"East" by Edith Pattou

Rating: 3

Description: In an old Norwegian village, a highly superstitious mother tries to protect her youngest child, Rose, from a dire prophecy; as the various characters take turns narrating the story, it is readily apparent that no one else takes the superstitions seriously. Nevertheless, Rose is "different" in many ways, from her purple eyes to her passion for weaving, which leads her to make a cloak patterned with a "wind rose" (a mapmaker's symbol indicating the direction of the winds). She also seems to attract the attention of a white bear, and when the bear finally approaches her, offering to make her poor family prosper and to restore her ill sister's health if Rose will come away with him, she finds the offer impossible to resist. The bear takes Rose away to a castle where a mystery unfolds, and when Rose breaks a rule she knows shouldn't have been broken, she must travel to an even farther place in order to right her wrong.

Note: Description stolen from bn.com because I was lazy. The last sentence is mine, because that description didn't describe much past the first third of the book.

Review: "East" is a decent enough retelling, though the story moves at a very unsteady pace. The beginning drags on forever - I got very sick of waiting for something to happen, and I was tired of reading everything seven times, from different points of view. I fervently wish that the book were narrated by Rose alone, with maybe a bit of the white bear in there to spice things up. Once things do start to happen, the story moves at an almost too-fast pace. The second half of the book is by far superior to the first half, and the adventures Rose has in the trolls' domain to the north kept me turning pages. Rose is an interesting and resourceful heroine, and the bear is mysterious yet relateable, even in his lumbering internal bear-speak (he narrates in sentence fragments). Overall, "East" is worth the read if you can wade past the first half of the book, which more or less serves to set the stage for the second, better half.