Lucy Holland’s Sistersong is a retelling of the traditional British folk ballad The Twa Sisters, also known as The Cruel Sister. Set in ancient Britain and revolving around a particular tribe living in Dumnonia, ruled by king Cador and queen Enica, Holland’s lush reimagining of the ballad is a fantastic amalgamation of historical fantasy and English folklore. Brimming with magic, Sistersong is at heart a tale of dysfunctional family dynamics, one where Holland hands over narrative agency to the voices history silenced. I loved every second of this book.
The story is narrated by Riva, Keyne, and Sinne, who are the three children of Cador. As they grow up, they see the world around them rapidly change; they remember a Dumnonia where magic was tied to the very land, where magic came as naturally to the people as breathing. However, as the new ways of Christianity start taking roots around the kingdom with the arrival of the priest Gildas, the king turns his back on magic and the old gods of their land, leaving the kingdom vulnerable without its magical defenses.
Meanwhile, as the three siblings are only beginning to understand their birthright and realising the extent of their respective powers, the Saxon forces are spreading throughout Britain. Further change comes with the sudden arrivals of Myrdhin the magician, who helps Keyne recognise himself, and Tristan the warrior, who drives a wedge between the sisters Riva and Sinne. With the imminent threat of the enemy outside their gates and their ever weakening familial bonds, the three siblings would have to take fate into their own hands and shape the future of Britain, or let their land, and with it its magic, be lost forever.
Holland accurately brings the dark, ominous feeling of the original murder ballad into her novel even as she threads it through with exhilarating magic; even when everything seems to be just fine, you can’t help waiting in trepidation for something to go horribly wrong. Holland’s storytelling is mesmerising, and Sistersong kept me feverishly turning the pages until the very end. Riva, Keyne, and Sinne are the three point of view characters in this novel, and Holland expertly blends each chapter into the next, so the sudden shifts in the narrative voices don’t seem disruptive. As for the magic, while the way it’s woven into the book is nothing new, it was fascinating all the same to see the role it played out in the story.
Each of the three main characters are brilliantly written, and you really come to see them as real people with follies and fears. While all three of them are well-rounded and compelling, Keyne is the one I ended up loving the most. Riva, Keyne, and Sinne all have their own ways of rebelling against the restrictions of the society that only sees them as assets to be of married off into neighbouring kingdoms, but Keyne’s journey to claiming his identity in a world that refuses to see him as anything but the king’s daughter brought some much needed hope into this story. All the secondary characters from the priest Gildas to Myrdhin the gender-fluid druid to the mysterious Tristan were complex, layered and captivating; Myrdhin shined particularly as the mentor to Keyne.
A novel that blends history, folklore, and magic effortlessly with themes wholly relevant in today’s world, Sistersong is unlike any book I’ve come across so far. If you like Madeline Miller’s works and historical/mythological fiction, make sure you give this one a try!
Sistersong is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
535 AD. In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, King Cador’s children inherit a fragmented land abandoned by the Romans.
Riva, scarred in a terrible fire, fears she will never heal.
Keyne battles to be seen as the king’s son, when born a daughter.
And Sinne, the spoiled youngest girl, yearns for romance.
All three fear a life of confinement within the walls of the hold – a last bastion of strength against the invading Saxons. But change comes on the day ash falls from the sky, bringing Myrddhin, meddler and magician, and Tristan, a warrior whose secrets will tear the siblings apart. Riva, Keyne and Sinne must take fate into their own hands, or risk being tangled in a story they could never have imagined; one of treachery, love and ultimately, murder. It’s a story that will shape the destiny of Britain.
