WINTER
ROSE
By Patricia McKillip
Atom (Time Warner UK) - November 2002
ISBN 1904233074 PB
Teenage - Romance/Fantasy
Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde,
MyShelf.com
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|| UK
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This novel won the World
Fantasy Award, which will probably say more about its quality than
any review. If you like fantasy, but think that there must be more to
it than Tolkein-esque trilogies, then perhaps this eerie romance might
be what you are looking for. Rois lives with her father and practical
older sister, Laurel, in a village that seems to embody the very essence
of village-ness, complete with gossiping goodwives and a blacksmith. She
is a wild child of nature, running barefoot through the woods and collecting
herbs for the apothecary, the despair of her family who wish she would
grow up and be more like her sister who is marrying a stolid, down-to-earth
farmer.
Everything changes when Rois
glimpses the beautiful youth Corbet Lynn, come to restore the great house
that his family once lived in. But the Lynn family are best remembered
for the curse that fell upon them when Corbet's father killed his own
father fifty years ago and ran away. Now it seems their dark heritage
is coming back to cause trouble for everybody in the village.
If you like robust fantasies with lots of monster-bashing and people going
on quests then this probably won't appeal, for exciting it is not. But
if you are looking for a more thoughtful, poetic read that seems to be
as in touch with nature and a certain wild magic, then you will find all
these things here and more. Told by Rois herself who is in love with and
fascinated by the handsome and otherwordly Corbet, this is a tale with
as many layers as an onion that deserves to be read slowly and savored.
I can't think of anything else to compare it with, so it also gets full
marks for originality. This is a book more for girls than boys and a book
to sink into on a dark winter's evening.
Check out the website at www.atombooks.co.uk
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