Book Review

Book: Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I bought this book a long time ago at The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City. Because of one thing or another I didn't get the chance to read it until recently. I can't believe what I was missing! This is a beautiful woven tale set in Transylvania (no, there are no vampires). Marillier takes a wide array of fairy tales and not only makes them believable as a whole, but leaves you wondering why no one has ever done it before. The reason I bought it in the first place was because it was said to be an homage to my favorite fairy tale - The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

There are not twelve princesses in this story, but five sisters who travel to another realm every full moon. The characters, the setting, the dresses are all described in breathtaking detail that never gets in the way of the actual story. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first but my skepticism soon turned to wonder and I found myself drawn into the story.

One horrible habit I have as a writer is to try to "read" the plot ahead of the pages. I am constantly guessing what will happen next. In this book I was continually surprised that what I thought would happen was not what actually happened! I'm not sure if Marillier has written anything else, but I will definitely read anything else by her.

Happy reading!