Customer Reviews

Winter Rose

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Ms. McKillip has woven magic into this book. A tale of falling sunlight, drowning roses, shadowy green eyes, sweet perfumed water, cold winter days, half-seen images: of fey and the ordinary, of a hidden secret, a hidden sorrow in the Lynn legends. This is the story of Rois, the untamed, witch-like daughter of a farmer, and how, by loving the fey Corbet Lynn and ferreting out his secrets, following him through dreams and reality, she finally becomes human. A poignant tale, I cried at times, swept away by the emotional power of Ms. McKillip's poetic prose. I have never read anything so beautiful. So sad. I love this book very much. Not only was it amazing trying to follow Rois and Corbet through realms beyond, but trying to distinguish what was dream and what was reality. The imagery used, the symbolism, was so otherworldly in its significance, in its beauty, that I was awed as well as moved much of the time. I wish Patricia McKillip's other books were as this one. By making it a first-person-narrative you never lose focus of the character while becoming adrift in the world. Again, this really was very beautiful (there is no other word; it's like a melody that stirs the soul) and I was spell-bound.

How can two sisters be so different? Laurel is beautiful, proper, thoughtful, and utterly sensible. She calmly cares for her widowed father and plans her wedding to her childhood sweetheart. Rois is a wild freespirit who roams the woods by day and sometimes by night searching for something even she could not name. But they soon discover that they have one thing in common...his name is Corbet Lynn...

Corbet returns to his father's childhood home and begins restoration work amid a storm of rumors and gossip. Corbet's grandfather was murdered in that house and most believe that Corbet's father was the guilty party. But all know, whether his son murdered him or not, that the old man used his last breath to place a dreadful curse on his son...and his son's descendents.

Almost as soon as Rois sets eyes upon the young man, she is determined to unravel the mysteries of his past. But her fascination with his unusual history is soon replaced by feelings that are much stronger. She never expected that she would give her heart so easily...or that her feelings would not be returned when she did. It would seem that Corbet has taken a fancy to Laurel...who returns his feelings whole heartedly, fiancee or no.

But Rois can not back out of the picture as easily as she got into it. As the curse begins to bear fruit, Rois finds herself tangled in its web. She realizes that it is up to her to save the man she loves...even if she saves him so that he can freely love another...her own sister. What Rois didn't count on was the truths she would learn about her own past...and her surprising destiny...

Reading this book was like looking at a beautiful painting. The word pictures are marvelous and the emotions are almost too real. Readers are swept away in a tide of romance, jealousy, hatred, and mystery. Fantasy readers will love it!

Patricia McKillip is one of America's best writers and in this book she returns to a theme dear to her heart - the quest for personal identity. The quest is carried on through language that is so profound and developed one feels like one is hallucinating while reading the story. Wrapped in clouds of glory, beauty, and mystery one follows the narrator Rois who knows that truth is at the bottom of a well. Others fall for the mysterious stranger Corbet Lynn in the most superficial way but Rois seeks to penetrate the glamor to the secret within Corbet's courtesy and personal beauty. This story tells us that the erotic quest is fulfilled in being true to ourselves despite the gnawing logic of the temptations that would seek to mislead us from our chosen path.
Patricia Mckillip began writing of these themes with her epic fantasy classic "The Riddle Master" trilogy. Over time she has transformed herself into a magician of words as good as her contemporaries like Catherynne Valente (The Labyrinth) and Greer Ilene Gilman (Moonwise). These three crowned ladies are the greatest prose stylists since Vladimir Nabokov.
Five stars for Ms. McKillip - each one made of the purest silver!

There's a certain sound to the speech of faerie that makes each gesture or change of light significant, and spills into the recesses of the mind to be carried throughout the day. McKillip is a master of such a speech, thoroughly evidenced through her novel, "Winter Rose."

The story is a common one at heart: a coming-of-age story with romance at its core and a generational mystery beneath that. The plot moves quickly and beautifully along, although Rois' frequent stops to press the elderly for stories pertaining to the mysterious curse at times seem a tad too convenient - but regardless, the book is one that enchants the reader...firmly to his seat.

Indeed, "Winter Rose" is so well written, with characters that say so much, though many do nothing extraordinary, that the sheer pleasure of reading it overwhelms the rather unsatisfactory ending (what is it about modern fantastist that they must make love stories ambiguous at their close?), and earns it a more than hearty recommendation for those who long to catch at wonder.

McKillip knows how to use words to good effect, but all too often I got the feeling her protagonist, Rois, was rephrasing something she'd said earlier, or describing the exact same scenario over and over. How often does Rois announce to her family that she is going to traipse off to Lynn Hall _again_? I'd guess at least a dozen times, and each time her father or sister, Laurel, warns her against it. How often does Rois run off into the night, either to stagger back home or to be found having some kind of fit? Also, I don't need to be reminded every time Corbet shows up on the scene that he is beautiful but mysterious. Show, don't tell. And finally, Laurel. I spotted the 'twist' concerning her very very early on, and I dreaded it. In fact, the only reason I finished this somewhat short novel was because I hoped against hope that it wouldn't be resolved in the traditional way. Oh, but it was...

I had heard this book praised to the skies. I wish I could appreciate it, really. But it really doesn't bear up, in my opinion, especially not to the many comparisons to Robin McKinley.

Rois Melior is a wild child. A disconnect exists between her and the human world, not only because she walks barefoot or forgets the time while wandering in the woods (forever causing those who love her to worry), but also because she is *aware* of what she does, knows it's not normal, yet she doesn't care. Rois has always been a little strange, a little other, and this suits her fine.

Rois's elder sister Laurel is beautiful, sensible, and proper--the epitome of normal, even being engaged to her childhood sweetheart Perrin, a thoroughly respectable farmer.

Then one summer Corbet Lynn returns to his ancestral home, a crumbling hall being reclaimed by the woods, bringing with him a family curse and questions of if his father really murdered his grandfather. Rois knows something is different about Corbet and becomes obsessed with discovering why he has come back.

McKillip's skill with language is evident on every page. Her ability to create atmosphere, striking characters, and explore the complex nature of family and love in a succinct amount of words is magical.

(Spoilers below)

Rois falls for Corbet, yet is it Corbet or the mystery of him--that he is as strange and other as she if not more so--that really draws her to him. Rois must watch her sister catch the eye of the only man who has ever intrigued her, knowing disaster approaches for them all.

Corbet remains an elusive figure. There are moments when you feel Rois is his desire (he calls to her in dreams, entices her to seek out his secrets), yet he begins a romance with Laurel. We learn Corbet's family is intertwined with the faerie; he has returned to Lynn Hall to escape the Otherworld in the woods to become human. Perhaps it is Rois's very wildness and similarity to Corbet and all he wishes to flee that both attracts and repels him. Laurel's normalcy offers him a better chance of clinging to the human world (or so he believes).

Or perhaps Corbet cares for neither girl and uses both for his own ends.

Laurel loves her fiancé Perrin yet is powerless against the seduction of faerie. When Corbet disappears in the winter as suddenly as he came in summer, Laurel begins to waste away from a mysterious illness (an illness that claimed her and Rois's mother many years ago). It is up to Rois to bring Corbet back, whether for herself or for Laurel she isn't sure.

Rois and Laurel still love each other even as both realize they love the same man. The bonds of sisterhood are never sacrificed and the dynamic of family, love, and magic are portrayed with seriousness, complexity, and sensitivity.

McKillip creates vivid images of the Otherworld, a place beautiful, terrifying, and alluring. Her faeries are ageless, powerful, and beyond the constraints of the human world. But for all the Otherworld's timeless beauty, something powerful and wonderful exists in the human world of death and change that can never be found with the faerie.

Rois journeys into the heart of the Otherworld, into the parallel woods of an icy queen and where secrets of her own origins lie. She will have to choose whether she will remain a daughter of the wood or finally take her place in the human world.

In the end, Rois rescues Corbet, but when she's sees him back in the human world everything is different. Summer has come again. Corbet remembers nothing (or does he?). Rois has changed; she now wears shoes and is mindful of others worrying about her. Laurel's heart is Perrin's once more. We are to rejoice in these changes, that Rois and Corbet are free of the wood, but still a sense of melancholy lingers for what has been lost, even if it what has occurred is necessary.

I've seen readers express frustration with "was this a dream or real...did this mean that...did he/she feel...?" I can understand these frustrations well. McKillip doesn't give easy, clear cut answers to the main characters feelings or in distinguishing between Rois's dreams and when she's awake. But Mckillip does give her readers what we need to know.

The answer rests in the answer Rois receives to which version of the Lynn curse was true: all of them. Likewise, the multiple interpretations of Rois, Laurel, and Corbet's motives and feelings are all true. All of Rois's dreams were reality, and her reality during winter was a dream.

Yes, the ending could have been more resolved. The sap in me would have liked Corbet to fully explain himself and declare his undying love for Rois alone. But if he had done this it wouldn't have been true to his character or the story. I knew he and Rois would get together eventually.

I devoured "Winter Rose" in one sitting, held rapt by its spell. It is a fascinating read, because of the way McKillip uses gorgeous language to depict the dark and magical atmosphere of a forest with a life of its own. I almost felt as if I was dreaming while I read this book. The story itself unfolds gradually, but the pacing never drags.
The only reason I am giving it four stars instead of five is that McKillip occasionally gets too weighed down by florid language and description. However, for most of the novel her style is perfectly suited to the mood and nature of the tale.

"Winter Rose" is a fairy tale in more than one sense of the word. It has the feel of every decent fairy tale--curses, siblings, mysterious strangers, and puzzles that must be unlocked. It contains elements I've seen before, and this isn't a bad thing; this is hardly some rehashed, barely warmed-over, half-hearted retelling. It's quite original and interesting, despite the fairy-tale familiarity.

It is also a fairy tale in that it tells a story of mortal dealings with the land of fairies. Not little people with wings, but the terrible, dangerous fey creatures who are, often as not, the downfall of the mortals who encounter them.

I loved the characters in this book. The book gave me a strong feel for the ones that showed up often. Rois, Laurel, Perrin, Rois's father, Corbet, some of the people from the village--I enjoyed every one of them, and felt as though I knew them by the end of the book. This did, however, cause the natural problem that always emerges when the characters are too interesting in a book--I hated to let go of them at the end!

Perhaps the only flaw in the characters is that the tale deals with things that happened two generations ago, involving the memories of many people. After a while I lost track of a few of the people referred to. It wasn't a strong enough effect to mar my enjoyment of the book, however; it was an incidental and momentary confusion.

"Winter Rose" went by in the span of a heartbeat for me; I started reading it mid-morning and was done with it before dinner. It pulled me in and enchanted me. I had trouble returning to reality, and simply couldn't start reading another book right away. My head was lost in the gorgeous world McKillip had evoked with her elegant words.

The best way to read this book is curled up in front of a log firs, a glass wine at your side and torrential storm battering at the windows. This is a beautiful and elegant book. These are not adjectives I'd generally ascribe to a book, but they are the ones that best describe 'Winter Rose'. It is one of those rare books that I think is deserving of five stars.

The story is set in a generic pre-industrial country town. The sort of setting that appears in dozens of fantasy. Rois is the main character. She lives in a daydream world wandering through the woods behind her fathers house. Naturally her father wants her to get married and settle down.

There's a ruined mansion nearby. Mystery, rumour and gossip surround what happened there the night it was abandoned. The story begins with Corbet arriving to claim his inheritance, which is the mansion. His arrival adds to the mystry of the mansion. The villagers like him, he is friendly and outgoing, but he also becomes the centre of gossip

When I mention Rois has a sister I'm sure you can see the line the story is going to take. Don' t discard this book out of hand because it dosen't seem to have a terribly original plot. 'Gone with the Wind' has an equally unimaginative plot when you reduce it to a few sentences.

Where this book excells is in the details, imagarry, style, the sheer brilliance of Patricia's writing. I was captivated by the book from the opening paragraph.

No book is perfect in every regard. I could find flaws in Shakespeare if I looked. 'Winter Rose' is no different. I could list a few minor nit picking problems, but I'm not going too. The book was such a pleasure to read I don't want to spoil the memory of the hours of enjoyment it gave me by focusing on a few minuscule and basically irrelevant flaws.

If the first paragraph of this review seems like an enjoyable way to spend and evening (I know it won't appeal to everyone) then 'Winter Rose' is an absolute must for you to read. The book is magnificent.

Rois is a child of the wood, she loves to be free to roam the woods to find the herbs, plants and flowers for healing and pleasure. In her travels in the woods, she happens upon a doorway of sorts and out of that doorway walks Corbet Lynn, the cursed grandson, back to rebuild Lynn Hall.

Rois becomes obsessed with the curses remembered by the elder townsfolk, curses supposedly called down upon Corbet's father as he stood over the father he has just murdered.

Rois is a great heroine in a genre that oftentimes writes women as helpless or as accessories to the main male character. McKillip often writes characters who are able to see things that most other people can't see, despite however obvious those things are. This book is achingly sad at times and like a well written fairy tale, the ending is not what you expect it to be. McKillip has a way of taking what would be really sappy and trite if it were done in another book or by another author and owning it in such a way that the emotion resonates with the reader.