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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
This is probably McKillip's most ambiguous book. From the first page to the last, it is unclear exactly what is happening. Of course, it is obvious that this is McKillip's intent - but it makes for as somewhat unsettling read. By the time you finish the book, you have no more answers than you did as it unfolded. Whose daughter is Rois? Why did her mother die? Did she have a lover? Who? Who is Corbet? Who is his father, and his grandfather? Is there a curse on Lynn Hall? What is it? Is there a magical realm of winter? Or is Rois merely imagining it all? Why does Laurel begin to waste away, as their mother did? Why does she return to life? Does Rois save Corbet? Does she love him? Does he love her?
The biggest question of all of course, is whether anything that happens is really happening, or just happening inside Rois's imagination. And we will never know.
The biggest question of all of course, is whether anything that happens is really happening, or just happening inside Rois's imagination. And we will never know.
From World Fantasy Award Winner Patricia A. McKillip is the story of wildling Rois Melior as village welcomes the infamous Corbet Lynn. Corbet brings with him reminders of the curse that's haunted his family estate for generations. But that's not all Corbet's arrival stirs up in the Melior house. Wild, roaming Rois open to the voice and fancies of the forest, and her domestic, sensible sister, Laurel will never be the same after meeting the golden Corbet.
WINTER ROSE is a Tam Lin (and I'd argue Snow Queen) retelling. A loose retelling, though some of my favorite elements of the story are present. If you're familiar with the story of Tam Lin and read the synopsis provided on the dust jacket, you might think this story centers around the curse, promises, true love, and holding tight. In a way, it does. But WINTER ROSE is anything but straightforward.
Beautiful, often abstract writing, lyrical in a way I haven't encountered since Erin Morgenstern's THE STARLESS SEA or Laini Taylor's work. It's a sensory experience, like a poem you just can't quite work out. Lovely in the moment for sure.
Within the first few pages of reading I'd tabbed at least once every page. The word-craft is breath taking.
Some reviews mention a difficulty determining between reality and hallucination scenes. My experience was a bit different. I suggest going into this accepting its dreamlike quality and I think those dreamy bits fall into place.
What this book seems to really be about is trapped people. Trapped by Nature, by their natures, by human nature, and trapped by stories.
As a Tam Lin retelling it works. Tam Lin, at its core, is about going through hell and holding so tightly to what you love no matter what that hell looks like. Sometimes that love is romantic, sometimes it's family, sometimes it's yourself.
McKillip creates beautiful, real, cages for each of these characters. Their fights and flights were a marvel to behold. It read like a character study in a fantasy setting.
Through that perspective, the story is a success.
As a story that causes an emotional reaction, WINTER ROSE didn't quite hit the mark for me. I was never able to make a connection with the characters.
There was little shown emotional depth and at times, Laurel, Rois' older (supposedly more "domestic" and "pragmatic" sister) truly got on my nerves to the point that I found myself grinding my teeth during one particularly tedious portion of the book.
Even though it's told in first person from Rois' perspective, I felt like an outsider - A best friend that only knows the secrets that Rois lets me in on, but not Rois herself. I can't tell if this was McKillip's intention or not.
If you're familiar with fairy tales, folk tales, and/or myths, you'll feel at home with characterization and plot structure of WINTER ROSE. There's little dynamism beyond what you learn about them at their introduction.
Overall, I enjoyed this as a reading experience. I wanted a little more from the characters and think the last third could have been longer, but this definitely has me wanting to read more from Patricia A. McKillip!
WINTER ROSE is a Tam Lin (and I'd argue Snow Queen) retelling. A loose retelling, though some of my favorite elements of the story are present. If you're familiar with the story of Tam Lin and read the synopsis provided on the dust jacket, you might think this story centers around the curse, promises, true love, and holding tight. In a way, it does. But WINTER ROSE is anything but straightforward.
Beautiful, often abstract writing, lyrical in a way I haven't encountered since Erin Morgenstern's THE STARLESS SEA or Laini Taylor's work. It's a sensory experience, like a poem you just can't quite work out. Lovely in the moment for sure.
Within the first few pages of reading I'd tabbed at least once every page. The word-craft is breath taking.
Some reviews mention a difficulty determining between reality and hallucination scenes. My experience was a bit different. I suggest going into this accepting its dreamlike quality and I think those dreamy bits fall into place.
What this book seems to really be about is trapped people. Trapped by Nature, by their natures, by human nature, and trapped by stories.
As a Tam Lin retelling it works. Tam Lin, at its core, is about going through hell and holding so tightly to what you love no matter what that hell looks like. Sometimes that love is romantic, sometimes it's family, sometimes it's yourself.
McKillip creates beautiful, real, cages for each of these characters. Their fights and flights were a marvel to behold. It read like a character study in a fantasy setting.
Through that perspective, the story is a success.
As a story that causes an emotional reaction, WINTER ROSE didn't quite hit the mark for me. I was never able to make a connection with the characters.
There was little shown emotional depth and at times, Laurel, Rois' older (supposedly more "domestic" and "pragmatic" sister) truly got on my nerves to the point that I found myself grinding my teeth during one particularly tedious portion of the book.
Even though it's told in first person from Rois' perspective, I felt like an outsider - A best friend that only knows the secrets that Rois lets me in on, but not Rois herself. I can't tell if this was McKillip's intention or not.
If you're familiar with fairy tales, folk tales, and/or myths, you'll feel at home with characterization and plot structure of WINTER ROSE. There's little dynamism beyond what you learn about them at their introduction.
Overall, I enjoyed this as a reading experience. I wanted a little more from the characters and think the last third could have been longer, but this definitely has me wanting to read more from Patricia A. McKillip!
I love Patricia's writing style, but Rois's POV was a little too exhausting and rambling for my taste. All in all I'm not upset I read this, but it's not her best work.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
One of the most beautiful stories that i've ever read. The writing is perfect. The story engrossing and unforgettable.
"They said later that he rode into the village on a horse the colour of buttermilk, but I saw him walk out of the wood."
A twist on the ballad of Tam Lin (which is about a boy captured by faeries), Winter Rose is a hazy and dreamy and ethereal little book. But unfortunately, this exactly where it falls down. The story is written in such a intricate, gauzy way that whilst even the smallest things sound beautiful - but they also make little to no sense. It also means that facts weren't clearly laid out in the narrative, meaning a lot of legwork had to be done by the the reader to figure out what was going on. And even then not everything is made clear.
The book is relatively small in scope: it revolves mainly around Rois, and her sister Laurel, their father, Laurel's fiance Perrin, Corbet Lynn, and then a small cast of supporting villagers. The narrative winds its way between three basic settings: Corbet's ancestral home Lynn Hall; the house of Rois and her family; and the woods - occasionally the village also makes an appearance. What was quite impressive was how McKillip kept finding fresh ways to talk about these few settings without exhausting previously-used similes and metaphors.
In Winter Rose there is not a strongly direct plot: rather Rois spends chapters upon chapters walking the woods and sleuthing about the curse of the Lynn family. Chapters go by before winter draws in in the second half of the novel and the narrative thickens: Corbet vanishes and Laurel starts to grow sick, affected by Corbet's disappearance. Winter Rose really could've been made shorter, given that some chapters are easily skipped over without impeding the narrative. One thing I will say, though, is that McKillip's beautiful writing style, though sometimes a pain to deconstruct, is incredibly rich and gorgeous to read.
I cannot say I was entirely invested in Winter Rose; I got the bare bones of the story and I knew what was going to happen in general as I'm aware of the Tam Lin ballad, but honestly most went over my head and I didn't put in the effort to re-read the passages that eluded me as I didn't have the time nor energy. I do want to give some other McKillip books a go though - she genuinely seems to be a good writer, I just found Winter Rose too insubstantial and not clear enough for my taste. That said, returning to this review later, I do think about this book a lot.
This one's for the dreamers, for the ones loving getting lost in winter woods, for the ones enjoying delicate and thoughtful fairy tales. McKillip once again spins words into a beautiful, tranquil story about magic, curses, faerie realms, and love with only a handful of characters and a limited setting that reminded me a little of Naomi Novik's more recent novel Uprooted.
Winter Rose first and foremost lives off its breathtaking atmosphere. McKillip's writing is simply magical. Soft and elusive, like trying to catch hold of mist but only ever feeling its watery breath grasping at nothing. Very tranquil and lyrical yet descriptive and with an undeniable pull. It swallows you up making you lose yourself in it. The icy winter and the sorrow it brings bleed from the pages. I especially loved exploring the woods with Rois; the hidden well, the forgotten mansion, and the glimpses into a different realm. Apparently, it's a retelling of Tam Lin, but I'm not familiar with that tale so I didn't recognise it as such and cannot compare these two. Though I can say that it is a very enjoyable tale on its own.
While this novel isn't particularly action packed, it is still a very gripping read, especially when one becomes smitten with the atmosphere and invested in the characters. However, there were parts I felt its length. I wanted to move on quicker to unravel the secrets. On the other hand, this had me being glued to the pages. The plot is of a limited scale as well but leaves all sorts of doors open. Over the course of the book, I tried several of them coming up with a handful of possible endings and outcomes and I could've lived with all of them. The door through which I was ultimately led left me a little frustrated - but in a good way because it wasn't what I'd expected. It wasn't tilting to either side of the emotional spectrum and also didn't leave everything neatly tied into a bow and for that I love it.
I did enjoy this story being small in scale in all aspects. The setting is limited to the Meloir farm, the village, and the woods and there are only a handful of characters of import: the sisters Meloir, their father, Perrin - Laurel's fiancé -, and Corbet Lynn. I liked the protagonist Rois a lot. I was never quite sure whether she's a reliable or an unreliable narrator - whether those things really happen or she's just making them up. I loved her unbridled nature, her bottomless curiosity, her love of the woods and for her sister doing everything in her power to protect her even if that meant hurting herself physically and emotionally in the process. I was also very glad I came to like Laurel. I was a little worried in the beginning I might come to hate her considering the character constellation that is set up but it actually worked out quite well and I felt rather sorry for her. Corbet Lynn was an interesting character, but he was almost a little too aloof for my liking. I could only understand the fascination Rois and Laurel had with him to a certain degree. The truly intriguing parts of his story and character came only in short flashes that were few and far between. Alas, anything else wouldn't have fitted the general tone of the story so I can't take much offense in that and I’ll follow Rois anywhere ...
Winter Rose first and foremost lives off its breathtaking atmosphere. McKillip's writing is simply magical. Soft and elusive, like trying to catch hold of mist but only ever feeling its watery breath grasping at nothing. Very tranquil and lyrical yet descriptive and with an undeniable pull. It swallows you up making you lose yourself in it. The icy winter and the sorrow it brings bleed from the pages. I especially loved exploring the woods with Rois; the hidden well, the forgotten mansion, and the glimpses into a different realm. Apparently, it's a retelling of Tam Lin, but I'm not familiar with that tale so I didn't recognise it as such and cannot compare these two. Though I can say that it is a very enjoyable tale on its own.
While this novel isn't particularly action packed, it is still a very gripping read, especially when one becomes smitten with the atmosphere and invested in the characters. However, there were parts I felt its length. I wanted to move on quicker to unravel the secrets. On the other hand, this had me being glued to the pages. The plot is of a limited scale as well but leaves all sorts of doors open. Over the course of the book, I tried several of them coming up with a handful of possible endings and outcomes and I could've lived with all of them. The door through which I was ultimately led left me a little frustrated - but in a good way because it wasn't what I'd expected. It wasn't tilting to either side of the emotional spectrum and also didn't leave everything neatly tied into a bow and for that I love it.
I did enjoy this story being small in scale in all aspects. The setting is limited to the Meloir farm, the village, and the woods and there are only a handful of characters of import: the sisters Meloir, their father, Perrin - Laurel's fiancé -, and Corbet Lynn. I liked the protagonist Rois a lot. I was never quite sure whether she's a reliable or an unreliable narrator - whether those things really happen or she's just making them up. I loved her unbridled nature, her bottomless curiosity, her love of the woods and for her sister doing everything in her power to protect her even if that meant hurting herself physically and emotionally in the process. I was also very glad I came to like Laurel. I was a little worried in the beginning I might come to hate her considering the character constellation that is set up but it actually worked out quite well and I felt rather sorry for her. Corbet Lynn was an interesting character, but he was almost a little too aloof for my liking. I could only understand the fascination Rois and Laurel had with him to a certain degree. The truly intriguing parts of his story and character came only in short flashes that were few and far between. Alas, anything else wouldn't have fitted the general tone of the story so I can't take much offense in that and I’ll follow Rois anywhere ...
Winter Rose is a retelling of the Scottish Tam Lin legend/ballad by my favourite author, Patricia A. McKillip. I didn’t know anything about this origin before I begun reading, but afterwards did some research and the book retells the story but with some major differences to the original story. Well, wouldn’t be any point in retelling it the same would it? Fairy tale retellings seem to be quite popular at the moment.
As usual, McKillip’s poetic prose is enchanting. Her use of language and descriptions always captivate me and capture my imagination. At times though, things were too vague and ambiguous, leaving me confused in places and reading passages again to make sure I’d understood what was happening.
The plot is good but dragged on. I wasn’t hooked. I think the book would have been better if it were shorter as, really, only a few things happen. If it had been more condensed it would have pulled me in more to keep me reading as there was too much dilly dallying to keep my interest. There were some unexpected twists and turns which surprised me though, and some aspects went against my expectation, so it was refreshing to see something different for the ‘romance’ element of the book. However, things are alluded to (well, more than alluded, more like stated as fact) which will happen, as if the narrator is looking back on these events, but then that doesn’t happen, and I found that frustrating and confusing. I’m being rather vague because this issue revolves around a large plot point which I don’t want to spoil.
The characters were good and well fleshed out and I liked the small village setting. It made it feel like they were isolated from everything else, which tied in well with the fantastical goings-on.
It was a good book, but nothing remarkable, and not as good as the other books my McKillip I have read. I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of her books, there’s a long queue of them on my shelf waiting to be read.
As usual, McKillip’s poetic prose is enchanting. Her use of language and descriptions always captivate me and capture my imagination. At times though, things were too vague and ambiguous, leaving me confused in places and reading passages again to make sure I’d understood what was happening.
The plot is good but dragged on. I wasn’t hooked. I think the book would have been better if it were shorter as, really, only a few things happen. If it had been more condensed it would have pulled me in more to keep me reading as there was too much dilly dallying to keep my interest. There were some unexpected twists and turns which surprised me though, and some aspects went against my expectation, so it was refreshing to see something different for the ‘romance’ element of the book. However, things are alluded to (well, more than alluded, more like stated as fact) which will happen, as if the narrator is looking back on these events, but then that doesn’t happen, and I found that frustrating and confusing. I’m being rather vague because this issue revolves around a large plot point which I don’t want to spoil.
The characters were good and well fleshed out and I liked the small village setting. It made it feel like they were isolated from everything else, which tied in well with the fantastical goings-on.
It was a good book, but nothing remarkable, and not as good as the other books my McKillip I have read. I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of her books, there’s a long queue of them on my shelf waiting to be read.
Reading this book was rather like having a weird and confusing dream. I'm pretty sure this author would be rather adept at transcribing dreams, because her writing style is so flowy and vague while remaining somehow vivid. But kind of boring. And sometimes I hate all of her characters. I'm not certain if her writing seems vague to me because I tend to skim it, or if she's intentionally vague so that her books can be re-readable or have a wider appeal or just be confusing. Sometimes I wondered if her confusing writing meant that she was uncertain as to what she wanted to say and decided it'd sound fancy if she was just vague and let the reader decide how to interperet that vague-ness, thereby freeing her from the responsibility of actually coming up with a solid plot, or if she knows what she wants to say but just writes in such a vague and flowery way that it gets kind of lost in the reading. Also, while I like that she doesn't beat you over the head with the protagonist's revalations and how she arrived at them (unlike some authors *cough cough dan brown*), sometimes I got severely lost and needed to re-read a paragraph just to see what she was hinting at. Which I guess is good, because this book lends itself to re-reading. But it's kind of not good because I felt like not too much actually happened in the story...and it was all so dream-like and strange that it kind of didn't feel like I really read the book...especially cuz I read it at night, so it's like...maybe I dreamed it. Trippy.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes