The Swan Kingdom

Whilst I’m aware of a number of fairytale retellings within the YA market I hadn’t got round to reading one until I read The Swan Kingdom. It is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Wild Swans, a story I only vaguely remembered from my childhood.

The story is narrated by Alexandra, a princess who has always felt unloved by her father, but who has thrived on the love and attention of her mother and her brothers. Straight away we start to realise that there is something special about Alexandra’s mother, and that Alexandra too shares this. When her mother is killed Alexandra has to cope first with her loss, and then with her father’s speedy new marriage. Everything rapidly comes to a head (because yes, things can get worse show more than your mother dying and your father remarrying quickly) and Alexandra finds herself banished and alone, and trying to find a way to right all of the wrongs that have happened.

I loved Alexandra, I thought she was a wonderful character and I felt completely invested in her story. One of the things that initially grabbed me about the book was the relationship she had with her brothers, the dynamic between them reminded me quite a bit of how me and my brother got on when we were younger. I could completely understand the lengths she was prepared to go to for them, I’d like to think I’d be strong enough to do the same in her situation.

The other characters were great too, I liked Gabriel instantly and then the more I got to know him the more I liked him. Whilst Zella is the villain of the piece I thought she was a great character, she was so believably evil and dislikeable.

I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough when I was reading this, I got completely and utterly wrapped up in the wonderful world contained within the book. It’s written in such a beautifully descriptive manner, at times I almost felt like I had fallen inside the pages.

I really loved this book and will be recommending it to people for a long time to come. show less

The Swan Kingdomis based upon the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale “The Wild Swans,” but depending on your views and opinion could be based upon several other related fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. In all versions of the story, the daughter is the youngest and the only one able to defeat the Evil Queen and save her brothers. Another author to previously use this fairy tale as the framework for an original tale was Juliet Marillier in her first Sevenwaters book, Daughter of the Forest, though that book is a darker, more adult, and ultimately bittersweet retelling.

Make no mistake, this isn’t quite the happy, sun is shining fantasy with neatly wrapped up obstacles, as the fairy tale might lead you to believe. Our narrator and show more protagonist, Alexandra, begins the story by first explaining that she was the most useless member of her family. Her father, the King, barely acknowledged her existence because she was such a disappointment, her Mother was a wise and powerful Wise Woman, and her three elder brothers each had a quality about them that made them stand out. Alexandra, by comparison, was plain, difficult, and could only manage the smallest of “workings” (magic). She didn’t mire herself down with bitterness or depression, however; she looked forward to the day when she could be “just Alexandra” and not have to worry about the courtly protocol thrust upon her by her status as a princess.

Slowly we see the changes in Alexandra’s life as she comes of age and adulthood looms. The tenseness between her parents, the sadness she sees in her Mother’s eyes, and her own knowledge that she couldn’t stay a child forever all begin to take root just as her world is turned upside down. They say bad luck comes in threes and so it did–her mother’s death, her father’s impending remarriage, and her brothers’ banishment could all be squarely blamed on one woman: Zella.

Beautiful, powerful, wicked, and rotten Zella. She murdered the Queen, bewitched the King and his people, and attempted to murder Alexandra and her brothers. Zella radiates decay and rankness, the loathing and disgust that Alexandra feels for her translated perfectly in her narrative. Through Alexandra’s eyes there are no redeeming values to Zella at all.

The book is broken into two parts; the first deals with setting the stage and introducing the players, as well as the first confrontation with Zella and the aftermath. The second part begins with Alexandra accepting the path her life has taken, but a sudden upset spirals her once again out of her element. Determined to save her family and Kingdom, she undertakes a quest that will hopefully break the hold Zella has over her father and Kingdom.

The first part moves at a much slower pace while Alexandra is still upset, hesitant and reeling from all the changes wrought in a short amount of time. A lot of the narrative is filled with mundane things that filled her day or thoughts that are repeated often. The arrival of Gabriel is the only bright spot, but his time in her life is short-lived and leaves her feeling even worse. By the end of the chapter the hope she clings to is threadbare and worn.

The second part is where things begin to pick up speed. Revelations and events happen one after the other in quick succession as Alexandra realizes the gravity of the problem at hand and takes steps to take care of it. Not surprisingly, she comes into her own and starts to build herself separate from the image she has always held of the useless, powerless girl. She has new determination, new strength of resolve, and a new goal.

As much as I enjoyed the second part, much seemed to draw directly from Marillier’s book and is then abandoned as the tides of the plot changed. Alexandra is reunited with someone, and it’s during this reunion that I was most at odds with the book. Time, such as it was in the book, seemed to pass quickly, but the task she set herself to at the beginning of the second part is all but abandoned except when it is a plot convenience. And the actual climatic battle between herself and Zella is completely out of the blue.

The ending is a happy one, so that differs from several of the variants of the fairy tale itself, but is a little too pat. Despite breaking one of the cardinal rules of the spell, Alexandra achieves the results she wanted. The allusion to who Zella really was is clumsy and added without much explanation, and the epilogue takes the bulk of what happens after.

Regardless of its inconsistencies of pacing and plot, I enjoyed this retelling of a lesser-known fairy tale and look forward to reading Marriott’s other book, Daughter of the Flames. show less

Whilst I’m aware of a number of fairytale retellings within the YA market I hadn’t got round to reading one until I read The Swan Kingdom. It is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Wild Swans, a story I only vaguely remembered from my childhood.

The story is narrated by Alexandra, a princess who has always felt unloved by her father, but who has thrived on the love and attention of her mother and her brothers. Straight away we start to realise that there is something special about Alexandra’s mother, and that Alexandra too shares this. When her mother is killed Alexandra has to cope first with her loss, and then with her father’s speedy new marriage. Everything rapidly comes to a head (because yes, things can get worse show more than your mother dying and your father remarrying quickly) and Alexandra finds herself banished and alone, and trying to find a way to right all of the wrongs that have happened.

I loved Alexandra, I thought she was a wonderful character and I felt completely invested in her story. One of the things that initially grabbed me about the book was the relationship she had with her brothers, the dynamic between them reminded me quite a bit of how me and my brother got on when we were younger. I could completely understand the lengths she was prepared to go to for them, I’d like to think I’d be strong enough to do the same in her situation.

The other characters were great too, I liked Gabriel instantly and then the more I got to know him the more I liked him. Whilst Zella is the villain of the piece I thought she was a great character, she was so believably evil and dislikeable.

I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough when I was reading this, I got completely and utterly wrapped up in the wonderful world contained within the book. It’s written in such a beautifully descriptive manner, at times I almost felt like I had fallen inside the pages.

I really loved this book and will be recommending it to people for a long time to come. show less

Fairy tale re-tellings often take on a life of their own. Some follow their roots more closely than others. Zoë Marriott’s then-debut novel, The Swan Kingdom, is shaped after Hans Christian Anderson’s The Wild Swans (which is a variation of The Six Swans by the Brothers Grimm). At the same time, The Swan Kingdom is like neither tale. It takes on a life of its own, full of lore that never existed in the original telling.

For one thing, there are only three brothers here—not six, not eleven, three. The number is much more manageable. Besides, I pity the poor girl who winds up with such a gaggle of brothers, especially when she’s the youngest. Talk about overprotective! Alexandra follows after her mother, a magical wise woman at show more one with nature. Whenever the two had scenes together as Alexandra learns more about the power of enaid, it brought to mind the type of magic used by Crysta and Magi Lune in one of my favorite childhood movies, FernGully: The Last Rainforest. Comparing the two, it was easy to visualize the enaid whenever it appeared in the novel. The addition of the Circle of Ancestors also brought tales of old to mind; I could picture this ancient, magical place perfectly. I always love when I can “see” what I’m reading, even if it’s only due to my own weird way of categorization. Marriott also twists the traditional tale by killing the children’s mother and showing us the way the King becomes besotted by the evil enchantress. I loved her creepy, disturbing descriptions when the three princes are transformed into swans.

My favorite addition to the original tale is the fact that Alexandra and Gabriel connect before she takes her vow of silence. I loved seeing their relationship slowly build as they got to know one another. After Alexandra realizes what she had to do to restore her brothers’ humanity, she can no longer speak until she has spun tunics out of dangerous wanton’s needle by hand. The first tunic takes her four months to complete, and the needle has already scarred and destroyed her hands. When she’s reunited with Gabriel and unable to tell him of her plight, I truly felt her pain and suffering. Marriott also twists the ending in a way that’s much less violent than the original tales, but still full of breathless anticipation.

If you like the original renditions or want to read another version of the tale once you finish The Swan Kingdom, be sure to also check out Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, which is a darker, grittier version of the tale. Marillier went on to write many companion novels, but only this first book follows a traditional fairy tale path. show less

This story is nearly perfect. It's a retelling of the story of the girl who has to create shirts out of nettles to transform her brothers who are transformed into swans by their evil stepmother. There were some moments when the pace suddenly changed in the storytelling and I had to backtrack to properly follow the story, but overall it was a hit.

Alexandra is a great character, her connection to the world and the earth-magic in the background is quite well drawn and I found it to be an interesting variation on the story. This is the third book I've read by this author and she has yet to disappoint.

A retelling of the folktale of the Swan Brothers that adds depth and complexity to the characters while preserving the magic and wonder of the fairytale setting. As Alexandra matures, she wins through to an acceptance not only of her own powers and responsibilities, but of her parents as flawed yet striving human beings. Clues to the mystery of the 'wicked stepmother' are subtly woven through the story, and readers may find it repays a second reading. Written with lyrical clarity informed by a keen-eyed love for the natural world.

Reviewed by Natalie Tsang for TeensReadToo.com

As the brightly colored cover suggests, Zoë Marriott's novel THE SWAN KINGDOM is a fantastical read. It is the retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's THE WILD SWANS, a fairy tale that I had never heard of, but that has all the familiar bits and pieces like the evil stepmother, enchanted gardens, and animal transformations. It also has a spunky, magically terrific but socially awkward princess-protagonist named Alexandra.

A few of my friends dislike retold fairy tales, because there is no surprise ending. But I think the whole point of reading rewrites is to focus on the journey, not the place. Anyway, that's why I love retold fairy tales, because it's a way to enjoy certain stories that I show more seemed to grow out of. After a few years in schoolyard politics, the characters that I loved just weren't complex enough to be satisfying anymore. Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White were never unsure, impatient, or angry. Besides some serious magical malady that I had no hope of ever battling, they never seemed to have problems at all.

Alexandra, however, has real problems like pleasing her parents, being plain, and weird. With books like THE SWAN KINGDOM, I get my dosage of magic, and from a girl normal enough to be friends with.

Alexandra is an ugly duckling from a family of swans. Her parents are the just and admired rulers of the Kingdom and her three older brothers are kind, handsome, and brilliant. Her only claim to fame is the magical connection that she shares with the land, but even then her skills are dwarfed by her mother's great healing abilities. When the novel opens, she has pretty much settled for a life in the shadows, but when her mother is killed by a beast in the forest and her father marries a strange, beautiful woman, Alexa has to step up or be squashed. While this story follows the general formula of a fairytale (evil destroyed and kingdom restored), Zoë Marriott has charted a unique path to Happily Ever After.

There seems to be a lot of retold fairy tales on the shelves these days. Some are humorous, like Gail Carson Levine's PRINCESS TALES series. THE SWAN KINGDOM is one of the more serious ones, and readers who enjoyed Robin McKinley's or Donna Jo Napoli's books should try it out. show less