Child of a Rainless Year

Let's continue with the theme of fantastical houses and talk about the Phineas House. When middle school art teacher Mira Fenn returns to her childhood home, she learns that she has inherited more than than a building. The Phineas House is a responsive structure that may hold clues to her mother's mysterious disappearance forty years ago. Hoping to learn her mother's fate, Mira begins to commune with the house by repainting it in an orgy of fantastic colors.

Mira's adventure draws the reader into the fascinating world of color. Vibrant hues surround us, yet in essence every color is derived from variegated shades that subtly blend to create new aesthetic sensations. Jane Lindskold seizes upon the theme of color and refracts it through a magical kaleidoscope of storytelling to bring us Child of a Rainless Year.

Lindskold's fantasy is refreshingly modern and magical. She brings passages of The Golden Bough and other potentially dry mythological and mystical texts to life and expertly weaves legends of mirrors, shadows, and liminal space into the plot. Frequent tracts on feminism and women's rights are justified by the link Mira sees between herself and her adoptive 1950s mom, though at times these passages betray the author's intrusive voice.

I enjoyed meeting Mira and getting to know a Las Vegas that has nothing to do with casino wheels and dice. I had a lot of fun learning all about kaleidoscopes and teleidoscopes. And I love a fantasy in which the main character can both go on a mystical journey, and sell collectibles on eBay.