Sorcha is the daughter of the Lord of Sevenwaters, she was supposed to be the seventh son of a seventh son...oops.=-) Growing up, she and her brothers were always very close. Her father was away much of the time fighting different battles. One day he comes home after falling in love with a woman-who uses the forces of nature to do evil. She turns the six brothers into swans and Sorcha is told by the FairFolk that she can only break the spell if she can remain totally silent until she manages to weave six shirts out of a spiney plant that ruins her hands and causes her great pain. In the meantime, she must escape the plot of her stepmother to have her killed, and watch as her heart is won over by the least likely person to trust.

The author did a wonderful job with description. Marillier is fond of Celtic/ Irish folklore and uses this to create a dramatic and culturally correct story line. He characters are well thought and strong. 554 pages goes by far faster than you would ever think possible!

Read it again!!! But I realized it was only the first book of a trilogy...so I ran to the bookstore and read the other two!

The book made me feel inspired to keep working at my own love of Celtic lore and storytelling. It also made me feel stronger, as Sorcha is a wonderfully strong willed girl, and a great model.

Holds advanced degrees and loves to study Celtic folklore. She lives in Western Austrailia

It really is wonderfully written. It's an inspiration to writers with the description alone, if not for the way the author developes her plot. Her teachers have much to teach us, even comming from long ago.

I would not recommend this book to younger youth--at one point Sorcha is raped as another test to break the spell set against her brothers. It could upset them.

The other books in the trilogy are called Son of the Shadows and Child of the Prophecy. They were both good, but the first is best in my opinion.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Daughter of the Forest (Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 1)   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jul 31, 2003 at 8:31pm • Submit your own review...