The Dance Tree
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The gripping new novel from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies.'Exceptionally brilliant. Immersive, sensual, compelling, ambitious' - Marian Keyes'Intriguing, haunting . . . raw, beautiful' - Jennifer Saint, author of AriadneStrasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and as she is joined by hundreds of others, the authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in to play the Devil out of these women.Just beyond the city's limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. And then, as the dancing plague gathers momentum, Lisbet's sister-in-law Nethe returns from seven years' penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name. It is a secret that Lisbet is determined to uncover. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, she finds herself thrust into a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion, but she is dancing to a dangerous tune . . .Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge.
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At the center of this story it's really about Lisbet and her worries over her pregnancy, and sorrow over her multiple miscarriages prior to this. I have no children and I've thankfully not have had to endure that particular road of loss, so needless to add but this story could not move me in any profound or meaningful way.
And a novel doesn't owe me this - it doesn't owe me a story that only I can relate to. And I've loved many novels that didn't relate to me at all, and still moved me by the end. However, I did pick this up based on the blurbs and synopsis and was left feeling awkward within this story as it had the parts of what was in the synopsis but none of the follow through.
The dancing plague is almost, just almost an after-thought to this story. We get chapters in between the plot line with Lisbet of woman who join in on the dancing, a brief glimpse into their lives before they join the masses. But it seems wildly out of place when the plot line just touches onto this ‘dancing plague' not happening all that far from Lisbet. Seemingly used primarily as a point to allow certain characters to meet, or argue, converse, or conspire. I was hopeful of more conversations regarding the religion and beliefs, and conspiracies as to why all these women lost themselves in the movement (literal and figuratively). I'd of liked to of spent more time amongst the crowds and how this was affecting their loved ones.
We get Nethe, and we get Ida. Their presence seemingly too quick within scenes. Their personal struggles and unraveling not nearly as encompassing or important to the flow of this. Their stories heart breaking and sad, wholly believable, yet nothing that would leave a lasting impression on me. Mainly due to how it's all framed, forever and solely Lisbet being her world and us revolving around it.
The bad guy, Plater, is the bad guy to all in this story. His actions easily determined by all the twirling mustache ‘bad man' predecessors in novels, art, movies... and with all the typical-ness of this character we're not treated with particularly deep insights of motivations for him, or nuanced conversations. A caricature is all that was left.
The author said as much herself in the acknowledgements, that she wanted a story to touch on the loss of life and grief that so many woman experience from miscarriages, and the fears and uncertainty of motherhood in general. She achieved that. But more should be warned that that is all they're really going to get from this story.
