassah96 's review for:
Wildwood Dancing
by Juliet Marillier
I read Wildwood Dancing for my book club, and it probably isn’t something I would have otherwise picked up as I’m usually slightly adverse to fantasy. I have conflicting feelings about this book, probably partly caused by the fact that I’m not the target audience of YA lit, but on the whole I enjoyed it.
The cover illustration is gorgeous and so is much of the prose, especially describing the dancing, the dresses, the magical portal, etc. I appreciated the background information given at the end about the culture and history which inspired the story. The relationships between the sisters are nicely drawn and convey a positive message. The Gogi/ Costi twist and associated romance was convincing and helped to make Cezar a more nuanced antagonist. I also liked the bittersweet nature of the ending, which had a Narnian feel to it.
My main criticism would be the Tati/ Sorrow romance and the potential it has to convey a damaging message to young readers - you don’t need to aesthetically starve yourselves for love, girls! I also felt that some of the characterisation and plot lines could have been more subtly drawn, especially the themes of female empowerment and patriarchy, but again this may be due to me not being the target audience. Overall, I appreciated how this book took me out of my comfort zone, and I would be open to reading additional works by the author.
The cover illustration is gorgeous and so is much of the prose, especially describing the dancing, the dresses, the magical portal, etc. I appreciated the background information given at the end about the culture and history which inspired the story. The relationships between the sisters are nicely drawn and convey a positive message. The Gogi/ Costi twist and associated romance was convincing and helped to make Cezar a more nuanced antagonist. I also liked the bittersweet nature of the ending, which had a Narnian feel to it.
My main criticism would be the Tati/ Sorrow romance and the potential it has to convey a damaging message to young readers - you don’t need to aesthetically starve yourselves for love, girls! I also felt that some of the characterisation and plot lines could have been more subtly drawn, especially the themes of female empowerment and patriarchy, but again this may be due to me not being the target audience. Overall, I appreciated how this book took me out of my comfort zone, and I would be open to reading additional works by the author.