The Black Swan Might Go a Little To Far

(Warning, this review contains mention of Sexual Assault)

Black Swan is a retelling of the ballet Swan Lake that is unique by being written from Odile's point of view.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages or so of the book. I especially loved Odile and her never ending quest to earn the approval of her father who does not deserve a child like her, Odile’s relationship with the flock (the woman cursed to take the forms of swans) and her practicing with magic. The chapters that were written from Queen Cothilde’s (The Prince's mother) point of view and her set up as a major and scheming villain were also intriguing. However, for a book titled The Black Swan she is not the focus as much as I feel she should have been with the narration focused a little too often on other characters, particularly Siegfried, who ruined the story for me.

We all love a good redemption arc, following an individual as they change their deep seated ideals. However, the thing about redemption is that someone needs to be in a bad place before it happens, otherwise there is nothing to redeem and atone for. I do believe that a character with past sins can still maintain readers’ sympathy, but there is  a point where only God can judge someone. If this is acknowledged in the texts I can move on. That is not at all that happened here in the Black Swan. 

Siegfried starts out as an obnoxious womanizer, and I heard he gets better going into the book so I was looking forward to this little turd getting called out on his bad habits. Then he rapes someone. He has a nightmare about the victim commiting suicide and then seeks to turn over a new leaf, and meets the love of his life and with help from Odile saves everyone from the curse, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unless you are the minority girl who was raped by a river side and probably driven to suicide with crime committed against you unpunished. At least you can find solace in the fact that the rapist was able to save other people and marry the woman of his dreams. 

This is enraging because they literally could have had Siegfried realize the way he talks to and about women is disgusting and try to change from that. A rape is too far and I really cannot enjoy the rest of the story.

The Black Swan is a good idea with some flawed, but human characters to follow in the story, except for the “redemption” arc that I feel went too far and sloppily wrapped up did not leave a good taste in my mouth.  

The Crystal Snowstorm is a Hidden Gem

I first read this book in middle school and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites. Even after nearly a decade  (and too many rereads to count) my love for The Crystal Snowstorm (and the following Letzenstein books) has not diminished. 

The Letzenstein Chronicles follows the happenings of a small European country on the brink of revolution. Catherine, an adolescent visiting her estranged Grandfather the Grand duke and ruler, finds herself caught in the crossfire of not only the revolution, but the feud within her own family. 

The relationships between the characters are genuine and natural. In the author’s note, Ms. Trevor explained when she writes stories about difficult topics for children (such as political turmoil and revolutions) she tries to focus on the adventures of the characters foremost and it works beautifully here. These are friendships that I could see happening in real life. These characters, Catherine, Yolande, Edward, and especially Rafiel LeMarre have  stuck with me the way Luke Skywalker, Samwise Gamgee, and Katniss Everdeen did. 

Our heroine, Catherine, is another highlight of the story. She would rather  live a quiet life and get to know her newly found family than be involved with the politics her Grandfather has ensnared her in. However, she still strives to do what she can to help even if what she does seems very small. Catherine does fail at times and feels hopeless and frustrated but she does not become apathetic. 

I also enjoyed seeing Catherine, a very quiet girl at the beginning, develop unique friendships with different people. She comes to love and care about Con, Yolande, Edward, and Raf, but each relationship does something different for Catherine and the story. I will give special notice to Catherine and Yolande’s relationship because it is a sisterly friendship between a young girl and a young woman, something I do not see very often in fiction.

My only complaint (if it could be called that) is, I would have liked it if Countess Imelda, the sister of our antagonist Duke Julius, had been a bit more involved in the story. She mostly acts as a messenger for other characters. However, Catherine and co. have more than enough problems and as I reiterated all the other characters are very developed and this by no means ruined the story for me. 

    Overall, the Crystal Snowstorm is a solid first entry in a series that satisfied but also left me curious for the next installment. I would recommend it for children (and adults) who enjoy historical fiction and character focused stories. I feel it is appropriate for kids 10 and up, but this is subjective to the individual child’s reading comprehension.

An Uncertain Choice by Jody Hedlund

As an avid reader of historical romance, I have accepted not every book needs to be 100% accurate to the time-period it represents. No one is perfect and no author, (and no reader) will ever know everything about a particular time in history. If the story and characters are well written small mistakes can and should be excused. However, there is a difference between having small mistakes such as a character mentioning a book that was written a handful of years after the story takes place and having a character use a piece of technology that was not only invented centuries later (if it even existed) they utilize it incorrectly.

An Uncertain Choice  unfortunately is the latter. As I said earlier if I find a book to be enjoyable, I can overlook inaccuracies. However, I did not find the story to be anything to write home about and the inaccuracies feel as if no research was done at all. 

The premise is that our heroine Rosemarie must become a nun when she turns 18 because of a vow her late parents made. The inciting incident is when Rosemarie’s godfather finds a loophole to this vow. Rosemarie must marry before her 18th birthday so her Godfather introduces her to 3 of his noblest knights to compete for her hand, but it quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage the knight’s efforts in wooing Rosemare. 

Rosemarie, is not that much of a three dimensional character. What I know about her is that she wants to be a good ruler, she is opposed to torture, and she cares a great deal about the poor. Rosemarie’s relationship with the poor and peasants was presented as one of her greatest virtues. The peasants all adore Rosemarie, but not a single one of them have names and anything more meaningful than a parasocial relationship with her. They only exist to ask Rosemarie for alms  so that she could come across as a kind person when she gives them donations. 

There is also a gratuitous usage of medieval torture and torture devices. Although Rosemarie has long since outlawed such cruel practices in her territory, the story opens with our heroine running into the square to save an old man from being boiled alive because the sheriff cannot be bothered to respect Rosemarie as a ruler. Now, punishment for crimes was brutal hundreds of years ago, I am not going to pretend they were not. However, many of what we think in pop culture as medieval torture were rarely used if they were actual medieval inventions. Also, the mention of torture was explicit and very detailed, which I found did not fit the tone of the book.

Like the peasants, the torture feels as if it is only in the story as a tool to make Rosemarie likable. Torture bad. Rosemarie does not like it. Rosemarie good. 

The romance was not all that interesting to me as I found it difficult to root for a character who I don’t care for to find true love.  I also struggled to root for one of the three potential love interests when it was likely one of them was actively trying to harm the others. On the other hand, this mystery of who was the one playing dirty kept me reading as I was thinking it would be resolved excitedly. I was wrong. The one who was guilty was obvious, but as I was reading, I was convinced they must be a red herring. 

If this book was not explicitly stated to be set during the 14th century in England and was fantasy, many of my gripes regarding the historical and religious inaccuracies would be irrelevant. But I still would not be able to say that I would recommend a book as the romance and the subpar mystery and tonal issues would still be present. I wish I knew of a book with a similar premise I could recommend instead, but I cannot think of one. If anyone does know of one please feel free to mention it in the comments.