Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire
Aug. 20th, 2014 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
So when the crossroads call and your faith is thin
And you’re afraid you might explode,
Go and talk to the girl in the green silk gown
Who walks on Sparrow Hill Road.
Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross – a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.
It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running.
They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner, the Phantom Prom Date, the Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Mostly she just goes by “Rose”, a hitching ghost girl with her thumb out and her eyes fixed on the horizon, trying to outrace a man who never sleeps, never stops, and never gives up on the idea of claiming what’s his. She’s the angel of the overpass, she’s the darling of the truck stops, and she’s going to figure out a way to win her freedom. After all, it’s not like it can kill her.
You can’t kill what’s already dead.
And when the night hails down and you’re afraid
That you’ll never get what you’re owed,
Go and talk to the girl in the green silk gown
Who died on Sparrow Hill Road.
In 1952, 16-year-old Rose Marshall died on Sparrow Hill Road while driving to the school prom, run off the road by Bobby Cross, who sold his soul at the crossroads to live forever. Now her soul belongs to Bobby, but she’s not planning on giving it to him. If he wants it, he’s got to catch her.
As a ghost, Rose hitchhikes around America, drawn to try and help those who die in car crashes. She’s met many people over the last 60 years and has been given many names, such as the Girl in the Diner or the Phantom Prom Date, but the one thing she wants most is her freedom – and it’s time she set out to get it …
Seanan McGuire’s ghost story blends horror with dark fantasy in a tightly plotted novel that combines folklore with faerie lore and adds a shot of pure Americana to largely successful effect. The episodic feel to the story as Rose recounts various events from her life and death mostly worked for me and although some of the twists are telegraphed too early, there were still plenty of surprises. I particularly enjoyed the romance between Rose and her prom date Gary, which is sweetly shown without being sentimental and Bobby Cross is a great villain – the ultimate sneering 50s bad boy with a very nasty dark side. I wasn’t that taken with Rose herself who reminded me a little too much of Tobey Daye and Georgia Mason from McGuire’s other work and I found Rose’s bean sidhe friend, Emma, a little two dimensional (although the folklore element she represented fitted in nicely in this world). The book leaves enough loose ends to allow for a sequel, which I would definitely check out.
The best scenes for me involve the routewitches (people who travel America’s roads and take supernatural strength from it) - particularly Rose’s great niece Bethany (a routewitch with plans to get out of Buckley where Rose died) and Apple, the queen of the routewitches – as they combine sadness and menace to chilling effect. I also really enjoyed the glossary at the back, which explains and expands on the terms used in the book and shows the depth of McGuire’s world building. Some of the plot developments are a little predictable but McGuire writes well enough to pull it off and keep me turning the pages.
The Verdict:
Seanan McGuire’s ghost story blends horror with dark fantasy in a tightly plotted novel that combines folklore with faerie lore and adds a shot of pure Americana to largely successful effect. The episodic feel to the story as Rose recounts various events from her life and death mostly worked for me and although some of the twists are telegraphed too early, there were still plenty of surprises. I particularly enjoyed the romance between Rose and her prom date Gary, which is sweetly shown without being sentimental and Bobby Cross is a great villain – the ultimate sneering 50s bad boy with a very nasty dark side. I wasn’t that taken with Rose herself who reminded me a little too much of Tobey Daye and Georgia Mason from McGuire’s other work and I found Rose’s bean sidhe friend, Emma, a little two dimensional (although the folklore element she represented fitted in nicely in this world). The book leaves enough loose ends to allow for a sequel, which I would definitely check out.
And you’re afraid you might explode,
Go and talk to the girl in the green silk gown
Who walks on Sparrow Hill Road.
Rose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross – a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.
It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running.
They have names for her all over the country: the Girl in the Diner, the Phantom Prom Date, the Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Mostly she just goes by “Rose”, a hitching ghost girl with her thumb out and her eyes fixed on the horizon, trying to outrace a man who never sleeps, never stops, and never gives up on the idea of claiming what’s his. She’s the angel of the overpass, she’s the darling of the truck stops, and she’s going to figure out a way to win her freedom. After all, it’s not like it can kill her.
You can’t kill what’s already dead.
That you’ll never get what you’re owed,
Go and talk to the girl in the green silk gown
Who died on Sparrow Hill Road.
In 1952, 16-year-old Rose Marshall died on Sparrow Hill Road while driving to the school prom, run off the road by Bobby Cross, who sold his soul at the crossroads to live forever. Now her soul belongs to Bobby, but she’s not planning on giving it to him. If he wants it, he’s got to catch her.
As a ghost, Rose hitchhikes around America, drawn to try and help those who die in car crashes. She’s met many people over the last 60 years and has been given many names, such as the Girl in the Diner or the Phantom Prom Date, but the one thing she wants most is her freedom – and it’s time she set out to get it …
Seanan McGuire’s ghost story blends horror with dark fantasy in a tightly plotted novel that combines folklore with faerie lore and adds a shot of pure Americana to largely successful effect. The episodic feel to the story as Rose recounts various events from her life and death mostly worked for me and although some of the twists are telegraphed too early, there were still plenty of surprises. I particularly enjoyed the romance between Rose and her prom date Gary, which is sweetly shown without being sentimental and Bobby Cross is a great villain – the ultimate sneering 50s bad boy with a very nasty dark side. I wasn’t that taken with Rose herself who reminded me a little too much of Tobey Daye and Georgia Mason from McGuire’s other work and I found Rose’s bean sidhe friend, Emma, a little two dimensional (although the folklore element she represented fitted in nicely in this world). The book leaves enough loose ends to allow for a sequel, which I would definitely check out.
The best scenes for me involve the routewitches (people who travel America’s roads and take supernatural strength from it) - particularly Rose’s great niece Bethany (a routewitch with plans to get out of Buckley where Rose died) and Apple, the queen of the routewitches – as they combine sadness and menace to chilling effect. I also really enjoyed the glossary at the back, which explains and expands on the terms used in the book and shows the depth of McGuire’s world building. Some of the plot developments are a little predictable but McGuire writes well enough to pull it off and keep me turning the pages.
The Verdict:
Seanan McGuire’s ghost story blends horror with dark fantasy in a tightly plotted novel that combines folklore with faerie lore and adds a shot of pure Americana to largely successful effect. The episodic feel to the story as Rose recounts various events from her life and death mostly worked for me and although some of the twists are telegraphed too early, there were still plenty of surprises. I particularly enjoyed the romance between Rose and her prom date Gary, which is sweetly shown without being sentimental and Bobby Cross is a great villain – the ultimate sneering 50s bad boy with a very nasty dark side. I wasn’t that taken with Rose herself who reminded me a little too much of Tobey Daye and Georgia Mason from McGuire’s other work and I found Rose’s bean sidhe friend, Emma, a little two dimensional (although the folklore element she represented fitted in nicely in this world). The book leaves enough loose ends to allow for a sequel, which I would definitely check out.
