by Karah Sutton
Illustrated by Paulina Hannuniemi
ASIN/ISBN: 9780593121696
Publication: October 24, 2023

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DESCRIPTiON

A magical retelling of Swan Lake, featuring a clever orphan, a castle filled with enchanted swans, and a quest to unearth the secrets of the past.

Olga is an orphan and a thief, relying on trickery and sleight of hand to make her way in the world. But it’s magic, not thievery, that could get her into trouble.

When Olga and her partner-in-crime Pavel learn of a valuable jewel kept in a secluded castle, Olga sees an opportunity to change their lives: a prize so big, they’d never have to steal again. But the castle is not as it seems, ruled by an enchanter who hosts grand balls every night, only for the guests to disappear each morning, replaced by swans. Guided by cryptic clues from the palace spiders, Olga soon realizes she’s in over her head—torn between a bargain with the enchanter, loyalty to Pavel, and determination to understand how the enchanted swans are linked to her own fate.

One thing is certain: there is dark magic behind the castle’s mysteries, and Olga will stop at nothing to unmask it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karah Sutton is a New Zealand/American author and former bookseller whose debut children’s book A Wolf for a Spell was an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce selection, an Indie Next List Top 10 selection, a Junior Library Guild selection, a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, and a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Children’s & Middle Grade for 2021.

Karah also works in marketing for the video game industry, and has had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s most respected and well-loved entertainment companies including Disney, Netflix, Fox, and DreamWorks. 

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REVIEW

The Song of the Swan is a magic-infused retelling of Swan Lake that included some twists I was not expecting. I only started to put the pieces together about halfway through, and I liked it. My favorite part of the story was the magical lore surrounding how humans gained their magical gifts. Although I’m not a fan of spiders in real life, I was a fan of them here.

Olga is an interesting character who undergoes growth in the story. She is not an altruistic individual, instead, she looks out for herself. After the death of her mother, it’s all she’s known. While some of her decisions grated at me, they were true to character. I understood her motivations even if I did not like her sometimes. It was a nice deviation from most stories where the main character is all good from the start.

Unlike middle-grade reads, the story moved at a relatively slower pace. Most of the time, I liked it because I did not feel like it contained too many things happening or that the story was being rushed. There were some pieces of the story that felt repetitive, but they contributed to creating mystery around the castle and to Olga’s character growth. Other times, I wanted things to speed up a little more because I wanted to know the ending.

Fans of Swan Lake may enjoy the twists Sutton brings to the tale. Those looking for middle-grade reads that do not race through the story but allow the pieces to gradually fall together will find this a good read. The illustrations by Hannuniemi were also very much appreciated.

**Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours for allowing me to be part of the tour. Remember to check out the schedule and visit more posts. Also, thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with access to the book. I voluntarily read and reviewed it. All opinions are my own.**