... wizards he knew about sold curses and told fortunes. They did not crawl about inside one's heart and talk from other people's mouths and compel them... [loc. 2560]
Reread: I first read this in the 1990s, I think, and recall liking it: this was before I reviewed everything I read, so I don't know what I thought about it then. This time around, without having reread the two preceding novels of the 'Rusalka' trilogy, I was confused and unengaged.
Ilyana is fifteen and has a secret friend, of whom her overprotective mother Eveshka (a wizard) would absolutely not approve. The friend happens to be a ghost, and he has history with Ilyana's parents and her uncle Sasha. Meanwhile, a young aristocrat -- the eponymous Yvgenie -- appears in the middle of a storm, just as Sasha's house burns down.
Cue lots of running around in dark woods and 'wishing' -- magicking -- possibilities. The novel seemed to ... just stop, and there were some rather troubling plot developments, too, including a potential romance between Sasha and a very young woman connected to Ilyana's family.
I considered rereading the first two -- which I also recall enjoying -- and then giving this another try. Frustratingly, I then discovered that Cherryh effectively rewrote this novel back in 2012. But... the publisher website is 'offline indefinitely': and Cherryh (who's in her eighties now) has posted about illness: and there is no trace on the internet of this new revised version, for which I would happily pay money.
sob
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