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hazelalaska 's review for:
Wildwood Dancing
by Juliet Marillier
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Initially I thought about giving this 4 stars but there were a few issues I had with it that knocked it down a bit. Overall I enjoyed this, and I wish I had read it earlier since it is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, one of my favorite fairy tales. I was hoping that it would beat out my current favorite, Entwined, since I had heard a lot of good things about it, but it didn't quite get there. I think what I like about that one is a darker, more sinister tone to the magical place where the sisters go; here the Other Kingdom is relatively benign. More of this story also felt like it took place in the real world rather than in the Other Kingdom, so that also could have been part of why I didn't like it as much as I had hoped.
Instead of twelve sisters, this book follows five sisters, which I was okay with, once I got used to the idea. I can understand why the author chose five because twelve is a lot of characters to keep track of and they would have to be really distinct from one another. I really liked the setting of Transylvania for this story, a place I was not really familiar with, and also how the author tied in vampire lore to this, though in this story they are referred to as the Night People.
The book felt a bit slow at times, like it was dragged out a bit longer than it needed to be. A little over halfway through I was feeling a bit bored because it felt like not much was happening. The ending did feel a bit rushed after having the slower build up.
Spoilers
One issue I had with Jena and Costi is the fact that they are cousins. It wouldn't have been an issue back when this is set, but I just felt a bit weirded out that Jena would marry her cousin. There is also a bit of an age gap; Jena was 5 and Costi 10 when he "drowned", so if she is 15-16 during this, he would be 20-21. Again this would not have been a big deal back then, but I'm not sure I really like the idea of it now. Overall I was hoping that Gogu would be someone other than Costi, because I wanted Costi to come back in a different way. I was still hoping there would be a confrontation between him and Cezar, but I didn't really like that he was Jena's love interest.
I was a bit disappointed Jena wasn't the one to have the final confrontation with Cezar. I felt like she deserved to be the one to do it since he took such control of her life and was essentially abusive to her. Throughout the story I wanted her to stand up to him more and I really liked the moments when she and the others did stand up to him a bit. I think it sort of robbed Jena of her power to not have her make the final confrontation. The author did a good job of making me really hate Cezar, because I actually wanted to punch him and call him a word I wouldn't normally use, since it describes him perfectly. I definitely felt how powerless Jena was to stop him, and though I wished she could do more I understood that she couldn't because of the role of women in the time and place in which she lived. She was already considered unusual and improper for a woman; she really didn't have the power to throw Cezar out. I do wish she had reminded him sooner that as far as they knew their father was still alive, and he is still in charge of their lives. Their father did not ask Cezar to take over everything, and he had no real authority over them.
I did feel like the Other Kingdom could have been fleshed out more, because all we really had was the dancing glade and whatever there was at the Dark of the Moon. I was expecting a more strange and magical world, but it didn't seem to be used to it's full potential. When Jena needed to find Draguta I was expecting she would have to travel through the forest in the other kingdom to find her so we would get to see more of this world, and I was sorely disappointed when Draguta came to her instead.
I was a little disappointed in the ending as well, because it seemed very rushed. Tati goes to the Other Kingdom with Sorrow and then their father returns alive and well and Jena plans to marry Costi and that's basically it. I thought the ending could have been drawn out a bit longer to give a proper payoff for all the build-up that came before it.
Instead of twelve sisters, this book follows five sisters, which I was okay with, once I got used to the idea. I can understand why the author chose five because twelve is a lot of characters to keep track of and they would have to be really distinct from one another. I really liked the setting of Transylvania for this story, a place I was not really familiar with, and also how the author tied in vampire lore to this, though in this story they are referred to as the Night People.
The book felt a bit slow at times, like it was dragged out a bit longer than it needed to be. A little over halfway through I was feeling a bit bored because it felt like not much was happening. The ending did feel a bit rushed after having the slower build up.
Spoilers
One issue I had with Jena and Costi is the fact that they are cousins. It wouldn't have been an issue back when this is set, but I just felt a bit weirded out that Jena would marry her cousin. There is also a bit of an age gap; Jena was 5 and Costi 10 when he "drowned", so if she is 15-16 during this, he would be 20-21. Again this would not have been a big deal back then, but I'm not sure I really like the idea of it now. Overall I was hoping that Gogu would be someone other than Costi, because I wanted Costi to come back in a different way. I was still hoping there would be a confrontation between him and Cezar, but I didn't really like that he was Jena's love interest.
I was a bit disappointed Jena wasn't the one to have the final confrontation with Cezar. I felt like she deserved to be the one to do it since he took such control of her life and was essentially abusive to her. Throughout the story I wanted her to stand up to him more and I really liked the moments when she and the others did stand up to him a bit. I think it sort of robbed Jena of her power to not have her make the final confrontation. The author did a good job of making me really hate Cezar, because I actually wanted to punch him and call him a word I wouldn't normally use, since it describes him perfectly. I definitely felt how powerless Jena was to stop him, and though I wished she could do more I understood that she couldn't because of the role of women in the time and place in which she lived. She was already considered unusual and improper for a woman; she really didn't have the power to throw Cezar out. I do wish she had reminded him sooner that as far as they knew their father was still alive, and he is still in charge of their lives. Their father did not ask Cezar to take over everything, and he had no real authority over them.
I did feel like the Other Kingdom could have been fleshed out more, because all we really had was the dancing glade and whatever there was at the Dark of the Moon. I was expecting a more strange and magical world, but it didn't seem to be used to it's full potential. When Jena needed to find Draguta I was expecting she would have to travel through the forest in the other kingdom to find her so we would get to see more of this world, and I was sorely disappointed when Draguta came to her instead.
I was a little disappointed in the ending as well, because it seemed very rushed. Tati goes to the Other Kingdom with Sorrow and then their father returns alive and well and Jena plans to marry Costi and that's basically it. I thought the ending could have been drawn out a bit longer to give a proper payoff for all the build-up that came before it.