#the dance tree

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

Have you read The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (2022)?

yes

no

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onMay 16, 2025

[daphneblakess]

books i read in 2024: the dance tree by kiran millwood hargrave

"why do you think those women dance? because there is no earthly way to be saved. you and Mutter have told me enough times - Strasbourg is sliding hellwards. and we women, we bear the brunt. we are bred or banished, and always, always damned. prayers cannot help us, the priests will not help us. your babies were never blessed, so they were damned. it is not right. that is the unnatural act, not this."

[forasecondtherewedwon]

"I believe we will find each other again. And we will travel on."

The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

[whilereadingandwalking]

Kiran Millwood Hargrave's newest historical fiction, The Dance Tree, centers on the mysterious dancing plagues that once haunted Europe, and their roots in religious mania, misogyny, homophobia, and more. At the center of our story is Lisbet, a woman who just wants a child and to take care of her bees, but who might have even the bees taken from her by a hateful man in power. When the dancing sickness falls, Lisbet finds out dark secrets about her sister-in-law, her best friend, and the people who live in the shadows of their religious world.

I really enjoyed the story of secret joys, in queerness and in quiet independence, found in Hargrave's book, and the fact that the dancing sickness remained mysterious and vibrant in the background of the narrative. It is two stories in one, and as a reader you have to trust that the two belong together: a woman damned for being queer, Lisbet being forced to mourn her many miscarriages in secret, all women who feel too much and in the wrong ways for the patriarchal system around them. While not perfect, historical fiction fans will enjoy this one about rebellion, secret love, and of course, the bees.

Content warnings for suicidal ideation, infanticide, miscarriage, racism, homophobia.

[semper-legens]

118. The Dance Tree, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Owned?: No, library Page count: 287 My summary: In the sweltering summer of 1518, in the city of Strasbourg, women have begun to dance. They dance for days, without stopping, though their feet bleed and tear and their loved ones beg them to return. The religious leaders are concerned, fearful of this strange affliction. But just beyond the city’s limits, Lisbet has her own concerns. Her sister-in-law has returned from her penance in a convent, and she is due to give birth any day. But with the dancing plague only getting worse, and the city wanting to take her livelihood, how can Lisbet keep herself safe in this world gone mad? My rating: 4.5/5 My commentary:

You know, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, one beautiful and bittersweet novel about a historical event featuring surprise lesbians is enough. You didn’t have to give me two! Honestly, I’m honoured. This one’s about the Dancing Plague of the 1510s, where in a city in Germany, people just started to dance for no apparent reason - feverishly, contagiously, resulting in many deaths. There have been a lot of potential explanations given for this by historians, and Hargrave characterises it as pretty much all of them. A hallucinogenic response caused by the poor food available at the time? A religious mania? The result of the lot of women at the time? Hargrave weaves a rich tapestry of pain and pleasure, of ecstasy and deprivation, and it’s honestly an incredibly moving piece of fiction. I really enjoyed it.

One of the strengths of this novel was its broad mix of characters. Though most of the story is about Lisbet, there are asides into the women dancing, short chapters showing who they are, why they have joined the dance, and what kind of things have led them to this moment. It’s a slice of this society at this point in time, mostly focusing on women who would be on the fringes of society, the marginalised and oppressed. They are treated with all due humanity, given strengths and loves and hopes even though they’re only extant for a couple of pages or so. It really helps to strengthen Hargrave’s message about how this was largely an event carried by women, and her focus on specifically women’s parts in history.

On to Lisbet herself, and her story. She’s trying her best to keep her home and livelihood despite the local authorities trying to take everything from her, and at the same time attempting to find out the secret behind her sister-in-law Nethe’s penance in the mountains. It turns out, it’s because Nethe was in love with a woman, something that I suspected from the start - it’s something sinful and shameful, something the family did not wish to speak about and wanted to hush up, and something that caused a rift between Nethe and their neighbour Ida. Nethe and Ida being in love makes sense. Poor girls. Their story carries on in the woods around Lisbet’s home, and while it doesn’t exactly end well for all of them, Ida and Nethe at least get some snatched moments of happiness.

Hargraves’ writing is beautiful and evocative, Lisbet herself is such a wonderfully complex character, managing to remain sympathetic despite doing and saying some bad things. Every character is so well-written, managing to maintain a sense of depth even for the character who do not have as much focus. I absolutely loved this book, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in this particular slice of history.

Next up, a book that is somehow even more harrowing.

[snowyhobbit]

The world is ending, she thinks, and she can do nothing but watch its crumbling.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave, The Dance Tree

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Dance Tree | Author: Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Publisher: HarperVia (2023)

[dearlydreamingdorian]

“The bees. They are their own…They are not dumb beasts: they have their own mind… This is why they are spoken of so often in church, their obedience, their duty… But Lisbet knows what only those who tend to them know. That wilderness is the key to their success, that freedom sweetens their honey. That you cannot truly keep bees. You can only make them want to stay.”

- Kiran Millwood Hargrave “The Dance Tree”