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kiraly 's review for:
Wildwood Dancing
by Juliet Marillier
Okay, so call me a sucker for fairy tale re-tellings (because I am one) but I really liked this book. The plot parallels the Twelve Dancing Princesses story, but in this case there are only five girls...and they aren't princesses, but the daughters of a merchant. The setting is richly developed, with the elements of old Transylvania supporting and enhancing the plot. The back story (in other words, the reason the girls are able to pass into the Other Kingdom in the first place) is probably the best explanation I've seen for this particular tale.
The characters are well developed too, even though we only follow Jena as the protagonist. I think it was wise of the author to have five sisters with distinct personalities (and different needs that are met by their excursions into the Other Kingdom) because in a full compliment of twelve sisters most of them end up being unimportant to the overall plot. The other characters were well done too...I particularly appreciated Gogu, Jena's frog, and the different men (and trolls, and dwarfs...) from the Other Kingdom. It's nice that the girls' dancing partners have names, personalities, and lives outside of the one night a month when the protagonists encounter them.
I really liked the back story, as I've said. I could tell from the beginning that what Cezar gave up as his most precious possession was his brother, and that that sacrifice probably had something to do with his power-hungry tendencies. I also figured that Costi's choice of King of the Lake meant that he was alive in the lake somewhere instead of drowned, but I had no idea until he got his voice back that he had actually been transformed into Gogu. I didn't see how Jena's wish to be Queen of the Fairies had translated into the sisters being able to enter the Other Kingdom until it was spelled out either, but it does make sense.
I am also ridiculously pleased with the way things came together for Costi and Jena at the end. While Tati's romance with Sorrow seems very contrived (Love at first sight that basically makes you waste away? Overly dramatic) the relationship between Jena and Costi (who has been her companion for years as Gogu the frog) seems completely logical. I called the frog prince connection early on in the book, especially once Jena saw the vision of the young man with green eyes. The fact that he is also her lost cousin Costi was unexpected, but fits neatly in with his King of the Lake arc. It also effectively foils Cezar, whose power came from being the eldest son.
The characters are well developed too, even though we only follow Jena as the protagonist. I think it was wise of the author to have five sisters with distinct personalities (and different needs that are met by their excursions into the Other Kingdom) because in a full compliment of twelve sisters most of them end up being unimportant to the overall plot. The other characters were well done too...I particularly appreciated Gogu, Jena's frog, and the different men (and trolls, and dwarfs...) from the Other Kingdom. It's nice that the girls' dancing partners have names, personalities, and lives outside of the one night a month when the protagonists encounter them.
I am also ridiculously pleased with the way things came together for Costi and Jena at the end. While Tati's romance with Sorrow seems very contrived (Love at first sight that basically makes you waste away? Overly dramatic) the relationship between Jena and Costi (who has been her companion for years as Gogu the frog) seems completely logical. I called the frog prince connection early on in the book, especially once Jena saw the vision of the young man with green eyes. The fact that he is also her lost cousin Costi was unexpected, but fits neatly in with his King of the Lake arc. It also effectively foils Cezar, whose power came from being the eldest son.