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somewheregirl7 's review for:
Wildwood Dancing
by Juliet Marillier
I'm a sucker for fairy tale re-tellings and this book takes on several. The characters are enchanting and engaging. I fell in love with the five sisters in the story, though only the two oldest are given any real page time. The writing is strong and descriptions vivid and lyrical. The overall tone of the book is lyric and reinforces the fairy-tale aspects. The plot, as with many fairy tale re-tellings is predictable and there are no real suprises. The characters and tone, rather than plot, are the stand-outs.
With that said, the main male protagonist struck me as bit weak in the final chapters. His hesitations and verbal stumbles, his tentativeness and passivity are not aspects I care for or that typically apply to a fairy tale hero. I still enjoyed the story, but that one aspect disappointed me. On reflection, it is the female characters who are the strongest in this book and the males take a back seat - the men are far more passive (with the exception of the villian of the piece) than the implied era and genre would lead me to expect.
SPOILERS BELOW
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I also found the way Ceasar simply walks away in the end extremely unrealistic. We are shown throughout that he is becoming more violent, his sanity slipping. He feels cheated by the Wood Witch and yet in the end he slinks away with his tail between his legs. It doesn't seem true to character.
The lack of balance in characters, strong male & strong female characters is one of the few weaknesses of the book. I am not saying that Gogu had to be the typical prince charming who sweeps in saves the day and the poor pitiful female - but he was wishy washy and passive. He needed to be both strong and weak, flawed and real. But rather he is more 2-dimensional and, in many ways, takes on the more passive role that is typically given to females in fairy tales.
With that said, the main male protagonist struck me as bit weak in the final chapters. His hesitations and verbal stumbles, his tentativeness and passivity are not aspects I care for or that typically apply to a fairy tale hero. I still enjoyed the story, but that one aspect disappointed me. On reflection, it is the female characters who are the strongest in this book and the males take a back seat - the men are far more passive (with the exception of the villian of the piece) than the implied era and genre would lead me to expect.
SPOILERS BELOW
1
2
3
4
5
I also found the way Ceasar simply walks away in the end extremely unrealistic. We are shown throughout that he is becoming more violent, his sanity slipping. He feels cheated by the Wood Witch and yet in the end he slinks away with his tail between his legs. It doesn't seem true to character.
The lack of balance in characters, strong male & strong female characters is one of the few weaknesses of the book. I am not saying that Gogu had to be the typical prince charming who sweeps in saves the day and the poor pitiful female - but he was wishy washy and passive. He needed to be both strong and weak, flawed and real. But rather he is more 2-dimensional and, in many ways, takes on the more passive role that is typically given to females in fairy tales.