Would you call Steven King's Carrie a YA novel simply because its protagonist is a teenager? No. Carrie is a horror novel, and despite the blurring of the lines drawn between children's literature, YA novels, and books intended for adults that has occurred since J.K. Rowling burst onto the scene, there is a difference. While no longer required to be almost as innocent and pure as children's literature YA novels tend to be more linear, straightforward, and simple than those for adults, as well as less graphic.

Quite Contrary is a horror novel with fairy tale elements. It has a twelve year old protagonist, Mary Stuart, a talking rat companion, and the villain of the piece the overt villain, I should say, is the Big Bad Wolf and they don't come bigger or badder than this wolf. I was put in mind of Neil Gaiman's first run of Sandman as I read partly because of Roberts' immense knowledge of the Lands of Story, the tropes and memes Mary wanders, stumbles, and sometimes charges headlong into, but also the dreamlike quality and vividness of the worlds.

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