Winter Rose is typical of Patricia A. McKillip's recent work.  It is extremely well written and evokes not only the images of her created worlds, but the textures and scents as well.  While, on the surface, this feels like one of a number of similar stories wherein a young girl faces adversity and saves the day while simultaneously growing as a person, there is a deeper (and darker) undercurrent to the prose.  McKillip draws upon numerous myths, but twists them together like the briars that she uses as theme.  There are hints of Tam Lin, Rip Van Winkle (aka Thomas the Rhymer), and the Mabinogion among others.

However, there is a very human element as well.  As the characters attempt to (and in many cases, fail to) understand what is going on, the story resonates between the present and the past, between reality and hallucination, and between dreams.  Some characters grow, some characters do not.  Some of the ones that do not are the very ones that should, and some of the ones that grow grow in saddening ways -- much like life, I suppose.

 By the end, I was confused as to which events were real and which were dream.  I was as uncertain as to which characters felt what as the characters themselves seemed to be.  Most unsettling and yet in perfect correspondence with the myths of encountering the Fey.  I am certain that this was intentional on McKillip's part.

It's an excellent read that I heartilly recommend...

 Just don't read it in the winter.