Daughter of the Forest

Sevenwaters, Book 1

De: Juliet Marillier

Narrado por: Terry Donnelly

Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives and they are determined that she know only contentment. But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift - by staying silent.

If she speaks before she completes the quest set to her by the Fair Folk and their queen, the Lady of the Forest, she will lose her brothers forever. When Sorcha is kidnapped by the enemies of Sevenwaters and taken to a foreign land, she is torn between the desire to save her beloved brothers, and a love that comes only once. Sorcha despairs that she will never able to complete her task, but the magic of the Fair Folk knows no boundaries, and love is the strongest magic of them all....

©2000 Juliet Marillier (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Slow StoryPainful Narration

I forced myself to finish this book because I was told the other books in the series are worth it. This is true. The other books in the series are really good. This one is just okay. It takes a while to get going, then drags quite a bit again in the middle. It's also just a mostly depressing story. It sets the stage for the rest of the series though, so is necessary.

This book might be better to read rather than listen to though. The narrator is very difficult to listen to. Sheee taaalkssss soooo slowwww. I found her bearable at 1.25x speed, but even with that improvement, she speaks very strangely - haltingly and over enunciating each word. Plus she is over dramatic and the female lead character always sounds like she is weaping. It was really annoying.

The other books in the series are better in every way, better story, better pacing and better narrators - until you get to The Seer of Sevenwaters book where we get this narrator again unfortunately.

Beautiful but a little flawed and it needs TWs

This fairy tale retelling is gorgeous. It is slow moving but not dull. In places, it reads like a Miyazaki movie. Unlike most fairy tales, the secondary characters all have a rich inner life and distinct motives and personalities. But it does follow certain fairy tale conventions that may frustrate some readers.
And now the flaws. The book is a bit overwritten in places. There are times she is repetitive or belabors a point while you internally yell I GET IT. The ending is really drawn out. There are no morally gray characters. Everyone is good or bad or becomes good or bad. This actually didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
THIS BOOK NEEDS TRIGGER WARNINGS. There is a rape scene. It is handled matter-of-factly and without over-sensationalizing it. It becomes an important part of the MC's character development, and her resulting PTSD changes how the story goes. If you are sensitive to rape, you should know it's there.
And lastly the Reader. Terry Donnelly performed the story really well and gave every character a distinct voice. She captured the emotion of the story. The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 was that she managed to make a teenage girl sound like an old woman with a thin wavering voice. But I can't fault her too much for that. The story is told in retrospect, so maybe it is supposed to be an old woman remembering the story.

This book is nothing short of incredible

I dont often write reviews, but this book needs one. When you wake from dreams you are having of the book you are listening to, when all you can do in our waking moments is think of what’s going to happen next... you know you’ve got a good one.
Very intense, beautifully written and performed. Every book I have purchased of Juliet Marillier I have enjoyed, she has an ability to take you into a different world and keep you there.

Loved every minute of this!

One of my favorite books

Loved the book when I first read it and loved this performance of it. I couldn’t stop listening.

Beautiful fantasy with all the best elements

The fair folk. The Isle of Ireland. And possible quest with heroic sacrifice. Great love and great loss. A love of nature and beauty and all that is best in man. This is a lovely book!

Narration could have been much better

The story was SO SLOW for the first few chapters, and chapters are very long. The narrator read so slow too that it frustrated me to no end. Eventually the story picked up and was a solid 4.5 stars but unfortunately i could just not get used to the narrator. Voice didn't fit mood much of the time and i kept getting pulled out of the moment by unnatural excitement of narrator when depicting voice of protagonist

Slow at times

The story seemed slow at times, but was still engaging, cruel, and sweet at times.

The performance was well done and well suited to the story. Her pacing was great and lightness of her voice were the perfect combination for the story.

Sorcha is a Quiet Hero

Love this first book of this series. What a strong and determine girl Sorcha was. The unbelievable trials and tribulations she endured and still had such love for her family and Red. This is a long book so stick with it. The writing was beautifully descriptive. While it was a fantasy, the reality of Sorcha's world was palpable. I listened on Audible and the narrator Terry Donnelly did a great job. I will definitely continue with the rest of this series. Highly recommend it you want a book you can sink into that shows both the terror of the world and the beauty.

I loved this book!!!

Suspenseful, intriguing, with myth or perhaps reality, if you believe that that fair folk are real.
This story drew me in to that last word.

An old fairy tale retold

It took me a while to realize this was a fairy tale I had read many times long ago. I think there were 12 siblings in the old one. I can't remember for sure, but I remember the one female sibling had to weave 12 shirts for her brothers to break the spell so they could be men again instead of the swans the evil spell had changed them into. In any case, told in this old Irish setting when belief in fairies and little people was strong is marvelous. As one who works with herbs and creates healing salves, I appreciate it all the more. The reading is wonderful as well. I did have to speed up the narration as in the default it was a bit slow.
This is my first book by Marillier and it will not be my last!