Sistersong

Book Title: Sistersong

Author: Lucy Holland

Date Started: November 13th 2021

Date Completed: November 20th 2021

Genres: Historical, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

I read halfway through Sistersong before I decided to call it a day. Ultimately, it was very slow and when events would eventually happen I had predicted them from twenty pages before. Perhaps my biggest issue was not being able to connect with the three protagonists; they may have been characterised differently, but their internal monologues were all the same combination of YA-reminiscent complaining and confusion with very little actual effort to do anything.

I wanted to give up every time I started a new chapter. There was nothing obviously wrong, I was just bored and the story felt like it was taking its sweet time to go anywhere. It's a tough one because not all stories need to establish a 'goal' that you're working towards, but I do think there needs to be a sense of working towards something. This book didn't have that, and I could probably call the final events even now.

I suppose what was even more frustrating about Sistersong was that the titular sisters did nothing at all; things just happened to them. They were ultimately really passive in the events of the story as far as halfway into the book (where I finally did give up). Yes, the cultural and societal positions they were existing within limited them in a lot of ways but even in their internal narratives they were never the ones actually challenging or questioning anything. They were merely reacting to other people's action. For feminist retellings especially (of folklore and fairytales no less), the passivity or activity of the characters really should be a priority to get right.

And look, just because it's got a corrupt priest and mentions the words 'magic' does not make it comparable to The Bear and the Nightingale. Looking through the reviews, it seems a lot of people were sold is as like Circe as well. I'm sure I see that other than it's a feminist retelling. Just ticking the boxes of oppressed women and loose folklore inspiration does not mean they're the same fairytale style or achieve the some feeling of vibrancy and wonder - nor do they necessarily intend to. Sistersong didn't need to be set up like that honestly as its telling a story from a different point in time (medieval?) where folklore meant something different to the people we follow, and their relationship to Christianity had its own battles. As much as I'm a sucker for comparisons to these books, I really don't think marketing them as such when it's simply inaccurate helps either the reader or the book.