SOLVED. YA Fantasy - Region of land has been changed somehow and something strange can happen when people go there. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Shyla]

I think I checked this out from the library between 2005-2018. It did not seem like an old book.

Most of the details are hazy in my mind, so some of this might be incorrect.

General context: The setting seems to be an alternate reality with an Eastern European feel. At some time in the recent past (maybe 50 - 150 years) a particular large region of land was suddenly changed. It may have had a strange effect on people who lived there when the change occurred (some disappeared, maybe?). After the event, I think some people outside the region could travel in/through it as if it were normal, but other people would have a different experience. I don't remember what would happen to them if they tried (illness, visions, blackouts maybe but none of those seem quite right). Who was affected seemed random, but consistent over a person's life. There may have been an age component to the experience somehow. I'm not sure if there was any kind of magic, but the rules of the universe were rather different (as explained in the spoiler).

If i recall correctly, the main protagonist was a girl, the story spans from when she was too young to enter this region to a young adult. I think her family may have had the tradition of an (annual?) party/reunion inside the boundaries of this strange land. It seemed like it was important to the girl to become old enough start going to this event, and uncertainty as to whether she would be able to or not, because of how she may react to the region.




------ SPOILER ALERT ---------




What I remember best about this book is that eventually the protagonist discovers that someone had tried to turn this piece of land into a huge entity something like a golem. I think she discovers this by exploring the region and finding extra strange places within it, maybe large markings of some kind. There were other entities (much smaller, more like other stories of golems) of this type in the general context of the world. I could be wrong, but I don't think they were called golems, maybe referred to as GVLM or something. There may have been letters inscribed on the beings. Compass roses or directionality may have been somehow relevant.

Anyway, the protagonist deduces that something did not go quite right when the entity was created (by a person) and so this entity is not properly functional (and without speech). It has been trying to communicate its awareness and distress. All this together caused the strangeness of the land and people's experiences there. I think the story ends with the protagonist being free to wander wild places.

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I really liked this book. My memory of it got all mixed up with Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy, maybe when I watched the Netflix version of the same some years after reading both stories. Hope someone can help me ID it so i can check it out again!

[Genesistrine]

That's the Dreamhunter Duet (aka The Rainbow Opera).

[Shyla]

Genesistrine wrote: "That's the Dreamhunter Duet (aka The Rainbow Opera)."

Genesistrine, I am 99.5% sure that you are right! I'm so confident (and it might take me a while to actually access a copy) I'm going to go ahead and tag this as solved. Thank you so much!