Pureheart

Disclaimer: Cassandra Golds and I are Facebook friends, and we share very similar tastes in reading. Pureheart is a beautiful, poetic fable about love, power and grief, a tight struggle between a girl, her grandmother, and the boy who loves her (and whom she loves).

The main character is called Deirdre, the same name as the supernaturally sensitive little sister in Nicholas Stuart Gray's classic Down in the Cellar, and Pureheart shares the same eerie atmosphere as Gray's book (Golds specifically refers to Gray in her acknowledgements, so I know I'm not drawing a long bow here). 

Pureheart is not a realist story; Deirdre and Gal wander the rooms and hallways of Corbenic, part block of flats, part fairytale castle, part internal world of Deirdre's grandmother. This is a novel that takes place in several different realms, and while it might confuse some young readers, there will be a subset of children who will respond eagerly to its haunting, other-worldly spirit.

I loved it.