Parents' Guide to A Treachery of Swans

This tale of transformation, from girl to swan, from villain to hero, from captured to free, has a few holes and missteps, but is still deliciously dark and magical. Author A.B. Poranek invokes this dreary world void of green things or magic with her beautifully goth prose. It was a real strength of her debut novel When the Dark Stands Still. Readers will be drawn into Odile's orbit, and will root for her to find her better self, especially when she interacts with Marie and sparks fly. The two have a complicated past together, and Odile has an even more complicated and toxic relationship with her father, Rothbarte, to overcome. The power-hungry sorcerer, through years of emotional manipulation, has a firm hold on Odile. When you think she's broken free, she returns to his clutches and begs for his limited affections. His pull is believable at first. After Odile bonds with Marie, it's not anymore.

It's also strange that the theater setting the story returns to, after the first night, is always empty. At the beginning of A Treachery of Swans, it seemed like a vibrant place with lots of after-hours activities beyond turning noble girls into swans. And it's also strange that Odile has grown up in the theater, loves the theater, and has no other actors to confide in, just the brother who left her and Rothbarte five years before to work for the prince. The uneasy alliance between Odile, the prince, her brother, and Marie makes the climactic action even more intriguing, but the ending is a disappointment. The epilogue should have been at least one more book, not three measly pages. There's one more transformation alluded to that's even bigger than girl-to-swan, but instead this magic fizzles out in a too-tidy conclusion.