Book Review - 'Wildwood Dancing' by Juliet Marillier

‘Wildwood Dancing’ by Juliet Marillier

This is my first taste of this author’s work.

‘Five adventurous sisters…
Four dark creatures…
Three magical gifts…
Two forbidden lovers…
One enchanted frog…
Cross the threshold into the Wildwood and enter a land of magic, daring, betrayal and true love.
The wildwood holds many mysteries. Jena and her sisters share the biggest of all, a fantastic secret that enables them to escape the confines of their everyday life in rural Transylvania. They have kept it hidden for nine long years.
When their father falls ill and has to leave their forest home over the winter, Jena and her older sister Tati are left in charge. All goes well until a tragic accident allows their overbearing cousin Cezar to take control. The appearance of a mysterious young man in a black coat divides sister from sister, and suddenly Jena finds herself fighting to save all she holds dear. With her constant companion Gogu by her side, she must venture into realms dark and perilous in her quest to preserve not just those she loves but her own independence as well.’

Juliet Marillier is better known as a writer of fantasy for adults.

This is her first YA novel and is a retelling of ‘The 12 Dancing Princesses’ and ‘The Frog Prince’.

There also seems to be a hint of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ mixed in; maybe because there are 5 sisters whose personalities remind me of the Bennet sisters.

Before I get into the story, I have to mention the cover.

Illustrated by the talented Kinuko Craft, it captures the fairy tale element perfectly.

One of the things that caught my interest about this story is that it’s set in Transylvania, not something I’ve come across in a fairy tale retelling before.

Although the time in which it takes place isn’t stated, I could be wildly wrong, but I’m guessing it’s probably around the late 17th or 18th century.

The story is told in first person by the second sister, 15-year-old Jena.

Straightaway, the sisters’ big secret is mentioned, one that was discovered nine years previous, when they first came to live at Piscul Dracului, Devil’s Peak.

Jena, who was 6 at the time, and her sister, Tati, who is a year older, stumbled across a portal in their room that leads to the Other Kingdom, which resembles a fairyland.

Since then, they’ve been visiting that kingdom every full moon, having come up with different ways to cover their absences.

No one else in the family knows except for Jena’s constant companion, Gogu. He’s not a person but a frog that Jena had found long ago, “crouched all by himself in the forest, dazed and hurt…” and she trusts him “more than anyone else in the world.”

The girls’ father, Teodor, had first seen Piscul Dracului as a young boy and had decided he wanted to live there. So, he worked hard and eventually realised his dream.

But buying the castle had depleted his funds and, even though he is good at what he does, working as a merchant in partnership with his cousin, Nicolae, money has remained tight for the family.

Their mother is no longer with them, having died five years previous when the youngest had been born.

Along with her father’s secretary, Jena also assists with the paperwork as she’s good with figures.

But Teodor isn’t in the best of health, and his doctor has ordered him to spend the winter in a milder climate as another winter at Piscul Dracului might well kill him.

Earlier, he had confided to Tati and Jena, mentioning for the first time the possibility that he might die, and he wanted them to be prepared…
“Should he die before any of us girls married and bore a son… both Piscul Dracului and Father’s share of the business would go to Uncle Nicolae as the closest male relative. We were not to worry. If the worst would occur, Uncle Nicolae would see we were provided for.”

So, this is the girls’ last day with their father before he travels for the coast.

But it’s also the night of the full moon, which means it’s time for another night in the Other Kingdom.

We then meet the sisters.

Tatiana, or Tati, the oldest is sixteen and is the beautiful one.
“… her hair rippled down her back like black silk. Tati didn’t need jewellery or ribbons or any sort of finery. She was as lovely as a perfect wildflower… blessed with the kind of beauty that draws folk’s eyes and opens their minds to dreams.”

We’ve already met Jena – Jenica – who’s the sensible one. She doesn’t make an effort with her appearance, “knowing nobody would be looking at me while [Tati] was anywhere near…I had bushy hair, brown… that refused to do what I wanted it to, and eyes whose colour was somewhere between mud and leaf. My figure was… straight-up-and-down…”

The third sister is Iulia. At thirteen, she is “developing the kind of curvaceous figure our mother had had.” As the story progresses, it becomes obvious that Iulia has a flirtatious nature.

I think Paula is about twelve, and she’s the scholar, shining “in all branches of learning.”

Then there’s the youngest, Stela, who’s five, “rosy-cheeked and small, like a little bird… Her hair [is] the same ebony as Tati’s…”

Although the four older ones share in her care, it is Tati who is most like a mother to the little girl.

Gogu is there too as the girls get ready and Jena has sewn a pocket in her gown for him for when the frog gets tired. His usual spot, though, is on Jena’s shoulder.

We see how the sisters open the portal in their room through which they descend to the “mist-wreathed waters of a broad lake, illuminated by the moon…”

Five little boats come to ferry the sisters across the lake.

In the sisters’ world, the lake is Taul Ielelor, the Deadwash, Lake of the Iele, female spirits who lure people to their doom.

But the “folk of the Other Kingdom had their own name for this expanse of shining water; at Full Moon, they called it the Bright Between. The lake waters spanned the distance between their world and ours.”

At full moon in this magical place, the distance between the girls’ home and the lake is close, but in their own world, the distance is much greater. And although the forest is the same as the one in their world, when the girls cross the Bright Between, they enter a realm that is not open to humans, though there have been some unlucky ones who have stumbled on a way in.

This visit to the Other Kingdom’s Dancing Glade turns out to be different as it’s the first time the Night People are there too, and Jena is not happy about that as “they come at night and bite people… the only thing they drink is human blood.”

Later, Jena realises one of them, a young man, is focused on Tati, and when the girls are back home in their beds, Tati asks Jena if she’d seen the “strange young man… I thought [he] looked sad. Sad and… interesting.”

Once their father leaves, we see more of the girls’ cousin, Cezar, and we get an impromptu history lesson courtesy of Paula as to the history of the wildwood.

Mention is also made of the loss of Cezar’s older brother, who’d died in an accident at Taul Ielelor ten years before when he was about ten years old.

This is followed by the flashback scene detailing the circumstances of his death, witnessed only by Cezar and Jena.

The consequence of that tragedy is woven in different ways throughout the story.

Another character whose influence is largely felt but who is seldom seen is Draguta, the witch of the wood.

It is she who holds the deepest power in the wildwood, not the queen of the forest people who hosts the revels in Dancing Glade every full moon.

Draguta ‘had dwelt in the depths of the woods since these great oaks were sprouting acorns… She stayed in her lair, somewhere out in the wildest and least accessible part of the woods, and if folk needed to ask her something they had to go and find her, for she wouldn’t come to them.’

As the story unfolds, not only do the girls have to get through the winter without their father, but they, especially Jena and Tati, also have to deal with unexpected issues arising from their previously innocuous visits to the Other Kingdom and the continued presence of the Night People there.

Another thing that drew me to this novel was the idea of weaving the supernatural element of vampires in with familiar fairy tales.

The setting is well described, and we see how hard it is for the people who live in the mountain regions to get through winters, which are harsh and can last for up to six months.

I find Marillier’s writing has a fairy tale feel to it and certainly suits the genre.

Her descriptions are evocative…
The surroundings as the sisters make their way from their room down to the Other Kingdom:
‘gargoyles and dragons and strange beasts… clung to the corners and crept around the pillars and dripped from the arches, watching us with bright, unwavering eyes. Subterranean mosses crawled over their heads and shoulders, softening their angular forms with little capes of green and grey and brown.’

The forest after a heavy snowfall:
‘The forest had a special beauty in winter: frozen waterfalls like delicate shawls, foliage shrouded in a glittering, rimy coating, blue-white snowdrifts revealing, here and there, a rich litter of darkened leaves in a thousand damp colours of brown and grey.’

Having said that, I wish Marillier had spent more time describing the Other Kingdom. With her descriptive abilities, I felt it was a wasted opportunity.

Although she described the contrast between the elegant beauty of the fairy queen’s court and the flip side to that, the nightmarish land of the Night People, it only skimmed the surface without painting the full picture, if that makes sense.

We have human girls in a magical realm, surrounded by magical folk yet I never got the impression that there was much magic present.

Another wasted opportunity was the Night People; apart from a couple of characters, they barely featured.

Which brings me to my gripes.

It saddens me that I have gripes with this because I wanted – and I mean really wanted – to love this novel because of the elements involved and because of Marillier’s reputation.

I know I always say I’m not the target audience, but there are retellings I’ve enjoyed and there are YA novels I’ve enjoyed.

To begin with, we have the tiresome trope of the main female character who doesn’t see herself as beautiful.

Along with the description given earlier of each sister, later in the same chapter, Jena describes herself and Paula thus: ‘we were, in a word, ordinary.’

Yet obviously she’s not as ordinary as we’re led to believe. Not only is her cousin, Cezar, attracted to her, but the leader of the Night People seems to be too.

Added to that trope is another – it is only the so-called plain, ordinary character who loves reading and learning, not necessarily the beautiful ones, which is why Paula is also described that way.

At the time this story is set, the general view is that women are not capable of handling certain matters on their own, such as finances and business. But the girls’ father has raised them differently, and he’s arranged for them, especially Jena and Paula, to be educated.

A big deal is made of Jena being an independent young woman, capable of handling setbacks, despite being only fifteen.

Credit where it’s due, in the farewell scene with Teodor, Marillier has him voice some doubts as to how well his daughters will be able to manage when he says to Jena, “… this is a great deal of responsibility, and you are only fifteen. Are you quite sure you understand what I explained to you about the funds, and dealing with the shipment… when it comes? I’ve left sufficient silver for your domestic expenses until well into spring…”

And Jena assures him that she’s “remembered about keeping business money separate from household…”

Despite being repeatedly told how sensible Jena is, how good she is at handling her father’s business and, especially, the family finances, that doesn’t come across.

And that mishandling of the finances is made clear when she fails to explain to her sisters their father’s system of keeping business and household money separate, and they end up in dire straits, something which Jena doesn’t realise until it’s too late.

There’s a lot of talk by the older girls as they get in high dudgeon about not being treated like they have minds of their own, of others assuming they’re incapable of running the household in their father’s absence.

Yet, ironically, it’s only when a man comes along, do we get the impression that things start running smoothly.

They baulk at Cezar’s sexist attitude, but none of them stand up to him. Instead of the girls successfully dealing with him by standing united, it eventually takes another man to deal with Cezar.

As for Cezar, he’s a very one-dimensional antagonist.

Just because he thinks educating women is a waste of time – as did most men of the time, and women too – that doesn’t make him a ghastly person. He has no redeeming features, none.

Yes, he did do a bad thing when he was much younger, but it doesn’t seem to matter that he was a child at the time and children are incapable of understanding the far-reaching consequences of their actions. I felt he was treated unfairly at the end.

Apart from the obvious love interests, the young men introduced as possible suitors are, across the board, useless, which I found unrealistic.

I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters, no emotional investment at all.

Even though we spend the most time with Jena as she’s the viewpoint character, I found her irritating.

The other sisters weren’t explored enough, and we had only fleeting glimpses of their personalities.

Tati quickly became highly annoying and thoughtless, with her single-minded obsession to the exclusion of all else, even eating!

All Iulia did was flirt.

The only one I had a modicum of interest in was Paula who seemed the only sensible one.

And the one I really felt sorry for was Stela who’d been side-lined by her 2 older sisters and, being only five, believes she’s the one at fault.

As for the frog, I found his constant commentary, which only Jena was aware of – it was like a telepathic communication – grating, to the point where every time he piped up, I muttered ‘shut up’.

I worked out the whole ‘frog prince’ angle pretty early on. Which is a shame as I think that added to my dislike of Gogu. Also, once I realised his identity, Jena’s relationship with him made me feel uncomfortable.

The only character I had any interest in was the witch, Draguta, and I would happily read an entire book solely about her.

Dealing with magical creatures in a magical setting which overlapped the girls’ world, it was repeatedly stated that certain rules had to be adhered to or all would fall to ruin.

Except that it turned out to be possible to fudge the rules and still have things work out in the end. There was more than one ‘deus ex machina’ moment as the finale drew near.

Having said all that and despite all my gripes, I’m planning on reading Marillier’s other novels. Having heard so many good things about her books, I feel I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t read at least one.