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sean67's review against another edition
3.0
Kate Forsyth novel that is not historical, or fantasy, and not for younger readers. It was a different world and of some interest, although, it felt distant, removed to a certain degree.
The story was interesting, and the plot intriguing, I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, unsettled, and not that keen, but I still understand it.
The story was interesting, and the plot intriguing, I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, unsettled, and not that keen, but I still understand it.
tien's review against another edition
5.0
Dancing on Knives is rather atypical of Kate Forsyth’s books. Its contemporary setting in Australia and lack of the magical element may disappoint her fans of fantasy works. Fortunately, as a fan of Forsyth, my reading appetite is quite eclectic and I could appreciate the amazing effort she’s put into this baby. Whilst it was first birthed over 30 years ago, this novel has gone through a number of revisions (and was also previously published under different title) until the form it has achieved today.
This mystery novel is told from the perspective of twenty year old Sara, eldest daughter of the Sanchez family. It’s an interesting perspective noting her limitation / weakness however it was a lifting experience as Sara, in loving her family, slowly found her strength. The Sanchez family has weathered many troubling times and yet, there were love to be found in each other to sustain them through these hard times. With a focus on family and their secrets, this novel could easily have been a family saga (unfortunately, it’s a little short...).
What impressed me of this novel wasn’t the mystery itself but the whole aura of the novel and the number of things packed into 300 odd pages. The research itself must’ve been a colossal undertaking; mostly in reference to the Spanish culture of cookery & art. I must acknowledge my ignorance for both but I can’t help but be awed by the details that were included without being overwhelming.
The novel itself isn’t a ‘retelling’ of the tale in the strict sense as it was rather of Sara who identified herself with the fairytale mermaid her Spanish grandmother used to tell. This tragic tale combined with the stormy weather, the decrepit condition of the house, and the sinister circumstance of Augusto Sanchez’s accident gave the novel a very gothic atmosphere. Whilst the usual ‘magic’ element is missing, there are references to the supernatural which again lent force to the dark & eerie feelings of the story.
Fans of Kate Forsyth may found Dancing on Knives somewhat hard to swallow / enjoy especially for the fantasy-die-hards. I, however, loved the atmosphere, the well developed characters, and the Spanish flavour of this story. If you’re a fan of Kate Morton, I think you should give this particular work of Forsyth a chance.
Thank you, Random House Australia for copy of eARC via NetGalley
This mystery novel is told from the perspective of twenty year old Sara, eldest daughter of the Sanchez family. It’s an interesting perspective noting her limitation / weakness however it was a lifting experience as Sara, in loving her family, slowly found her strength. The Sanchez family has weathered many troubling times and yet, there were love to be found in each other to sustain them through these hard times. With a focus on family and their secrets, this novel could easily have been a family saga (unfortunately, it’s a little short...).
What impressed me of this novel wasn’t the mystery itself but the whole aura of the novel and the number of things packed into 300 odd pages. The research itself must’ve been a colossal undertaking; mostly in reference to the Spanish culture of cookery & art. I must acknowledge my ignorance for both but I can’t help but be awed by the details that were included without being overwhelming.
The novel itself isn’t a ‘retelling’ of the tale in the strict sense as it was rather of Sara who identified herself with the fairytale mermaid her Spanish grandmother used to tell. This tragic tale combined with the stormy weather, the decrepit condition of the house, and the sinister circumstance of Augusto Sanchez’s accident gave the novel a very gothic atmosphere. Whilst the usual ‘magic’ element is missing, there are references to the supernatural which again lent force to the dark & eerie feelings of the story.
Fans of Kate Forsyth may found Dancing on Knives somewhat hard to swallow / enjoy especially for the fantasy-die-hards. I, however, loved the atmosphere, the well developed characters, and the Spanish flavour of this story. If you’re a fan of Kate Morton, I think you should give this particular work of Forsyth a chance.
Thank you, Random House Australia for copy of eARC via NetGalley
samstillreading's review against another edition
4.0
Last year I went to an author talk by Kate Forsyth even though I hadn’t read any of her books. She was so lovely to talk to and so engaging, I immediately devoured Bitter Greens. I was so excited to see she had a book out this year, which is her first novel (published originally under her maiden name) with some reworking. Kate mentioned that she started this book at 16 in an exercise book, rewrote it for her Masters and published it ten years after that. I am awed and astounded at her talent at such a young age! This novel is dark, complex and incredibly well researched. It demonstrates an innate grasp of human nature and the demons and angels that drive us.
The novel takes place primarily over the Easter long weekend. The protagonist is Sara; a young lady who hasn’t left the family farm for five years after an event left her too scared and embarrassed to leave. The farm is situated on the New South Wales coastline and the family enjoy their own beach and a house with a tower to live in. It should be idyllic, but the Sanchez family is haunted by demons. After the death of her mother, Sara and her brothers and half-sister are splintered as their artist father becomes even more erratic. When he goes missing, nobody seems too bothered initially, but Sara knows there’s something more happening. Augusto is found on a cliff’s ledge, badly hurt. How did he get there? Will all the secrets of the Sanchez family become unravelled, and will Sara find salvation in the fallout?
Dancing on Knives is has strong Gothic elements in its telling – the weather is wild (it helped that my weather outside while I was reading this was similar) and there are powerful passions, deceptions and secrets that rise to the surface just when you think you’ve got the Sanchez family figured out. There are also lavish descriptions of Spanish food, which provided mouth-watering relief to the suspense elements. The suspense is not just about how Augusto was injured, but why Sara has chosen to hide herself away on the farm and the loss of her identity as she becomes nothing but housekeeper for the family. As the story progresses, we see Sara getting stronger and regaining her confidence and the reason why she refuses to leave the farm. (The flashback where Augusto tells Sara what her thinks of her art is particularly painful and cruel – I wanted to give her a big hug. How can a father be so vile?)
The narrative of this novel moves back and forth between the past, but I could always tell where we were in the story. The past events retold, from Sara’s grandmother’s stories and cooking to Augusto’s affairs help to enrich the story, in particular the way the Sanchez family is seen as broken and damaged. The ending is shocking but there is some happiness in store for Sara. I felt confident that she would rise above her fears to become her own woman.
Dancing on Knives is quite different to Bitter Greens, but both shine in the detail in which the story is told and the research is evident. If you’re after a dark, suspenseful book with twisted family dynamics, I’d certainly recommend Dancing on Knives. It shows what a dynamic author Kate Forsyth is. I’m looking forward to reading The Wild Girl soon.
Thank you to Random House Australia for the eARC.
The novel takes place primarily over the Easter long weekend. The protagonist is Sara; a young lady who hasn’t left the family farm for five years after an event left her too scared and embarrassed to leave. The farm is situated on the New South Wales coastline and the family enjoy their own beach and a house with a tower to live in. It should be idyllic, but the Sanchez family is haunted by demons. After the death of her mother, Sara and her brothers and half-sister are splintered as their artist father becomes even more erratic. When he goes missing, nobody seems too bothered initially, but Sara knows there’s something more happening. Augusto is found on a cliff’s ledge, badly hurt. How did he get there? Will all the secrets of the Sanchez family become unravelled, and will Sara find salvation in the fallout?
Dancing on Knives is has strong Gothic elements in its telling – the weather is wild (it helped that my weather outside while I was reading this was similar) and there are powerful passions, deceptions and secrets that rise to the surface just when you think you’ve got the Sanchez family figured out. There are also lavish descriptions of Spanish food, which provided mouth-watering relief to the suspense elements. The suspense is not just about how Augusto was injured, but why Sara has chosen to hide herself away on the farm and the loss of her identity as she becomes nothing but housekeeper for the family. As the story progresses, we see Sara getting stronger and regaining her confidence and the reason why she refuses to leave the farm. (The flashback where Augusto tells Sara what her thinks of her art is particularly painful and cruel – I wanted to give her a big hug. How can a father be so vile?)
The narrative of this novel moves back and forth between the past, but I could always tell where we were in the story. The past events retold, from Sara’s grandmother’s stories and cooking to Augusto’s affairs help to enrich the story, in particular the way the Sanchez family is seen as broken and damaged. The ending is shocking but there is some happiness in store for Sara. I felt confident that she would rise above her fears to become her own woman.
Dancing on Knives is quite different to Bitter Greens, but both shine in the detail in which the story is told and the research is evident. If you’re after a dark, suspenseful book with twisted family dynamics, I’d certainly recommend Dancing on Knives. It shows what a dynamic author Kate Forsyth is. I’m looking forward to reading The Wild Girl soon.
Thank you to Random House Australia for the eARC.
lauredhel's review
5.0
"Augusto always peppered his speech with Spanish when he cooked, although he had not set foot on Spanish soil since he was born. ‘The secret with zarzuela is the sweetness. Cinnamon, saffron, sweet paprika, bay leaves. Sweet and salty the zarzuela, like the sea, like pasión.’"
I'm a huge sucker for books where food plays an important part! I'm also a big fan of books with a powerful sense of place. This book has both, along with family dysfunction, a murder mystery, and fairytale echoes.
Sara is traumatised and fragile, with severe anxiety attacks and agoraphobia. A self-described shut-in, she is haunted by images of her mother dying in car crash, and scarred by her father's neglect. She keeps house on the family's oceanside farm at Narooma on the south coast of New South Wales. Sara is interminably cleaning up after her three brothers and her teenage half-sister. She reads her grandmother's tarot cards, buries herself in romance novels, and dreams of the ocean.
"The Sanchez family had always lived by the sea. Augusto boasted the blood of Andalusian pirates flowed in their veins. Sara’s earliest memories were of sea-sparkle, sea-slither. She liked to lie at the very edge of the water, translucent waves running cold, delicate fingers all over her body. She liked to float on her stomach, her face below the water, watching her shadow darken the world below, like a cyclone moving in. She liked to twist and writhe through the water, legs pressed together, pretending she was a mermaid like La Sirenita in the story her grandmother used to tell, who lived in the depths of the clear blue sea, deeper than a hundred church steeples all stacked one on top of another."
One night, her father Augusto is late home. A delayed search finds him barely alive hanging off a cliff. Did he fall, or was he pushed?
Over the next few days, the mystery unfolds - with the family somehow treating it as a murder rather than an attempted murder, adding to the atmosphere of oncoming doom. We slowly wend through this present-day riddle while Sara's family's past is unraveled in the gaps.
Augusto, Sara's father, is a painter and a brute. He is a drunk, misogynist, abusive, neglectful cheater. He is contemptuous of Sara's art, because he feels you need to "live" before you can be an artist - drink, fuck, and above all go out of the house. Sara's eldest brother is trying to keep the farm going in an area that is moving toward tourism rather than farming, but her twin brothers and half-sister are angry and rebellious. Their neighbouring maternal uncle holds the mortgage over the farm, and he hates and resents Augusto for inheriting it. So plenty of people have a motivation for trying to kill Augusto...
I love the way that Dancing on Knives is about how the most 'fragile' person can be the only one holding things together. The book is thoroughly food-infused (and definitely needs a recipe glossary!). Others have critiqued it for its gently moseying pace. Sure, it's not a driving thriller, but you don't read a Forsyth for the page-turniness. It is less a speedboat ride and more a paddle-steamer meander through a sublime, dark forest. With Spanish food.
"That was the ghost of her grandmother, Consuelo Sanchez, whose roast goose cooked with pears could make grown men tremble. ‘A stick of cinnamon is the secret,’ Consuelo would tell Sara, standing at the end of the bed, a hunched little figure in black, a shadow among shadows.
The ghost of Consuelo Sanchez was always full of advice for her soft little grand-daughter. ‘Thyme is best for courage,’ Consuelo told her. ‘Make a cup of thyme tea with honey, that’ll help make you brave. Or wear a sprig of it in your hair, so you can smell it.’
Or she would say, ‘Never fear, querida, the pain will pass in time. Time heals all wounds.'"
Content notes fordomestic violence, sexual assault, murder (obv), ableism, vivid descriptions of anxiety & panic attacks .
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