Review by jefferz - A Treachery of Swans

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jefferz 's review for:

A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek

5.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

An ambitiously creative and well-rounded sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek is a wonderful low fantasy story featuring a great mix of storylines and elements. While many retellings either struggle with adhering to their source material or end up predictable given their well-known general plots, A Treachery of Swans makes the concept look easy. Gracefully following Swan Lake’s premise faithfully, this book adds a considerable amount of new context, details, and unexpectedly solid new storylines to the iconic tale, all within a PG-rated scope for YA readership. I didn’t have much of an expectation going into this one, but I was pleasantly surprised and consistently thrilled reading this book!

As evident from the book’s blurb and synopsis, A Treachery of Swans is a retelling of the original and iconic Swan Lake ballet, notably neither the 1980’s Toei Animation anime nor the 1994 Swan Princess adaptations. This novel features a similar premise to Gregory Maguire’s The Wicked Years series where the story follows the original “villain” of the source material while providing new context and storylines from their perspective. While this novel is more of an atmospheric and youthful retelling compared to Wicked’s dark and adult content, A Treachery of Swans is nonetheless very creative and ambitious working off its base of Swan Lake. Following the synopsis to a T, Poranek recreates every notable storyline of the source material but gives them new meaning and purpose. While familiarity with Swan Lake is not necessary, the more one is familiar with the original ballet’s story, the more impressive this novel is. I won’t go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, but all of the major characters are faithfully represented as well as the prominent palace, reworked into a once grand but now faded chateau. Seemingly minor details like the characters entering the lake near the conclusion that seem like it wouldn’t work in this retelling are retained and perfectly reworked to fit the story. The unusual and seemingly random circumstances of Odette (subtly renamed in this novel as Marie Odette) returning to human form from during the night from swan form is given a believable backstory, the prince is given far more to do than simply falling for Odile/Odette, and Odette’s sorrowful and passive nature is subbed out for a more nuanced, complex and strong-willed counterpart. Odile on the other hand is given an entirely new personality, not that the original sorcerer had much to begin with.

The world of A Treachery of Swans is one that has lost its magic, and once numerous sorcerers have been exiled or eliminated as part of this magical drought and instability. While the world-building is limited due to its rather small focus and narrative, Poranek’s framing of the kingdom and history not only makes the presence of the sorcerers in Swan Lake more fitting, but also provides great character motivations for Odile, the original impersonator now seeking to restore magic to her world. Repurposed as a theatre troop actor, a clever revision that helps explain Odile believable impersonation of Princess Odette, the story follows Odile’s infiltration of the chateau and her mission to steal an enchanted crown, the last powerful source of magic left.

One notable strength of this novel is its success at blending new storylines with existing ones, never fighting or feeling like it’s limited by Swan Lake’s original premise. Besides Odile’s goal to steal the royal crown and restore magic, the story has a very compelling complimentary storyline involving the investigation of the murdered king, a brand-new story element. Mixing elements of infiltrating spy work, magical detective investigation, and a bit of political power scheming around the successor to the throne, A Treachery of Swans is never boring and has great pacing. Its French-inspired lore consisting of the legend of the Tarasque and magical godly sisters (one of which is of, you guessed it, transformation) is imaginative. Even more impressively, all these new additions fully work and enhance the Swan Lake material, feeling like they were always meant to be there while filling holes and vague details.

Besides the creative uses and adjustments in the retelling, this novel features a nice approach that is not only atmospherically gray, slightly gothic, and low fantasy-inspired, but also quite cheeky and witty. A good portion of that is thanks to its great main character Odile who feels like a modernized street-smart Alladin, but more charismatic and jaded given her performative training and rough upbringing respectively. Her character narration tone is pitched perfectly; a balance of pessimistic sarcasm meshed with youthful wonder. On a small side tangent, I find the original US publisher cover to be an odd artistic choice that feels too old, haunting, and unfitting compared to the Illumicrate edition I read that portrays the characters as being younger and more innocent. Odile’s character is one that starts out driven and cold, but through strong character development, fights to stay in her self-fulling nihilistic familiarity vs her subconscious attachment and new fake friendship with Marie and Prince Aime. Poranek does an excellent job at writing a self-proclaimed villain (though frankly more of an anti-hero) character that’s impossible to hate, and the journey Odile goes on is wonderful. For all the treachery and plotting Odile does, the reader is there at every turn and development rooting for her to succeed. Her character is also a scrappy character that crucially never feels grating or has frustrating internal decision-making, a common issue with a lot of YA and even many adult novels featuring this archetype.

The story has a deceptively challenging job of balancing the focus and development of Aime and Marie (the latter also romantically) as each are primarily only featured during the daytime and nighttime respectively per the restrictions of following Swan Lake’s plot. Yet again, you barely notice the tight restrictions given how well the book balances and shifts between its different characters and storylines. Of the two, Marie obviously has the better development and is a more memorable character given her role that’s central to Swan Lake’s premise. Compared to the original Odette who is a passive and tragic damsel in distress, Marie is rewritten to be an intellectual and free-spirited young woman who is forced to bend and mold into the image of restrained poise and class per her role as a royal lady. Marie is a surprisingly interesting character despite what her counterpart usually is in most adaptations of Swan Lake and though Odile is the main heroine of the story, Marie contributes quite a lot to the story thanks to some very clever plotting decisions. On the other side, Odile is in a similar boat where she may not necessarily be inherently bitter or scorned but has been raised and shaped to be the distrusting and independent woman she is now. Amongst the three primary characters, there’s recurring themes of parental restrictions, toxic relationships, and manipulation, with each of them finding unexpected solace from in each other.

Initially being unlikely allies attempting to solve the murder of the king, Odile and Marie’s camaraderie slowly develops into something more, a seemingly unlikely sapphic romance. When I originally read the premise of the story, for the life of me I could not imagine how that would be possible considering the original Odile and Odette have conflicting motivations, but more importantly, have almost no contact and interactions between them. It’s to Poranek’s credit and creative planning that it works quite well. Sort of a hybrid of missed opportunity/betrayed past romantic interest tropes, their character chemistry is good and their slow development from strangers to unlikely allies, to friends, to more feels natural. Both have and represent everything the other doesn’t have, and their differences and past misunderstandings/Odile’s treachery are effectively written.

While this may be a drawback to some, one thing I personally loved about this novel is that although it’s a fantasy story that has a romance element, causing it to be lumped into romantasy, this is first and foremost a fantasy story. Given its YA intent, it’s completely free of smut which I often find as being a crutch and distraction that many romantasy stories lean on instead of fully executing their core premises. The romance also enhances the existing story and journey Odile goes on rather than being the focus, a gentle and well-placed progression of two women trusting each other rather than being forced into the forefront. I can see some romance-forward readers finding the romance to be lacking due to its limited and very late presence, but I’m a big fan of how Poranek prioritized the creative story and restoration of the Kingdom’s magic first and have no complaints on how rest of the material was rolled out.

Retaining all its original source material while crucially and creatively adding so much new fantasy content, A Treachery of Swans is a masterclass in how to approach and execute a great retelling novel. Despite not being a huge fan of Swan Lake or finding the premise interesting at a first glance, I was consistently entertained by the story, flying through this book in two days (ba dum tss). Besides finding its original murder mystery and fantasy story compelling, I was in awe of how perfectly plotted and paced the novel was, as well as how all of its new content fully fits within the faithfully reworked Swan Lake story. I received this book via a new subscription to Illumicrate, this being the first book received which cannot be skipped. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have given this a second glance, let alone picked it up to read/own but I’m so glad I was forced to receive it. I was so impressed with this book that I’m now quite interested in reading Poranek’s unrelated debut novel Where the Dark Stands Still. A Treachery of Swans is an excellent YA fantasy story for those looking for a neat and tidy standalone tale about lost magic and scheming sorcerers, the Swan Lake retelling and sapphic love just being the cherry on top of a sweet, queer, and wholesome tale.

Content Warnings