somewhere like 3.8 stars, so rounding up to 4.
Wintersong is aptly named as any book could ever be. More than a book, it is truly a long elegant poem filled with yearning and pain.
Liesl is plain, the first child to innkeepers with a musically talented younger brother and a beautiful sister. Who would look at Liesl when her siblings are the eye of famous maestros and all the men in town. However, unbeknownst to anyone save her siblings, Liesl is a genius composer. But to everyone, she is never good enough. Just as her life truly loses purpose, the Goblin King, a mythical beast whom she once imagined playing with in her young days appears, offering her both salvation and damnation in the shape of kidnapping her sister. If she loses the game, she is to be the bride of the goblin king, damned to live underground forever with this enigmatic austere myth. If she wins, she gets both her sister and her precious music back. His agenda in erking Elisabeth, however, may not be as cruel as she imagines.
It is hard to write a proper review of Wintersong. The story itself-no- but the writing, the poetry brought tears to my eyes not once, but three times throughout the novel. It was beautiful and I did not think I could cry for sorrow written so beautifully. Not because it was so sad. but because it was so beautifully written the yearning, pain, and redemption was described.
We see Liesl, a girl, change into Elisabeth, a woman by the hands of the Goblin King. we see her grow, learning the beauty and ugliness that lies within her, but at least it is learning. She slowly stops hiding behind the shadow of her siblings and reading about the journey was amazing.
So why only four stars?
scordatura
basso continuo
tabula rasa
chaconnes
décolletage
glissando
apreggios
Was this book written for musicians or all of YA fairy tale lovers to enjoy, because I can tell you the latter willhave a difficult time. There isn't even an index and I went crazy. So much of the meaning and understanding of the books was lost without a guide to all the music fanciness that didn't need to be there. If you make a book for the public, make it understandable to all, not just one small population of talented musicians. It would have been mildly more tolerable if Jae-Jones just used these words of musicality to well, explain music, but not she explains, emotions, and feelings, and so much with unknown words. I am not a musician, your meaning of someone making you feel an arpeggio or something is lost on me even if I look up the definition. The fact that his voice filled your head with a basso concerto literally means nothing to me. WHY DID YOU NOT HAVE AN INDEX!?
I used to look up the words at first, but at some point I gave up because I do not have time to look up 50 or something words while I read, it breaks the spell of the world I'm in.
"He laughed and shook his head. 'You are the genius, Elisabeth, the one who creates. Me? I am the interpreter.' My little brother had once told me that exact thing, before I came to the Underground, before I understood the difference between <b>genesis</b> and <b>exegesis.</b> I was too full of me, too full of my memories. "
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!? DO YOU (JJ) EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT COMPLETELY MEANS!?
The last thing I want to complain about is overwriting. Often times, my main problems is that authors do not write enough, do not explain enough, but Jae-Jones has the opposite problem. She explains too much, repeats to much; says the same things just in different lyrical complex words that mean nothing to me. Sometimes she threw in rare unknown words not because they made sense but just because they were poetic sounding. But there is no point where they make no sense to the story. You don't need to same the same thing 5 different times 5 different ways in literally 5 different spots of the story. It was driving me insane and I admit to occasionally skimming when the same old drivel came up again and again.
A fluid 3.8 ish stars because it really is hard to decide on a proper rating. If you want something other than your common beauty and beast retelling, read this melded retelling of Labyrinth and the Goblin King. Maybe will read the next but seriously if the publisher or author ever reads this, I'm BEGGING YOU to put in an index of words that normal readers wouldn't know. INCLUDING THE FRENCH AND GERMAN YOU JUST RANDOMLY THROW IN.