Wildwood Dancing
By Juliet MarillierEvery full moon Jena, her frog, and her sisters all use a portal to enter the other kingdom. They spend the evening dancing with magical beings. Life was good.
Then their father becomes ill and leaves home to recover. He trusts Jena to run the family business but she is a girl and so a cousin, Cezar, will help her. Cezar cannot help but remind Jena that if she or one of her sisters fails to provide a male heir he may just be taking over her family, since her father is very ill, ill enough to he might not make it home and therefore Cezar would be the next in line to be the man in charge. Jena cannot stand this thought but Cezar's hints and flat out bully attempts to run her home have come at a time when Jena’s sister has fallen for a young man in the Other Kingdom who she should not have fallen for. Sure, the fact that he is in the Other Kingdom and therefore only seen by them during the full moon is an issue, but it is worse than that -- he is visiting the Other Kingdom with the Night People, a mysterious group with a horrid reputation for toying with people -- ruining lives even. It’s a lot for Jenna to take on, essentially alone, only her best friend / Frog Gogu can truly help her and she’s not sure that a frog is of much help, no matter how much she loves him. Jenna does send letters to her father but she’s unsure that he is getting them and she cannot bring herself to tell him just how bad things have gotten as she’d not want to further affect his health. How to save her sister and her home?
Overall this an amazing story borrowing classic fairy-tale and gothic horror elements and weaving them into a unique story all its own. The only reason I cannot give it five stars is that it foes seem a wee bit repetitive at time, it drags on at others, and then finally is just rushed here and there. Were it a little more balanced, it’d be perfect.
