Winter Rose (1996)

Are the important struggles visible or hidden, in this not-so stranger comes to town narrative crossed with an inverted Sense and Sensibility? A dream flight through what is certainly real to Rois and may have real life and death consequences to her family but is beyond their ability to sense. ( )

This book will always be a winter favorite. ( )

A lovely horrible dream of winter, Faerie, farms, languishing and obsessed girls, and a cold and tragic young man held thrall to a cold queen. The quality of McKillip's writing keeps me going when I can't figure out what the heck is going on. ( )

McKillip's prose is undeniably gorgeous. She paints worlds and scenes which a reader can fall into and breathe in fully, and the effect is wonderful. I'd agree 100% with the reviewers and readers who compare her work to fairy tales in scope and tone--from beginning to end, that what Winter Rose feels like. At the same time, there's a part of me that things that that element exactly, wonderous as it is, is what holds back her books from being five-star reads for (or has so far, anyway). Much as I love the language and the worlds, the characters don't always feel quite real--it's as if they stepped out of fairy tales as they are, unchanging, and without quite the depth that normally makes me feel for and love a character. I suppose it's a matter of feeling like the plot and language are prioritized over character, to the point that all of the depth falls there rather than in either the protagonists or antagonists, and that alone keeps me from truly falling in love with the books vs. the language.

I'm sure I'll keep reading McKillip, waiting to fall in love with characters like I fall in love with her imagery, but this book did (like others) leave me wanting more in a not entirely good way, much as I enjoyed swimming through the world itself. ( )

Beautifully written and lyrical, Winter Rose can be viewed as many things. Supernatural, magical, surreal, reality, dream, or even a metaphor for a young woman’s desire and lost love. When I picked up this book some years ago, I knew nothing about the author, though the cover states she’s the winner of the World Fantasy Award. May not be for those who like straightforward stories with every t crossed but fans of the unusual may appreciate the book. ( )