White Midnight

In White Midnight, Dia Calhoun's prequel to Firegold, the mystical world and compelling characters she sketches here offer insight into betrayal, prejudice and what it means to be a monster. Rose's fierce love of the land convinces the panicked, frail 15-year-old to conquer her fears of the hideous Thing locked in Mr. Brae's attic-first, to work in the Bighouse and second, to marry the attic monster in order to secure the Greengarden estate an heir. But all is not as it seems, either in her betrothal to the Thing or in the Thing's true identity.