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ofearna's review against another edition
3.0
I adore the long and short fiction of Jane Lindskold. That being said, this is my least favorite of her novels.
It's BEAUTIFULLY written, but s-l-o-w with little satisfaction.
It's BEAUTIFULLY written, but s-l-o-w with little satisfaction.
jayelle949290's review against another edition
2.0
Very disappointing. Interesting idea but a short story would have sufficed. Lots of expository to pad the story. Comparisons with Charles de Lint are just too generous.
m4marya's review against another edition
4.0
Jane Lindskold deals with liminalities. For me so many things fall in those in between spaces. Lindsold brings the beauty out in all those in between spaces. The woman who is not yet old, but no longer young. The house that is falling apart but not yet condemmed. hte land that is not Santa Fe, but not Albuquerque. [return][return][return]Lindskold writes the characters to make them real, to make them flawed but never ugly. The landscape is beutiful, the house is beautiful. She captures what it means to live in a land where water is part of every decision, and yet is not spoken of. She captures so many things and wraps it all up with a tale that I hold in my heart like those fairy tales I learned as a child.
alanawithdog's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
cclurejam's review against another edition
5.0
A marvelous piece of magical realism. The characters, (especially protagonist Mira Fenn) are all believable, and most of them are likeable. The fantasy aspects are obviously well thought out, and make sense in the story. No idiot balls being passed, no plot holes, no out of character moments, just plenty of good storytelling and characterization, with a dash of trivia to flavor it.
This might be Lindskold's best work.
This might be Lindskold's best work.
sistercoyote's review against another edition
4.0
This is an amazing book, one of the few that survived the Great Book Purge of a few years back and still rests on my shelf.
tallbox's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Fatphobia
unabridgedchick's review against another edition
3.0
One-sentence summary: Orphan Mira Fenn returns to her native New Mexico after the death of her foster parents, and discovers the house she has inherited holds dark secrets about her birth mother's disappearance.
Why did you get this book?: Requested it via ILL thinking it was something else.
Did you enjoy the book?: Actually, I did. It was far more entertaining that I expected.
Other thoughts?: I'm not sure if I would recommend it -- kind of interesting but also a bit bland. At times I felt like I was reading a NaNo novel -- there seemed to be lots of filler narrative that wasn't really necessary.
Why did you get this book?: Requested it via ILL thinking it was something else.
Did you enjoy the book?: Actually, I did. It was far more entertaining that I expected.
Other thoughts?: I'm not sure if I would recommend it -- kind of interesting but also a bit bland. At times I felt like I was reading a NaNo novel -- there seemed to be lots of filler narrative that wasn't really necessary.
jar7709's review against another edition
5.0
Sometimes you just want to re-read a slow story about a middle age woman coming back to rediscover her tragic, magic lost childhood home. Which you previously read two decades ago. And you are all the better for it, because now you relate much more to the protagonist and family and home means something a little different. Am sure my rating is slightly inflated above the quality of the written dialogue, but I'm rating for the experience of re-reading my old tattered paperback during an pandemic isolation, so 5 stars it is, shove it.