wildwooddancing

Judge A Book By Its Cover

Book Reviews and Synopses

Wildwood Dancing

Juliet Marillier

Fletcher, Susan. Alphabet of Dreams. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. New York, New

Marillier, Juliet. Wildwood Dancing. Random House Children’s Books. New York, New York. 2007.

Wildwood Dancing is a book readers had high expectations for, and were tragically disappointed. It’s mood changes so rapidly and so frequently, most of it feels like a book adaptation of a Barbie movie - a bad Barbie movie. And, as a sign of arrogance, Juliet Marillier even gave the heroine her own name.

In Wildwood Dancing, you remain spellbound, until chapter two. At first you are intrigued by the wide range of characters in the orphanage where Juliet (the heroine) grew up. What happened to these teenage girls? All of Juliet’s friends have secrets; Lilac won’t talk about her past, Noel doesn’t daydream about her future as the other girls do, and Page is hiding something obviously ominous. Lilac and Noel are Juliet’s best friends; they do everything together. Juliet feels sorry that Page has no friends, and so tries to befriend her; But not without the ulterior motive of learning her secret. After months of bonding, Juliet and Page have become close. Right as Page is about to reveal everything to her, Juliet gets adopted by an elderly couple, and the orphanage, along with Page’s mystery, is never mentioned again.

The first two pages of the third chapter contain nothing but Juliet weeping in the carriage on the way to her new home. Her adoptive parents are nothing but nice to her, and how does she repay them? She cries; and not even in a poetic way! They arrive at the mansion, and are greeted by her new “sister,” Claire, a brunette in her 20’s who the author makes out to have some sort of secret. By using sentences such as, “The sideways glances made it clear she had other places to be...” and “Juliet could tell there was something not being said”, the author uses no subtlety whatsoever; Even the story itself lacks originality in most ways. The next four chapters can be summarized as such: chapter 4- slowing down, chapter 5- dull, chapter 6- dragging on, chapter 7- Zzz...

Then, in chapter eight Juliet finds a portal to a magical fairy world. This part of the book is formulaic, and cheesy; she befriends the magical creatures in this world, especially the mermaid, Yana, and her brother (not a mermaid), Ben. She goes to the alternate universe every day in secret, and her family is delighted that she is finally happy. One day Juliet sees Ben dancing with Claire in the fairy garden. After confronting Claire, she learns that she has been secretly seeing Ben for years, but the peacock obsessed queen, Queen Calypso, forbids human/magical marriage. The so called “climax” of the book is a major disappointment. The shady outcasts who have been banished to The Dark Side of the Woods storm the city and attempt to kill the queen. but then brave Juliet saves the day with her wit and creativity. In the end, as payment for saving her life, Queen Calypso lifts the marriage law; and as a side note, the author mentions that Claire’s parents find the magical world. They allow Juliet and Claire to move in with the fairies, and they all live happily ever after, a cheesy ending to match the cheesy book.

Overall, this book was a huge disappointment; Juliet Marillier’s debut novel was a tragic waste of paper, not worth the resources used to make it. If you like YA books aimed at 6yr olds, by all means, read it! But if you want to read something worthwhile, use your library card elsewhere.

1 of 5 stars

Contributed by A. Wikle

November 22nd 2011