A review by shilo1364
The Sorceress and the Cygnet by Patricia A. McKillip

5.0

This is one of McKillip's earlier novels, and one of her consistently darker ones - I especially love the swirling plot twists in the final few pages that are all McKillip. The characters are passionate and driven, and the motives that drive them and hidden sources of their power are revealed slowly throughout the book, layers peeling back revealing deeper layers. Even as you read the same story from the perspectives of several characters, there are others whose thoughts and motives are not revealed at all - only glimpses caught here and there, suspicions and glimmers, and in the end the characters whose eyes the reader sees - who the reader must trust - are left blinking and wondering. McKillip is the only author I have found to do this consistently well; and the beauty and sheer breathtaking swirl of building tension and anxiety and fear that drag you relentlessly through her novels throw you suddenly into a swirling maelstrom in the final pages, where realities shift and nothing is as it seemed. The best thing about her novels is that, no matter how many times I read them, they are new every time. The details, and passions, and tensions, and finely spun net of story grab you while you read, and then leave you at the end wondering what happened - and feeling the details slipping away. Fantasy, and magic, at its finest.