Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Jenica is the second eldest of five daughters growing up in the Mountains of Romania. Her father is a successful merchant, but as the year turns colder, he is sick, and his doctor suggests a vacation to a warmer climate for their father to recover. His daughters all urge him to go- they want him to be well.

But when he finally does leave, he puts Jenica in charge over her sisters, and asks his brother and business partner, their Uncle, to look after them, and leaves for warmer climes with his secretary, Gabriel. Jenica promises to write him faithfully, and to send the letters with her uncle's messengers.

Soon after their father leaves, however, their Uncle is killed in a hunting accident, leaving his son César to watch over them all. However, as good and kindly as their Uncle was, his son is quite a different matter, for he hates the fairies and creatures of the wood and otherworld- long ago, they drowned his brother in the local river.

Jenica and her sisters have a secret: for many years now, always on the full moon, they have visited the fairy kingdom to dance and revel. Each of them gets something different out of it. Jenica and Tatiana, the two oldest sisters, love to dance, and the Scholar, Paula, speaks with the learned of the court. Middle sister Ileana also loves the dance, and a bit of romance, while the youngest sister, Stela, gets to play with children her own age.

But when they next go to the dance, something has changed. Three Dark Ones are visiting the Fairy Court. Jenica is afraid of the Dark Ones, who drink blood and kill young men and women. Soon, though, she finds that Tatiana seems to have fallen for one of them, a young man known as Sorrow. Tatiana's obsession with Sorrow deeply troubles Jenica, and she tries to deny her sister time with this man-boy, all to no avail.

Out in the human world, César slowly hems the sisters in at their home of Piscul Darcului. First he removes the control of their father's businesses from them, then control of their home finances. Jenica hates the erosion of the control she has over her own life, and César's attitude of "let the big strong man do the dirty work while you and your sisters go be ladies". Worse, he's decided to try and wipe out the fairies by cutting down the forest come spring.

Jenica is distraught over César's vendetta against the Fairies, who have always been nothing less than welcoming to her and her sisters. She can see César changing into a cruel, hateful man, and it frightens her to think that this is the man she grew up with, playing in the forest with himself and his brother Costi.

All she has for companionship is Gogu, an intelligent, telepathic frog who she rescued from the forest. He seems to be the only one whose counsel she can trust, but when it comes to César and what he is doing, even Gogu is being intemperate. As time goes on, César grows to suspect that Jenica and her sisters are consorting with the otherworld, and he is livid over it. Meanwhile, Tati is wasting away from her love for Sorrow, and the one man Jenica thinks she can find love with she sees turning into a monster in a magic mirror. So when he finally shows up, mute, and turns out to have been Gogu all along, can she put aside her horror with his transformation and trust him?

Surrounded on all sides by enemies and those who would wish her and her sisters harm, with Tati dying and César becoming increasingly shrill and demanding, Jenica must decide what she will do to save herself and her sisters. But can she put her trust in someone she no longer knows as she thought she did? And is there any hope for her dying sister? Or will she have to release her to the world of the Fairies in return for a good man to love? Is there any hope for her and her sisters?

Wow. This was quite a book, and constructed on many fairy tales right out of the Brothers Grimm. We have the 5 sisters, whose story seems to come right out of the Seven Dancing Princesses, complete with a door to fairy in their room and their penchant for dancing. There are vampires, a woman wasting away because of the one she loves. A man transformed into an animal. And a woman with a frog who sleeps in a bowl by her bed... even on her pillow.

But the story is filled with real people, not characters from a fairy tale. Too many times when reading, I wanted to smack the bastard, César, for what he was doing to Jenica. Patronizing her. Taking away her freedom, taking away her independence and that of her sisters. Nearly forcing himself on her because he wanted her as his wife. Actually, I wanted to do far more than smack him. This story raised strong emotions in me in a way that very few stories do. I began to identify so strongly with Jenica that I felt what was happening in her life as if it was actually happening to me. It was wonderful, but also very uncomfortable to read.

I can't recommend this book enough. But be warned that it's not a comfortable book. This is a book that slashes your emotions until you bleed and hurt and hate along with the characters in the book. It's strong stuff.