Review of My Swordhand Is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick

In My Swordhand Is Singing, Marcus Sedgwick gives young adults another totally absorbing, dark novel, this time revolving around the undead in Transylvania. Protagonist Peter is a woodcutter because he's the son of a woodcutter, Tomas, now an alcoholic. They've led an itinerant existence until settling outside the village of Chust, where they've built a cottage so near the river's fork that Tomas has been able to island their home by digging a trench across the yard. Living on the edge of a magnificent forest, the villagers are subject to the ravages of recurring waves of vampire activity. In the past that Tomas has hidden from his son, he fought with the king, wielding a magical sword against the creatures, but at the point when Peter discovers the villagers' fears are not merely superstition, as his father has claimed, Tomas has renounced warfare and hidden away the sword. He refuses requests made by the gypsies, who have sought out Tomas to ask him to wield the famous sword again against the supernatural invaders. Their other weapon is a famous song.

In the course of this creepy invasion, Peter must give up the girl he hopes to marry but finds he's drawn to a gypsy girl; he learns that his father has sought to protect him from disquieting knowledge and that he loves Peter, even if he has allowed drink to make him into an abusive and neglectful father; he learns that the tales his father dismissed as superstition are, after all, true; he learns that he has the courage to choose the right side and to fight against the forces of darkness led by the Shadow Queen; and he learns that he is not as committed to a stable life as he thought when the gypsy wagons lure him back to a roaming existence.

The story is suspenseful and chillingly spooky. It is rooted in Eastern European stories from the 16th through the 18th centuries, though fortunately for us as readers, Sedgwick has wrought the creative transformation that a gifted storyteller can bring to his materials. Readers will have difficulty putting this book down.