Sistersong is an intriguing and magical retelling of the Scottish “Two Sisters” ballad. The story is told through the perspective of three royal siblings: Rebellious Keyne, who struggles for acceptance and develops a magical bond with the land; Dutiful Riva, the eldest, who was maimed in a fire and can heal others but not herself; Vain Sinne, the youngest, who longs for adventure and can (sometimes) foresee the future. All three are granted their desires for acceptance, healing, and adventure by the end of the book, although not in the manner they expected. |
- Their father the king who has forsaken his bond with the land hoping to lead his people into a more prosperous future;
- Their stern mother who encourages a Christian priest for political purposes;
- The over-zealous priest who tries to suppress the ancient Pagan practices;
- Mori, a wise witch in the woods who rescues Keyne as a child;
- Myrdhin [Merlin] the magician who mentors the three siblings;
- And a handsome, enigmatic stranger, Tristan, who rescues the eldest Riva when she is lost.
The love story between Riva and Tristan has a lovely beginning when Tristan reveals an uncanny ability to see the beauty within Riva’s mangled body after rescuing her. Riva is ashamed of her deformities from the fire she survived: a clawed hand and lame foot, and she confesses to feeling ugly. “I’ve seen worse injuries, Riva,” Tristan says. . . . “It isn’t ugly. It’s like a battle scar. And you are no more or less because of it. In fact, I’d say you are more for learning to live with the use of a single hand, where everyone else has two. The world can be an unforgiving place. You must have been strong to weather it.” |
“The vole’s tiny voice pops in the dark like bubbles on wash water. And the trees—their voices surround me, a chorus. I can hear the sap beneath their skins, the slow draw of water through roots.” “I fall to the earth like rain, seep into stone. Beneath its surface is a web branching off into darkness. But where I go, I carry light. I am the water and the rock. I am the blind things that live on the underside of the world. I delve further. I am the ore, the years, the blood, the bones. And as below, I am above.” But there's danger in merging deeply with the land: it can unravel the soul. |
An early and painful scene has Keyne forcefully stripped of the male clothing he prefers by order of the Christian priest, who considers it improper for a royal “daughter.” Keyne’s emotional trauma is palpable. Though female in his family’s eyes, Keyne knows himself to be male. Mori gives Keyne an alternative understanding of gender identity, describing the Enaree priests of the Eurasian steppe: “they were Scythian shamans, men who donned feminine dress and did not conform to either sex. . . . And they are not the only ones. The followers of the goddesses Cybele and Astarte are also known to have transcended their given sex.” These are historically factual statements, woven into the text to provide Keyne support after his humiliating experience of being stripped of his preferred identity. |
When the Saxons do arrive, Keyne provides a clear-eyed view of the horrors of war: “Father’s warriors always seemed eager for battle. They talked of glory, of honor. But there is nothing glorious about this. There is no honor to be found in a man’s spilled guts.”
In the story’s climax, all three siblings draw upon their magical abilities to bring about the story’s thoroughly satisfying resolution and reaffirm their deep love for each other. As Sinne says, “Because we are not so very different, he [Keyne] and Riva and I, and our bonds are as strong as the land.” |
find more powerful land magic in another five-star book, read The Queens of Innis Lear;
for more gender-bending magic, try The Four Profound Weaves or The Bruising of Qilwa.