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A review by lory_enterenchanted
The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
The author seemed determined to convince us that sixteenth century Alsace was dirty, dangerous, and stinky. In this she succeeded. Every other sentence was about something smelly.
Not so successful was her portrayal of the inner lives and language of the people of the time. I could not believe that they would really have thought, behaved and spoken in the way they did, especially Lisbet who seemed to have no trouble bringing 21st century mores of religious, racial and sexual orientation tolerance into her unenlightened time, and her sensitive male love interest, who was waaaaay too good to be true, singlehandedly smashing anti-Turk bias and the otherwise rampant toxic masculinity to bits with his utter perfection. This constantly threw me out of the story.
The writing style was too pleased with its own fanciness to be pleasing to me as a reader. I liked the parts about the bees the best.
I think I would have preferred a 21st century story from this author that somehow transferred the dancing plague into modern times. That could have been interesting. But as a historical fiction writer I was not impressed.
The author seemed determined to convince us that sixteenth century Alsace was dirty, dangerous, and stinky. In this she succeeded. Every other sentence was about something smelly.
Not so successful was her portrayal of the inner lives and language of the people of the time. I could not believe that they would really have thought, behaved and spoken in the way they did, especially Lisbet who seemed to have no trouble bringing 21st century mores of religious, racial and sexual orientation tolerance into her unenlightened time, and her sensitive male love interest, who was waaaaay too good to be true, singlehandedly smashing anti-Turk bias and the otherwise rampant toxic masculinity to bits with his utter perfection. This constantly threw me out of the story.
The writing style was too pleased with its own fanciness to be pleasing to me as a reader. I liked the parts about the bees the best.
I think I would have preferred a 21st century story from this author that somehow transferred the dancing plague into modern times. That could have been interesting. But as a historical fiction writer I was not impressed.