Seven Wild Sisters: A Modern Fairy Tale

Maybe I'm a bit like Sarah Jane Dillard in that I too "like to know the long history of a thing, not just where and what it might be now...(44-45)" because, having first read The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, I felt more connected to the tale of Seven Wild Sisters than its prequel/companion novel.

What I loved most, about both books, was the relationship between women, especially a young female with her elderly counterpart. That tradition of the two living close together, and the old telling stories to the young who, in listening to those stories, discovers a place and purpose - a sense of belonging, from someone who's already walked the different paths, who believes the wild tales no one else would believe. I think that type of show more relationship is important and I really enjoy how de Lint honored it in both books.

4.5 stars show less

The Dillards are a family of eight now; a widowed mother and her seven daughters--including two sets of twins. They're living now on a farm near a small town, and a large forest. There are odd stories about the forest, about fairies and other magical creatures, and strange disappearances. Further into the woods than the Dillards' home is the little house of Lillian Kindred. Lily is an old woman who lives alone, and grows and processes most of her own food. She also collects wild-growing ginsang, or as she calls it, 'sang, to sell in town and buy the few things she can't make herself. A lot of the work is hard, heavy work, though, and when Lily and the fourth of the Dillard girls, Sarah Jane, and Lily take a liking to each other, Mrs. show more Dillard doesn't object to Sarah Jane spending her free time helping Lily Kindred.

Lily tells Sarah Jane many stories of fairies and other magical creatures, including 'sangmen and bee fairies, the Apple Tree Man, and the Father of Cats, who normally appears, when he does at all, as a black panther. Sarah Jane loves the stories, but she doesn't believe them. Then one day she's out gathering 'sang on her own, because Lily is feeling her age, and discovers a tiny man seemingly made of twigs, shot through with over a hundred tiny arrows, badly wounded but still breathing. She picks him up and carries him to Lily's, and along the way meets the Apple Tree Man.sovolved herself in a fairy feud, between the bee fairies and the 'sangmen. With the bee fairies believing she has chosen to ally herself with their enemies, and the 'sangmen believing she has captured their comrade and will trade him to the bee fairies, she's in danger from both sides.

The Apple Tree Man is an old friend of Lily's, who promises to help. The Apple Tree Man has another friend, a little cat-man who calls himself Lil Pater. Soon they are planning a trip into the fairy world to work out a bargain that will get the 'sangman to safety, and convince the bee fairies that Sarah Jane was merely doing a good deed for a wounded man she knew nothing about. In the process, though, Sarah Jane won't be getting home until the next morning.

Their plan doesn't go well, when they encounter the bee fairies immediately.

Meanwhile, when Sarah Jane doesn't come home when expected, Mrs. Dillard sends the oldest girl, Adie, and one of the other singletons, Elsie, to go fetch Sarah Jane.

The older set of twins decide to go wandering in the woods, "looking for Sarah Jane," but really hoping to see some of the interesting things she has talked about, and run into a strange little twig man who lures them into a trap with music. They're musicians, and they've brought their instrument cases with them, and he challenges them to a musical duel. If he wins, they have to come with him.

Unfortunately, the younger twins have played a nasty prank that, absent the interference of the fairies none of them believe in, would have been harmless. They had followed the elder twins, and saw the kidnapping--and know they have to rescue their sisters.

Soon all the Dillard sisters are confronting the bee fairies and the 'sangmen, and learning more than any of them wanted to know about fairy. It's exciting, and the human characters are believable and likable, while the various fairy characters have the colorful characteristics, the charm, and the danger that fairies ought to have.

And of course, Charles Vess's illustrations are beautiful and enhance the story.

Highly recommended.

I bought this book. show less

Having read many of de Lint's other stories about the Dillard sisters and Aunt Lillian this book tied up a lot of loose ends wonderfully. I had an inkling of the "battle" between the 'sangmen and the bee faeries from Laurel and Bess remembering their previous intereactions with the faerie folk during their adventure in Medicine Road, but being able to see the whole story was nice. Aunt Lillian's story, which began in A Circle of Cats, also comes to a close, but I'll be that de Lint has at least one more story left to tell here. Her boon owed to the Father of Cats passed on to Sarah Jane Dillard when Aunt Lillian decided to stay in Faerie with the Appletree Man, and I think de Lint would be able to spin another delightful story out of show more the boon being fulfilled. There also might be some adventures worthy of a story from the youngest twins and their new faerie friend, since that trio is sure to get into plenty of troube, and the best stories always come from these kind of wayward adventures. show less

The ending to this book (though in no way a cliff hanger) leaves the way open for a third installment to make this a Tanglewood Forest trilogy, and if that's to be, then Seven Wild Sisters will probably be the weakest of the three books – which is alright, because the second book in a trilogy often is the weakest, something of a transitional volume.

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest was an outstanding 5***** beginning, and Seven Wild Sisters follows up on this by bringing us Lillian Kindred as an old woman who befriends and is befriended by Sarah Jane Dillard, middling in age among one of seven red-haired sisters who live in the hill country about Newford. Much of the story is told in Sarah Jane's first-person voice but with switch-overs show more to third person in chapters (usually brief) focusing on one or more of the other six sisters – four of whom constitute two pairs of twins, which is fortunate for the narrations since it lets de Lint pair up the twins, somewhat reducing the confusion of characters.

That's the problem with Seven Wild Sisters. It has too many characters in the persons of these seven sisters, which makes it difficult to keep them all apart or to particularly identify with any of them other than Sarah Jane herself. Also, the "war in faërie" plot does veer a bit toward the clichéd, at least by comparison with the more imaginative plot of The Cats of Tanglewood Forest. Hence, 3*** to the story and an additional ½* for the superb illustrations by Charles Vess, who also provided excellent illustrations for The Cats of Tanglewood Forest and whose work in Seven Wild Sisters may even be better.

Seven Wild Sisters can probably be read independently of The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, but I'd recommend reading the first book first since you'll find greater interest in Seven Wild Sisters if you remember the young Lillian Kindred from the first novel and see what she (and the Apple Tree Man) have become.

3½*** overall, which really isn't bad for a second book in a probable trilogy, and I'll definitely be awaiting the next.

Note: It seems that this book was originally published in limited edition in 2002 by Subterranean Press. I'll have to check to see if there's been a third volume in this "Tanglewood" series, perhaps appearing somewhere under de Lint's "Newford" series. If not, I hope he does do a follow-up. Also, I'm not sure if the excellent illustrations by Charles Vess appear in the earlier Subterranean Press limited edition. show less

An enjoyable story, of a modern(ish) family of sisters encountering fairies and the Otherworld. The way it jumps back and forth in tenses and viewpoints is a little odd, though never confusing. It was interesting, I enjoyed it, I'd read another if there were one (I don't think there is)...but it wasn't anything special and I'm not particularly interested in reading it again. Good, not great. Though I would like to see a final version (mine is an ARC) to see the illustrations - this has sketches or just a note for many of them.

Seven Wild Sisters: A Modern Fairy Tale by Charles de Lint is the follow up / companion piece to The Cats of Tanglewood Forest. A mother and her seven daughters move to a home on a hill, where their only nearby neighbor is an older woman, presumed to be a witch.

Sarah Jane is the one sister who believes all the tales of faeries and magic told about the forest. She's desperate to meet a faerie and doesn't realize how dangerous such a wish could possibly be.

Things go awry when Sarah Jane rescues a little wooden man, thus taking sides in an ages long faerie battle. Soon she finds family in the middle of the battle as her sisters are kidnapped by opposing sides.

It's a fairly standard faerie war story but it's rendered down to a tightly told show more story, taking less than 300 pages. Text wise, it's probably only 200 pages but the book is filled with the lovely watercolor illustrations of Charles Vess (who has illustrated a number of Neil Gaiman's books and graphic novels). show less

This was a nice detour from Newford. Seven sisters live in the mountains and one has made friends with an old woman who lives off the grid and teaches her self-reliance. A ginseng harvest sends them on a adventure into Faerie - de Lint style.