sistermagpie's review against another edition
4.0
All I had going into this book was the title and the cover, and it was nothing like I expected. It reminded me of Jane Yolen's Briar Rose, even though the two stories are not very alike, in that it felt like a fairy tale transposed into the real world. That is, no magic, just actual human beings behaving in ways that mirror the tale. It was a pleasant surprise when Catskin's mysterious past turned out not to be what I might have expected (like, that she's really a lynx turned into a girl or something!) but an actual human backstory.
The setting and world was just as rich as a fairy tale fantasy land, though. Most of the action takes place in a house and apartment above a bookstore in Alaska with a family with of three brothers, a dog, a cat, and a bff, so there's warm feelings all around. You'd want to spend time with these people too. In fact, family is really central to the whole story. In all there's really three families contrasted with each other, with two in danger of going truly dark.
The setting and world was just as rich as a fairy tale fantasy land, though. Most of the action takes place in a house and apartment above a bookstore in Alaska with a family with of three brothers, a dog, a cat, and a bff, so there's warm feelings all around. You'd want to spend time with these people too. In fact, family is really central to the whole story. In all there's really three families contrasted with each other, with two in danger of going truly dark.
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