Sub Rosa

by Amber Dawn

Overview

In this stunning, Lambda Literary Award-winning debut novel, Amber Dawn subverts the classic hero's quest adventure to create a dark post-feminist vision. Sub Rosa's reluctant heroine is a teenaged runaway named "Little"; she stumbles upon an underground society of ghosts and magicians, missing girls and would-be johns: a place called Sub Rosa. Not long after she is initiated into this family of magical prostitutes, Little is called upon to lead them through a maze of feral darkness: a calling burdened with grotesque enemies, strange allies, and memories from a foggy past. Sub Rosa is a beautiful, gutsy, fantastical allegory of our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551523613
Publisher:	Arsenal Pulp Press, Limited
Publication date:	09/07/2010
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Amber Dawn: Amber Dawn is a writer, filmmaker, and performance artist. She is the editor of Fist of the Spider Woman and co-editor of With a Rough Tongue. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

The Sub Rosa of this convoluted, heavy-handed debut's novel title is "a secret street of magical working girls," known as "Glories," magnificent women with no recollection of their pasts who help "live ones" from the city regain a measure of beauty in their lives. Into this world comes Little, a down-on-her-luck runaway. Captivated by the splendor of her new home, Little is glad to forget her old life. But when Sub Rosa is threatened by a rebellious Glory, Little, who longs to prove herself, must embark on a quest into the Dark, a threatening realm just beyond Sub Rosa where Glories are first trained. There, Little encounters Jellyfish, a former Glory who poses profound and terrifying questions, which force Little to decide whether happy oblivion is worth the price of her freedom to remember and to be herself. The transgressive-fairy tale aspect grows tiresome long before the predictable moral of the story is revealed. Meanwhile, the internal logic of Sub Rosa becomes increasingly strained, its mythology difficult to sustain, its inhabitants difficult to care about. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Amber Dawn's Sub Rosa is a masterpiece of imagination. It's haunting, chilling at points and then just so sweet. Her writing is stealthy and seductive, wise and witty and clever. Lock Mary Gaitskill in a closet with Francesca Lia Block and they might emerge with a map to Sub Rosa: a glorious mystery that creeps you out and then totally enchants." —Michelle Tea, author of Valencia and Rose of No Man's Land

"Amber Dawn's story is a sinister fairy tale, as intoxicating as any of the Glories [characters] but also an allegory for the emotional hazards of sex work." —Bust

"A uniquely rewarding read.... Amber Dawn keeps the proceedings at a darkly whimsical remove from the real hurts of the world. She knows we know that pain is real, that women are made chattels, that masters are cruel. She's after a larger vision that raises questions about the entire emotionally fraught edifice of our received beliefs about sex, men and women, roles and rights and abuses." — The Globe and Mail (One of the Best Books of 2010)



"Amber Dawn's Sub Rosa is a masterpiece of imagination. It's haunting, chilling at points and then just so sweet. Her writing is stealthy and seductive, wise and witty and clever. Lock Mary Gaitskill in a closet with Francesca Lia Block and they might emerge with a map to Sub Rosa: a glorious mystery that creeps you out and then totally enchants." —Michelle Tea, author of Valencia and Rose of No Man's Land

"Amber Dawn's story is a sinister fairy tale, as intoxicating as any of the Glories [characters] but also an allegory for the emotional hazards of sex work." —Bust

"A uniquely rewarding read.... Amber Dawn keeps the proceedings at a darkly whimsical remove from the real hurts of the world. She knows we know that pain is real, that women are made chattels, that masters are cruel. She's after a larger vision that raises questions about the entire emotionally fraught edifice of our received beliefs about sex, men and women, roles and rights and abuses." — The Globe and Mail (One of the Best Books of 2010)

From the Publisher