Daughter of the Forest

I heard that if I loved Wildwood Dancing (also by Marillier) I would love this one. that set some pretty unrealistic expectations. One is a YA novel and the other is adult fantasy. I didn't mind the adult topics, nor the story, but I was a little disappointed. The novel started of so slowly. It took me until I was around 100 pages in to really get into it. I just felt it dragged.

After that I couldn't put it down. I might continue with the others in the sevenwaters series, but I'm more intrigued with her newest novel.

I think I hoped for more of the other world she included in Wildwood. Really, this was a well written novel, but just didn't live up to my expectations.

An Irish fairy tale retold beautifully as historical fantasy, in eighth century Ireland and Northumbria. Sometimes disturbing but always poetically phrased, this is a coming-of-age story that kept me reading long into the night and had me thinking of its main characters long after I (forcibly) put it down. The plot is quite a bit more complex than the blurbs let on, but as a character-oriented story it is never hard to follow.

This was not a bad book, but it was just not for me.

I found Juliet Marillier's prose to be quite beautiful without ever sounding overly flowery; her writing meshed really well with the fairytale retelling aspect of the story. Also, I'd highly recommend the audiobook for this if you plan to read this story because the narrator's voice really fits what I imagine Sorcha's voice to sound like. I think the characters were fairly good, especially Sorcha's brothers.

However, despite any ‘objective' positives to the story, and despite the fact that I thought the characters were pretty good, I just did not care enough about any of them—our main character included—to have enjoyed my time reading this. It was a nice retelling, but that was about it. Nothing in particular stood out to me as something interesting enough for me to give this more than two stars. The reason I was able to complete it was due to the fact that I consumed this in audiobook format, so listening to the story was a task that required barely any effort and was thus relatively easy to get through. Again, not a bad book by any means, but it was just not for me.

This book is AMAZING!

Sorcha is the only girl out of seven. Growing up with six brothers has made her more tomboyish than girly. She loves her life at Sevenwaters. She grows herbs in her garden, and uses them to heal her people. Otherwise, she is with her brothers. They have an unbreakable bond.

Her happiness is tested when her father takes a new wife. She is evil, and she seems to have some unnatural hold over Sorcha's father. She doesn't like the children, especially Sorcha. As pranks escalate into danger, the brothers know they have to get Sorcha away from Sevenwaters.

They are too late. Attempting to flee, the brothers are cursed by their step-mother. Sorcha is the only one that escapes and, according to the Fair Folk, she is the only one that can break the curse. She has tasks to complete, and she must be silent the whole time. If not, then her brothers will remain cursed forever.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are so believable and I loved them all. I am not a fan of romance, but the romance was done so well that I enjoyed it.

This is fantasy at its best and I will definitely continue on with this series.

Okay, I'm giving this four stars for what it is–a very in-depth retelling of a fairy tale in a historical setting. Good for folks interested in Irish or British lore, especially!

[slight spoilers]

But for me personally, I won't be continuing the series. I found some of the violence to be unnecessary to the plot and off-putting, and got a bit tired of the main character, who spends a lot of time being angry (understandable) but also not doing much more than patching other people up or sewing (also completely understandable, but just not the sort of storyline I'm into). It was very dramatic, which is fine, but I'm a more cozy kind of gal.

I will say the ending was sweet, when we eventually got there (it all happened a bit suddenly, but it was nice). And I get the feeling that the sequels will be about other siblings, which is cool, but I wasn't quite invested in them enough to continue.