But I get it–objectively, intellectually, whatever. It was too much and the amount of brutality seemed somewhat unnecessary. I don’t like fantasies featuring the fae as it is, so when this scene happened, followed by the dog’s death and Sorcha’s suffering in silence and the fae’s meddling and the nettle knitting, I checked out. Sorcha had to continue knitting six sweaters from nettles to save her brothers and break the curse that turned them into swans. How much worse could it get, right? Not much worse, but bad things did keep happening. And then her dog, her only companion, was brutally killed. I had known of the rape scene going in–it’s part of some retellings of this tale–but I didn’t know about the aftermath, that the main character Sorcha had to live with it, alone and in silence, as she was in the middle of her vow of silence that she had to make to the fae in order to save her brothers. We follow Sorcha, the youngest and only daughter of a lord, and her six older brothers through their lives from when they lived at the castle in the middle of a strange magical forest to when tragedy struck and tore their family apart.
There are druids, magic, and mysticism, and the writing does a lovely job of setting the scene and creating an otherworldly atmosphere. The story loosely follows the Six Swans fairy tale and it’s set in Medieval Ireland. I’d like to say it was my fault, because I’m usually the one dropping out of buddy reads, but this time it’s a combination of bad timing and a brutal rape scene that put a nail in this buddy read. I’m not even sure where she is because we kind of let it drop after hitting a wall, but I think she’s still pushing on.
This book was Beth‘s pick for May and I just finished it today. I’m leaning toward 4 stars overall but with lots and lots of reservations which I can’t go into without hitting on spoilers.
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