Wow. I’ll preface this review only by saying that Wildwood Dancing was the wrong Juliet Marillier novel for me to start with…
Young Sorcha is content with her life at Sevenwaters. Though she is the seventh child and only daughter of her father, Lord Colum of Sevenwaters and her late mother, she loves her six older brothers dearly and hasn’t felt lacking. She even feels a sense of belonging in the dense and magical forest which surrounds and protects their home from the invading Britons. When her brother asks her assistance in saving a young Briton imprisoned in their keep, she begins to learn the hard way that the forest cannot always shield her from the outside world. But the real trouble doesn’t start until Lord Colum brings home his new bride-to-be Lady Oonagh, who happens to be a sorceress with her own agenda. Before her brothers can escape her evil machinations, they are turned into swans, and only Sorcha, by completing a painful, near impossible task, can break the spell. The outlook is bleak, but Sorcha is helped along the way by the forest folk as well as a Briton warrior, which will lead to her most heartbreaking decision yet.
It was killing me to wait two paragraphs before I could shout this book’s praises, I loved it so! I liked so many things about Daughter of the Forest, it’s hard to name them all: the Celtic folklore, the fairy tale retelling, the main and minor characters (Finbar, Padriac, Simon, Red), the writing, and the love story. But what made it so good for me was how all of these aspects came together. The entire reading experience as a whole was amazing, one in which – at nearly 650 pages – was not one page too long. I’ve never felt more in a character’s shoes than I did in Sorcha’s, which made her story all the more joyful, heartwrenching, and engrossing. I leisurely savored the breathtaking descriptions of the forest. I cried in pain and sadness. I relished the poetic language. I sat alertly on the edge of my seat, arms tense, as the cycle of trial after trial was mounted and overcome, and mounted and overcome. I shed a tear of joy. I gleefully smiled and solemnly sighed at the ending. And I wondered afterwards when I’d ever have another experience like this one.
*One word to the wise: Although I loved this book, it’s not a gentle read, so tread carefully.
