Elle’s Reviews > The Swan's Daughter > Status Update
Elle
is 43% done
Worldbuilding is both excessive & bare-bones. Everything is magic & unique, therefore depth is rarely given to any of the MANY unique magical things (plant, animals, clouds, breezes, gems, etc.) so I never really know what anything is or what it looks like. Over-gilded worldbuilding, if that makes sense. Shiny but not functional. Still, a good read so far & I like the characters. I'm a bit over bride contests though.
— Nov 20, 2025 06:57PM
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Elle’s Previous Updates
Elle
is 84% done
At some point the whimsy-overload starts to hurt the novel's serious aspects. Demelza's dad wants to cut out her heart... but she shows up to the bride contest with mud magically bonded to her hair by her mum to make her less attractive, lol that crazy mum Arris' whole family is routinely murdered by their brides, but they turn into trees who you can go talk so, so the murder part isn't really that bad.
— Nov 29, 2025 03:21AM
Elle
is 75% done
This definitely picks up as it gets further into the contest, & has time to develop both Demelza and Arris more. I'm also enjoying a lot of the side characters. The growing attraction/romance & the understandable reasons for arguments/misunderstandings are very well done. I think this is above average for YA, but still a bit in the middle age-range, not at the upper almost-adult range that works better for me.
— Nov 27, 2025 08:09PM
Elle
is 3% done
Worldbuilding is very interesting, but there's not much subtext or complexity to characters yet. We are in the prologue, MC not even born yet, but my high expectations (given the hype & reviews around the author's previous works) are not being met. It feels a bit young in terms of prose & the level of the book, not higher end of YA with the authors who write complex, layered works.
— Nov 18, 2025 06:45PM
