Marillier, Juliet - Wildwood Dancing

[oyceter]

Alas, a resounding meh for this one.

Jena is the second of five sisters, all of whom sneak off to an otherworldly place on nights of the full moon to dance the night away, or discuss philosophy, depending on which sister it is. She has a mysterious telepathic frog companion named Gogu. Alas, unfortunate things happen, Jena's father gets ill, and her cousin Cezar ends up trying to take over Jena's household, complete with sporky remarks like, "You women must be protected as you clearly have no common sense."

Clearly we are supposed to despise Cezar, and oh, I completely do. But it is in a boring way. There are attempts to give him some depth, but he feels like a Enemy of Feminism Right Here character to me. Not that it makes him any less sporky.

Anyhow, Jena's oldest sister Tati gets involved with Sorrow, one of the mysterious Night People who may or may not suck blood, things continue to go downhill, and Jena continues to confide in her frog.

This felt like Marillier threw it out without that much effort; I have seen all the elements in her other books, only with a different fairy tale window dressing:

• Spunky but plain but not so plain because both the hero and the villain fall for her and say she is beautiful heroine


• Unsung hero who is pushed away by the heroine for assorted reasons


• Evil villain who hates the supernatural and intends to destroy it


• Sister who falls for the Forbidden and ends up leaving for it, though Tru Wuv conquers all


• Otherworldly creatures linked to the environment (save the trees!)


• Supernatural power who has really been manipulating the plot all along

I could probably think of more. One or two, sure. But all these elements in the same book, again? I got bored very quickly, and unfortunately, the characters don't feel different enough to make it stand out. Jena feels like Sorcha feels like Liadan feels like Foxmask girl, Gogu feels like Red feels like Darragh, Tati feels like Niamh and etc.

The thing is, I really love the Seven Swans trilogy. But Marillier's books after that haven't impressed me.

Also, despite my love for manga with its heart on its sleeve, all the mentions of "Tru Wuv conquers all! You must listen to your heart! You must beliiiiieeeeeve!" had me rolling my eyes. Particularly when one of the Tru Wuv couples was one of those stupid love at first sight, our love conquers all societal problems and interspecies boundaries at that, and who cares about family and friends when you have Twu Wuv because if they really love you, they'll get out of your way.

Too many things felt like the characters acting just so the plot would move or there would be angst, particularly Jena's main conflict, which I didn't believe at all.

I hope Marillier's next books are better, and hopefully they'll cover slightly different territory.

Comments

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

I first read that one sentence as "clearly we are supposed to desire Cezar and oh, I completely do," in some sort of alpha-male sort of way, and thought, "who *are* you and what have you done with Oyce?"

[oyceter]

Hee! That would be a pretty scary me.

[quivo.livejournal.com]

*waves* You don't know me, I stumbled across your journal via a bizarre mix of metafandom and a Heroes review and am keeping track of the feed. Okay with you, hopefully?

Just chiming in to say, yes, yes, you're probably right here. This book was actually the first of Marillier's that I read, so I was far more enchanted with it than it probably deserved. I did read Foxmask despite involuntary eyerolling, so I deeefinitely see the repetition of character arcs and themes and so on. Seven Swans trilogy, huh? I'll definitely give that a look. After Foxmask, I didn't feel like bothering with her newer series, so...

[oyceter]

Hi! Cool, and welcome! It is always happy when people read me!

Oooo, yes, Foxmask is really not her best book....

I really liked the Sevenwaters trilogy (consists of: Daughter of the Forest, Son of the Shadows, and Child of the Prophecy). I like the third the most, then the first, then the second. The protag of the third is more interesting because she's not quite the standard, sweet nature-loving heroine of Marillier's other books.

I haven't checked out the Bridei (or however you spell it) books yet either, largely because I was so disappointed by Foxmask.

[quivo.livejournal.com]

Aw, shoot, I've already read the last book in the Sevenwaters trilogy. It was scrummy, but has left me quite spoiled for the first two. I might have a go at Daughter of the Forest, though :)

And I wouldn't bother checking out the Bridei books, as from reading the blurb of the first and second one, it looks like more Marillier formula is being served up to us. I.E. the usual wrongfully separated lovers thing, mixed in with a hefty dash of marry-for-the-good-of-the-kingdom and a hero who is a prince.

Lastly, on a different tangent, thanks sooooooooooooo much for all your book recs and reviews, and how you've organised them so neatly! I'm currently about to head out on a Scott Westerfeld/Megan Turner buying mission (I'd read Westerfeld's Ugly series thing [well, the first two] and really liked it, but didn't know he wrote other stuff!), and have noted down some other authors to check out. Could you recommend a starting point manga-wise for me? I've chomped up Fables and Y: The Last Man, but have no idea where to go next, especially since the more traditional comic series have never really done anything for me. Watchmen, which I've also read, was great, but it's just one comic, and I'm in serious series mode right now. *wishes uselessly that Heroes was a tv show based on a comic series that she could be reading now*

[oyceter]

Ah, thanks for the tip on the Bridei books!

Also, cool!! I'm glad people use the Memories and tags! I obsessively organize them for myself, since recent polls (haha, you think I am kidding...) have indicated that most people don't look at them, but since I surf around people's LJs and obsessively use tags and Memories, I figured I'd do the same for mine.

Oooo manga recs!!

My current favorites are: CLAMP's xxxHolic -- it starts out rather slow, with one-offs, but around vol. 4 or 5, character development really starts kicking in, and now it's really good. Also, the art is freaking gorgeous. I take twice as long to read it because I'm staring at pages so much.

Takaya Natsuki's Fruits Basket - Again, this doesn't begin that auspiciously; the insane shoujo (girls' manga) sweetness of the heroine is a bit much at first. But Takaya is a great plotter and the sugary exterior soon gets much darker. I like that it's about people healing for horrible emotional wounds without being angsty and stupid. Also, Takaya does very good panel layouts that make it easier to follow things. This is particularly nice if you're not used to reading right-to-left.

Mori Kaoru's Emma - historically accurate Victorian romance about a maid named Emma. It's very quiet and very sweet, and the layout is very nice.

Oh! Um, if you want something more shounen (boys' manga):

Kishimoto Masashi's Naruto - recced everywhere because it's good ;). Again, the first few volumes are pretty dreadful. You can probably skip them if you want and start on 5 and go back. Kishimoto will throw a ton of characters and names at you, but you don't actually have to remember them. He does an incredibly good job of pacing things so that once you need to know a character, he will reintroduce them extremely memorably.

Minekura Kazuya - Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload. One of my favorites! Four snarky guys, lots of slashy undertones, and awesome art (it gets better after a volume or two). Like so many series it starts slow, but vol. 4 is a real kicker. Also, it's a retelling of Journey to the West in which the Bodhisattva Kannon is a hermaphrodite!

Um, I could probably deluge you with recs, so feel free to ask more questions or say what you like to read and what you don't!

[lnbw.livejournal.com]

I saw a link to your review over at yhlee's place, and my first thought was Oh god not again. I also loved the Sevenwaters trilogy, but have become increasingly annoyed with her subsequent books and their rehashing of previously covered territory. I think I'll skip this one entirely.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed. I think I had expected a little more from this because she had at least moved out of more standard fantasy-land-Celtic-Norse-whatnot and into Romania, but alas, not much else changed.