The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire – Review & Giveaway

 

 

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Description:
Once and twice and thrice around,
Put your heart into the ground.
Four and five and six tears shed,
Give your love unto the dead.
Seven shadows on the wall,
Eight have come to watch your fall:
One’s for the gargoyle, one’s for the grave,
And the last is for the one you’ll never save.
 
For Rose Marshall, death has long since become the only life she really knows.  She’s been sweet sixteen for more than sixty years, hitchhiking her way along the highways and byways of America, sometimes seen as an avenging angel, sometimes seen as a killer in her own right, but always Rose, the Phantom Prom Date, the Girl in the Green Silk Gown.

The man who killed her is still out there, thanks to a crossroads bargain that won’t let him die, and he’s looking for the one who got away.  When Bobby Cross comes back into the picture, there’s going to be hell to pay—possibly literally.

Rose has worked for decades to make a place for herself in the twilight.  Can she defend it, when Bobby Cross comes to take her down?  Can she find a way to navigate the worlds of the living and the dead, and make it home before her hitchhiker’s luck runs out?
               
There’s only one way to know for sure.
 
Nine will let you count the cost:
All you had and all you lost.
Ten is more than time can tell,
Cut the cord and ring the bell.
Count eleven, twelve, and then,
Thirteen takes you home again.
One’s for the shadow, one’s for the tree,
And the last is for the blessing of Persephone

 

 

Review:

The Girl with the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire is the 2^nd book in her Ghost Roads series.  This is a fantasy novel revolving  around the twilight, mythology, ghosts, the dead, and gods. 

Rose Marshall is our heroine, and Rose has been dead for 60 years. When she was 16, she set out to go to her prom and meet her boyfriend, Gary, only to be killed by Bobby Cross, who wanted her soul.  Seems Bobby Cross made a deal to be immortal, and stay young, but he needs to steal lives of young girls to keep his car running with the souls he takes. The only one who got away was Rose, who though now dead, managed to escape Bobby, and live in the twilight as a hitchhiking ghost.  Rose has become an urban legend, as the Girl in the Green Silk Gown (still in her prom dress), also known and the Phantom Prom Date.   Rose is used to her life on the roads, walking across America, helping truckers and other travelers in danger or those passing on to the twilight. 

Bobby Cross is determined to find and get the one who got away, and despite Rose’s protection tattoo ( from a god) keeping her safe from Bobby, he finds a way to get to her.  When Rose is pulled into a Halloween ritual, she miraculously is now alive, and Bobby is on his way.  Rose is desperate to find a way to return to the only life she knows…return to the dead.   

We get to meet the friends that Rose has made all these years in the twilight, including powerful beings such as Queens of the roads, routes, lake, ghosts, etc to help her find her way to the gods to help return to where she belongs, before Bobby finds her.

The Girl with the Green Silk Gown was written very well by Seanan McGuire, and was an interesting and at times exciting story.  I did feel it had a lot of details that made some parts a bit slow, but the last third of the book was exciting.  If you like fantasy, with ghost legends and mythology, then I suggest you read The Girl With the Green Silk Gown.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

Seanan McGuire’s publisher is offering a paper copy of THE GIRL IN THE GREEN SILK GOWN to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

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7. Giveaway open to USA

8. Giveaway runs from July 17 to 21, 2018