Unexpected Fairytale
I must admit that I avoided reading Kat Howard’s debut novel at first because I had one preconception from the title: I thought that it would be about zombies. Feeling as I do that zombies have been very overdone in recent years, and that they tend to focus on gore and angst more than solid plotlines, I waited to dig into this book until a free afternoon led me to finally pick it up.
I could not have been more wrong.
Roses and Rot isn’t a zombie story, it’s a fairytale. In the old, old tradition of fairytales, there is more to the world than meets the eye, and getting your heart’s desire just might cost you your heart, unless you’re canny, careful, and keep your eyes wide open.
Relationships and Dreams
It’s fitting that the book is dedicated to the author’s sister; the core relationship in the book is that of the protagonist Imogen’s relationship with her sister Marin. Both sisters are creatively gifted, one as a writer and one as a dancer, and have spent years honing their skills. Early on you discover that both have been invited to an artist’s collective to develop their skills and bring forth a significant work to launch their careers in earnest.
As one expects of a fairytale, how things are is not how things should be, and the sisters feel pressure to see and do more than they currently are. Both are fully engaged in their passion, and both find that the collective stretches them in ways they didn’t expect. Their experiences are both parallel and divergent, and the ending is a satisfying if strange conclusion.
Howard doesn’t shy from dealing with heavier themes in her book. Emotional and physical abuse, betrayal, love, coming from different worlds, the danger and calling of having a true gift in an art, the arduousness of dead serious competition, death, dysfunctional families, and what it means to be successful are all explored through the characters’ experiences in this work. Emotions don’t take short shrift, either. Relationships between characters and their decisions play out with honest and believable consequences. A sinister cost linked with being able to evoke emotion in others is a dark thread that winds throughout the book.
Magic and Mystique
Howard’s language is vivd and descriptive, her dialogue believable and engaging, her characters’ interactions authentic and modern. Certain flavors of the book evoke the ominous fairytale feeling of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market“, and Grimm’s grimmer stories where consequences are real and vital. Mothers can be just as bad as stepmothers, and getting the prince’s love is no guarantee that you’ll survive to the end. Even if you do, will you still be yourself?
Roses and Rot provides an interesting glimpse into a different kind of fairyland than the usual fare. It is an engaging and fast-paced novel that will appeal to fantasy and fairytale fans alike.
