On the surface, Sub Rosa reads like a dizzying and surreal dream. Reminiscent of books like J T Leroy's Sarah and Harold's End, and the modern fairy tales of Francesca Lia Block, Sub Rosa is not only a story about the crevices of society, garnished with supernatural elements, but a contemporary parable that articulates larger issues of ostracism, self-defeat, the captivity of prostitution, and the redemptive power of memory. Rarely will you find a writer who can treat such subject matter with both whimsy and clarity.Īmber Dawn, in her debut novel, has created a transgressive allegory about the marginalized and missing women who exist, invisibly, in urban centres. Sugarbutch ChroniclesĪmber Dawn writes beautifully and lays out a story laced with mystery, hope, and magic. There were many sentences that made me stop reading just to sigh at the beauty of their simple and elegant construction. It's touching and smart and beautifully crafted. Xtra!Ī masterpiece I couldn't put down. Sub Rosa is an enormous satisfaction, an immersion in gritty magical realism. NOW MagazineĪmber Dawn takes us to a dark and magical place in her debut novel.
Channeling Evelyn Lau's realism, Thomas Hardy at his most macabre, and the Brothers Grimm, Dawn's style - part documentary and part magic realism - makes Sub Rosa totally enthralling. The writing is the novel's ultimate treat, a combination of sweetness and fierceness that crosses genres and defies expectations. Nothing is what it seems in Sub Rosa, Amber Dawn's stunning debut novel about underground sex work. 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.
She knows we know that pain is real, that women are made chattels, that masters are cruel. Amber Dawn keeps the proceedings at a darkly whimsical remove from the real hurts of the world. Hiromi Goto, author of Chorus of Mushrooms and Hopeful MonstersĪ uniquely rewarding read. Familiar and astonishing, darkly intoxicating, Sub Rosa is a Goblin Market for the 21st century. Little leads us into the liminal, between recurring dreams and eroding nightmares, just past that alley, two blocks from where you live. The lost girls of Amber Dawn's debut novel are much closer to us than Neverland. Elizabeth Bachinsky, Governor General's Award Nominee for Home of Sudden ServiceĪmber Dawn's story is a sinister fairy tale, as intoxicating as any of the Glories but also an allegory for the emotional hazards of sex work. Sub Rosa is a cult classic in the making. Part pulp noir, part porn, part metaphysical carnival-of-the-mind, Amber Dawn is to our generation what Lewis Carroll and Philip K. A triumph! -Michelle Tea, Nylonĭare to meet Little, the indescribably innocent, indescribably obscene protagonist of the decade's most indescribably juicy novel.
#Sub rosa in a sentence full#
A powerful fairy tale that chills and seduces, and deals with sex work as a metaphor, an occupation full of glamour and risk, illusion and desire, and escape. This book glitters so blackly that the characters-prostitutes called 'Glories'-can literally get lost in the darkness that menaces the edge of the enchanted red-light district. Michelle Tea, author of Valencia and Rose of No Man's Land 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. Her writing is stealthy and seductive, wise and witty and clever. It's haunting, chilling at points and then just so sweet. Gay and Lesbian ReviewĪmber Dawn's Sub Rosa is a masterpiece of imagination. Anyone familiar with the sex trade will probably recognize the author's metaphorical world, and those who have never gone there can find enlightenment of a different kind in Sub Rosa. This novel is both whimsical and profound, the kind of book that could acquire a cult status.
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