From the back-cover:

One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave the comfortable home of her childhood, she is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met: Aunt Margaret, beautiful and speechless, and her brothers, Francie whose graceful music belies his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn, who kisses Melanie in the ruins of the pleasure gardens. And brooding Uncle Philip loves only the life-sized wooden puppets he creates in his toyshop. This classic gothic novel established Angela Carter as one of our most imaginative writers and augurs the themes of her later creative work.

I bought this from the Montclair Public Library sale for a mere 50¢. :) To be read.

I got up to page 60 before I gave up. The book just wasn't sucking me in, so I figured why spend my time reading a book that I'm not enjoying if it's not either a) for school or b) to further my own education of the classics? It's not that it's a bad book either. The beautiful, wistful prose reminds me of Francesca Lia Block in away. Melanie is an engaging character, and from bits of the last chapter I read, there seems to be an interesting turnout. But it's not holding me, the novel isn't what I want to read. I don't know. Maybe I'm not ready for this book right now...or vice versa. I seriously tried, though.

RELEASE NOTES:

Released in the only OBCZ I know of in Bloomfield, NagualSpirit. It was my first trip into the store, and from what I've seen of it, it's very nice. This is also my birthday release...as I'm 18 today! So I figured I'd do my first OBCZ release in celebration. :)