Name that late '90s/early '00s urban fantasy novel...

February 12, 2010 2:29 PM

A friend is trying to find the title of an urban fantasy she read in the late '90s/early '00s. The main character was a young homeless woman who gathered companions over the course of the book (or at least one, a man who was a possible love interest) and ended up at a magical house.

(Posting on behalf of a friend) The house was alive, had a very definite personality, and felt extremely protective of the protagonist and her friends--it was very much a mother figure. I recall the house was just referred to as House and would converse with the characters. While on the streets, the main character was able to stay warm because she wore a magical belt or shirt (I seem to recall it was "alive" and referred to in the plural) under her clothes that would stretch to cover her entire body like super-snug long underwear. I think the book was written for adults, but it's possible it was a young adult novel. There was at least one sequel. The word "Heart" *might* be in the title (or it could be in the sequel's title, or I could just be misremembering that). Does this sound familiar to anybody? Thanks!

And TIA.

posted by Ky to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: Sounds like one of Nina Kiriki Hoffman's -- A Stir of Bones

Susan Backstrom, the protagonist of this haunting and harrowing novel, appears to have everything. In reality, she is a prisoner of her abusive father, who beats his wife whenever he disapproves of his daughter's behavior. In a rare moment of freedom at the library, Susan overhears a group of kids talking about entering a haunted house and convinces them to let her go with them. With these new friends, she discovers that the house has a life of its own. Susan forms a close bond with the house and with Nathan, the ghost of a boy who committed suicide in it. When her father's menacing becomes too much, she decides to kill herself to be with Nathan and the house forever, and it is up to her friends to stop her and the house to show her how to use her newfound powers, derived from a piece of Nathan's bone, to heal rather than hurt.

Or else the first book in the series (in publication order), A Red Heart of Memories
posted by Jeanne at 2:54 PM on February 12, 2010

Charles De Lint perhaps? The description sounds totally familiar. Perhaps it's Someplace to be Flying? One of the other books in the series is called Forests of the Heart.
posted by kbuxton at 3:38 PM on February 12, 2010

This sounds a fair bit like Moonheart, by Charles deLint. (hi, kbuxton!)
posted by athenasbanquet at 4:02 PM on February 12, 2010

Howl's Moving Castle?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:07 PM on February 12, 2010

Definitely Moonheart by Charles de Lint.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 4:43 PM on February 12, 2010

Although I'll point out that the protagonist was not homeless, but that she lived/grew up there with her uncle but the House collected a eclectic variety of fringe-type folks.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 4:44 PM on February 12, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the responses, all. My friend recognizes it was A Red Heart of Memories and is duly impressed by Mefites. :)
posted by Ky at 8:06 PM on February 12, 2010