Minotaur

August 24, 2015
Rock (The Grand Ballast) skillfully blends romantic adventure into a darkly gorgeous and psychologically rich retelling of Greek myth with queer women at its center. The ambiguous hero is brooding teen Thera Ballard, who has a tentative alliance with her fellow outcast girls of Rock Point Girls’ Home. Her deep fascination with the terrible half-woman, half-bull Minotaur (who often appears in her dreams) leads her to escape to the labyrinth at the edge of town. She voluntarily enters the maze in search of beauty and insight about the villain who “showed the hero who she might become.” The first part of the book is a down-to-earth story about coming of age in an institution with mean girls, dangerous secrets, and the stirrings of young love. Thera’s human perspective keeps the reader connected with the intense magical strangeness of the labyrinth and its inhabitants and phantoms, as well as with Thera’s emotional journey, as the text takes on the surrealism of a fairy tale. Rock changes the myth just enough to find a new message that feels like it was there all along.

Starred review from October 1, 2015
Queer-romance and -suspense author Rock uses first-person narrative for maximum impact as she voices teen orphan Thea, remanded to an isolated girls' home for remediation. Thea sees herself as a disease, a lying, thieving addict. She is full of conflicted feelings, elegantly expressed in this wryly witty fantasy-adventure rich in universal elements that transcend and shape a daring quest for the mythical Minotaur. Thea, who is angry, even vengeful, is yearning for Alle, a passion that collides with her deeply ingrained distrust. During their first kiss, Thea thinks, Love had a current of shame running through it and . . . seemed lonelier than just about anything. Rock has a lovely, almost limpid tone despite the harsh settings in this coming-of-age lesbian romance, though some may find her evocatively detailed prose too flowery for a young warrior. Nonetheless, Rock does retain the edgy force of the Minotaur mystery that drives the action in this tale of paranormal romantic suspense, complete with stomach-wrenching discoveries as Thea ventures through the labyrinth in search of redemption and Alle's love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)