The Tombs of Atuan

What a fantastic and unusual book. It's a strange inversion of the princess-in-the-tower trope, where the princess thinks she is in charge and ends up being rescued by her prisoner. It took awhile to build up but as Arha's character starts taking firm shape it gets great, then troubling, then horrifying, and then sort of sweet and romantic. Loved all the twists and turns.

As with the first book I'm grateful for LeGuin's' author notes many years later. She comments on how she got some feminist critique that Arha needed a man to save her. And honestly says she just couldn't figure out how else to get Arha out of her predicament other than outside help, and the outsider in this case was her established male character.

Update re-read this a second time after suggesting it to a small book club. Liked it again the second time, again for the unusual princess rescue inversion. Didn't find it quite as exciting and novel to read as the first time. Was surprised to see such strong echoes with the Omelas short story, the captive child sacrifice.