Sub Rosa by Amber Dawn

Published by Arsenal Pulp Press

I'd like you to indulge me for a moment, as I whisper of a place filled with ghosts, magicians, missing girls, and visitors seeking a special something that can only be found in this secret society/community of magical prostitutes that reside in the place known as Sub Rosa.

Here we find Little, a teenage runaway who doesn't recall her real name. Her life only involves her offering herself sexually to those who would offer her shelter of some kind. That is until she meets Arsen, a stranger who offers her kindness without seeking anything in return. A few short days is all it takes for Little to realize that she feels love, real love, for this man of whom she knows next-to-nothing. She really didn't expect to make love with the man, only to wake the next day and find a woman standing there, talking to her, giving her a choice between a new future, or returning to the couch-surfing and breakfasts of beer that are familiar to her.

Her choice is made. Or almost. First she must brave 'the Dark' and earn her dowry. Terrified and struggling to earn the cash she needs in order to go home, she finds that the Dark holds much to be scared of, including a 'fairy godmother' of sorts who I personally visualize as looking something similar to Samara Morgan from the movie The Ring. You know, the creepy girl who crawls through the TV. 

Only by surviving 'The Dark' will she be permitted to enter Sub Rosa and reunite with her new family, and a community that is like no other. 

I found this title quite by accident. I had been browsing a publisher catalogue for the current book season and a book caught my eye. That book is How Poetry Saved My Life by Amber Dawn which wasn't available to review at the time so I opted to check out Sub Rosa in the meantime. I'm so happy that I did. If Sub Rosa is anything to go by, I can't wait to check out the newer title.

The reader is plunged, almost instantly, into a world seen through the eyes of a teenage runaway, a world so vivid that I caught myself reacting strongly to the content as I read it. It's a book that really defies description so please bear with me as I struggle to find the words. It's a book in which the lines between beauty so haunting and an ugliness that is harsh and brutal are blurred and/or non-existent.  

At times it's easy to forget that Sub Rosa is filled with pimps, prostitutes, and johns, and rather think of it as a vulnerable community that fears much that exists outside of their self-imposed invisible borders. It's impossible to not be drawn in by the entire story that is much like a roller-coaster ride that never ends. It does at least slow down occasionally to give the reader a chance to pause and catch their breath, only to have it whisked away again mere moments later.

There are some books that feed the mind, others soothe the soul or warm the heart. Sub Rosa is unlike any other book I have read, in that it was a purely visceral experience. This book doesn't gently ease you into an alternate reality. It pulls you under, kicking and screaming, unable to breathe but bringing on such a rush of adrenaline that you really don't care, then once it has taken everything from you, it leaves you with a feeling of being utterly and totally spent. The only thing I knew to be true by the end? That I wanted more.

Author's website: http://www.amberdawnwrites.com/