Sakura of DOOM

Rose is afraid of everything, but most of all, she's afraid of the Thing that lives in the attic of the Bighouse. But when her parents have her start working there, she finds out a lot more than she wanted to.

Again, another horrible plot description by me! It's very hard to describe this book; it's slow and creepy and dreamy. The world Rose lives in feels truly different, partially because it seems much like the standard pre-industrial fantasy setting. There are landowners and non-landowners and a small village in which people are easily ostracized and a monster in the attic. And then, as the book draws you in deeper, you fall into visions of mountains and caves, learn that not everything is as it seems. I liked how it turned out to be more fantastic than the original set-up seemed to promise, how all the characters are deeply flawed. It's a much darker book than I expected.

I'm not sure if I liked it, per se, just because I tend to not go for the dark and creepy. But it's very well done, particularly the character of Rose, who is ugly and asthmatic and doesn't miraculously get beautiful at the end, and I found that I loved her at the end. And it very niftily takes on Cupid and Psyche, along with the other animal bridegroom fairy tales, in a very unexpected way.

I'm going to look up Firegold now, as White Midnight was its prequel.

Links:
- gwyneira's review