Swift By R J Anderson (4/5)

I read this book pretty much in one sitting, lounging in a patch of early Spring sunlight. It was a very easy book to read and to get lost in. I find that about everything R J Anderson writes: it's just like a familiar cosy blanket that you can pick up and snuggle into, knowing that you'll feel happy and content for a while. (I feel I've demonstrated this in my previous review of Anderson's work, Arrow) I think it's the author's skill at world building that creates this effect. You can tell that she does her research to make the world we're reading about fit comfortably in our own. The places that she describes are so clear to the reader that parts of it feel like a travel guide. I almost want to make notes of places I want to visit, both faerie and human.

From the beginning of this story, I felt I was thrown into Ivy's everyday life. Getting to know her world was enjoyable right from the start, because she had such a unique voice learning about her world felt natural. Her family and her community, her feelings about herself and her place all provoked the reader's interest, particularly when right at the end of the prologue her mother disappears, leaving only a blood stained scarf behind.

Ivy is a very likeable character; she is brave, very loyal to her family and in spite of being told her limitations she refuses to believe them and craves more. You can't help but feel sympathy for her character when the thing she desires most, flight, has been denied her by a cruel fate that caused her to be born a Piskey without wings. Ivy is put through a lot in this book, her love for her family means she faces betraying her community more than once and throughout everything she shows strength and bravery. Even though she is aware she faces punishment from the only home she has ever known it is up to her to face multiple threats to the community that raised her, both from the outside and from within.

It's been a while since I've read Arrow, so I'm sure I missed some of the hints to this book's relation to the previous series, but I did really enjoy the ones I managed to pick up. After completing Swift, I'm left with the temptation to start reading the books from the beginning again. These are worlds that I can't wait to explore and fall into and I'm left anticipating what could happen to these characters next.

I won't divulge too many further details of the story as there are a few spoilers that are worth finding out for yourself. Overall, Swift was a thoroughly enjoyable, immersive read I would recommend to anyone who loves a reading experience based around exploring fantastic worlds and for whom the scenery and the backdrop are as important as the events and the characters therein.