Reviews

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

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readingthething's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

2.0

Just not my kind of story. Didn't connect with the characters, and am not a fan of detective stories anyway.

wordsareworlds's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I enjoy a book with interesting descriptions, that brings mystery and obsession and drama to things that I've never given all that much thought to. But this book reads like Martine wanted to see how many obscure words and over wrought phrases she could fit in the shortest number of pages, with the least amount of actual characterization. The best parts by far are the evocative descriptions of architecture and the effect it can have on mood.

This novella has 4 PoVs, and Martine jumps between them on "cliffhanger" moments, which after the first few became tiring rather than tension-building or intriguing. And since she never set up the depth of character or stakes that would make me care in the first place....it was just annoying. One of the PoVs has the habit of lampshading everything going on as noir tropes and then moving on, without those thoughts affecting his actions in any way. In fact, nothing the characters do makes sense, and then the novella ends with some classic horror outcomes without having earned a single one.

While A Memory Called Empire is an absolute gem of a book, there is almost no part of Rose/House that reflects the way Martine shone there. So glad I was able to get this in audio from my library rather than paying the frankly obscene price Subterranean Press charges for it.

Content Warnings

anna_hepworth's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I found the beginning a little slow and hard to get going, but once I got used to the rhythm, I was hooked. I love a good locked room (locked house) mystery, and this was an incredible locked room mystery.

I wasn't all that interested in either of the architect characters (the deceased Basit Derniau, and the disgruntled Selene Gisil), but I was fascinated by the main police character (Maritza Smith). Smith gets to play fast and loose with identity and humanity in order to investigate the case, and it is never quite clear how real this is to them.

The worldbuilding - the AI, the despair of the architectural world when Derniau locks everything inside Rose House with only Gisil permitted (limited) access, the many ways that the existence of AI permeates the story, the way that Martine both brings the desert in and surrounds the story with it is delightful.

Rose House was designed for illusion, and that is used to great effect in the story. There are dreamlike sequences where neither the character nor the reader has a sense of Truth, and I think that was important in making this a great book, rather than just a good book.