Skysong - C.A. Wright - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: C.A. Wright

NARRATOR: Olivia Darnley

GENRE: Fantasy Retelling

PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2024

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A fantasy retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s short story, ‘The Nightingale’. A great concept that might have worked better at the hands of a more experienced writer. Good plot but the twists are guessable. Lyrical writing, cookie-cutter main characters, underdeveloped secondary characters. Recommended, but better suited to YA readers, though it’s not labelled as such.

Plot Preview:

Oriane is a skylark, the only one of her kind after the passing of her mother in childbirth. Every morning, she turns into a lark and sings the song that calls forth the dawn. But throughout her life, she has been so secluded by her overprotective father that she is lonely as well as curious about the larger world. One day, she goes against his wishes and flies beyond her usual boundaries, only to end up in the royal palace. Much to her surprise, at first she is treated as a mythical goddess by the king, but soon she realises that she is more of a prisoner. Oriane longs to return to her father, but who can help her in a palace full of strangers? Her only hope might be her new lady’s maid Andala, who, unbeknownst to Oriane, has a secret of her own.

The story comes to us in three broad sections, each written in the third-person perspective of the two main characters.

The blurb calls this book a lyrical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Nightingale'. To prepare myself better, I read ‘The Nightingale’ prior to beginning this novel. There are indeed several parallels between the two stories, and yet this retelling is almost entirely independent in terms of plot. While you don’t need to read the classic short before trying out this novel, I’d recommend you give it a go AFTER completing the novel so that you can indulge in a compare-contrast without fear of plot spoilers.

Bookish Yays:

🐦 The concept. Incorporating a lark into a classic about a nightingale is a clever idea.

🐦 The novel as a retelling: really good. I love how it has glimpses of the original while still delivering on its own strength.

🐦 Oriane as the lead. To be clear, she is too naïve for a major part of the first section, but this is easily attributable to her cloistered upbringing. I enjoyed how she showed some spine as the story progressed.

🐦 The consistent use of Oriane’s “lark” persona. It isn't like the story just mentions that she’s turns into a lark each dawn; it actually explores how she feels while being a lark.

🐦 Andala’s secret: a secret from everyone in the book, but we readers get to know the truth very early in her POV. As such, every time either she or some other character reacts a certain way, we read the scene differently from the fictional characters. It’s an interesting writing choice.

🐦 The cover art – beautiful!

Bookish Okays:

☀ Andala as a character. Given that she’s a bit older and more worldly than Oriane, I expected her to behave more consistently and maturely. However, her character development is somewhat shaky. I did like her main secret though.

☀ Of the three sections, the first, coming from Oriane’s POV was the strongest to me, and it even ended with a bang. The next section, which focussed more on Andala’s experiences, started well but ended a little mixed. The third, coming in the joint perspective of both Oriane and Andala, was decent, but there was no tonal continuity from the third section. I read the third section more perfunctorily and wasn’t a big fan of the ending.

☀ A good chunk of the writing contains more introspection and discussion than action. This wasn’t a big issue for me, but it might hamper those who prefer more thrills in their fiction.

☀ While the story is good in general, some of the developments are guessable. None of the major twists were a surprise to me. Then again, it is a fantasy-romance: not exactly a genre known for suspense.

☀ The ending is not a typical HEA finale though it is a happy one. Those who want all ends tied and all issues settled might not like the sudden cut-off.

Bookish Nays:

🦃 The promotions call this an LGBTQIA+ novel (with Sapphic romance). How is this book Sapphic? Most of the story doesn’t even mention attraction, forget an actual relationship. While the two characters are in close proximity regularly due to the nature of their roles, there is no love story between them, until the tide suddenly turns almost at the end. It’s not that I would have preferred this to be a romance, but if a book is promoted as a Sapphic love story, then it should be one!

🦃 The secondary characters are somewhat flat, and change shades abruptly as per the whims and fancies of the plot. Some decisions/actions taken by these characters don’t make sense.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at 12 hrs 36 min, is narrated by Olivia Darnley. She is excellent as a narrator, voicing all the characters with the right emotions and intensity. I was surprised to hear her UK accent. I am so used to listening to fantasies in US accents that this came as a pleasant surprise. I quite enjoyed my first *British-sounding* fantasy. 😅

The only (minor) problem with the audio version is not a narrator issue but a character-naming issue. On audio, Oriane sounds almost like “Arianne”, which ensured that I confused *Arianne* and Andala a lot in the first section. Then there’s Tomas the king and Terault his seneschal – again a repeat pair of letters. There are also two women characters whose names start with H: Hanna the king’s sister and one more character whose name I forgot and whose role I can’t reveal, both secondary in the cast list but still important to the plot. If you get muddled up with characters having names beginning from the same letter, stick to actual reading.

Overall, this creative spin on ‘The Nightingale’ is quite decent, especially for a debut work. Though it disappoints with the lack of Sapphic feels and the flatness of the secondary characters, it still offers enough entertainment that will work better for those who don’t overthink while reading. I will be interested in seeing what this young Australian writer pens next.

Recommended. Though tagged an adult fantasy, I think this would work better for YA readers, given its plot and characters and overall approach.

3.5 stars, rounding up for the audio version.

My thanks to Bolinda Audio for providing the ALC of “Skysong” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.