Reading The Ice Queen was definitely not an easy read, but it kept me on my toes wanting more and more. The book began with a rush of events that boggled my mind in the beginning because this was the very first time that I had I read a book of its kinds in a great deal of time. The book was about an unnamed woman who makes a wish at the age of eight that takes her life on the journey of life on trail of twisted events of death, despair, deception, and death again. I was on edge and anxious the entire time that I read the book, sometimes I even caught myself with my mouth open because I just couldn’t get enough. She grows up cold and bitter, especially from wishing that her mother, a woman who was hardworking, never had time for her children, and was pretty much never around to actually spend quality time with her two young children, but one day she wished that her mother would die, and that same night she died in a horrific car accident on the night of her birthday. She was still in fact eight years old when this happened. Afterwards, she lived a quiet, remote life until one day wished that she herself was dead and as she stood in her kitchen, she stared out of the window during a thunderstorm, and she instantly was struck by lightning. She survived the strike of lightning but she is a totally different being at this point; she is now made of ice. She lost a great bit of sight, especially when she can no longer see the color red. She learns about the tale of a man by the name of Lazarus Jones, who survived after being struck by lightning. But he totally changed because now he is made of fire and his heart is filled with fire as well. They began a twisted love affair hiding their dark secrets of being made of fire and ice. While reading the book I was actually quite interested the whole time, especially with the turn of events having me near the edge of my seat. It was written to where it was really understandable and relatable but the ending ruined it for me. The piece of craft that I really saw that the author took a great bit of time thinking about as she wrote the book was details, very descriptive details at that. While reading I could visualize the events as they happened. For example, her is an excerpt of her death wish for her mother, “When my mother said that Betsy and Amanda were waiting for her and that she was already late, I made my wish…My mother had to start the car several times before the engine caught. There was smoke in the air. The roof of the patio vibrated along with the sputtering engine of the car. I could feel the sourness inside me. And here was the odd thing about making the wish, the one that made her disappear: it hurt.” Reading plus a little more before that piece gave me details about what happened right before her mother died and the details of the accident showed how the horrific, also vivid car accident took place and showed how cold her mother’s facial expression was as she took her very last breath. The author created the main character as someone who was vain, calculating and cold-hearted, mainly being the reason for the title of the book: The Ice Queen. From this piece of writing I could teach my students many things. I could have a mini lesson on how to draw a reader in by using very descriptive details, while being as vivid as possible in the same token. We could talk about how the author uses descriptive words as a class and have a mini lesson on adjectives, as well. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and I definitely would recommend this book to others, especially those interested in fairytales and hidden secrets revealed in stories.
This is one of those books which creep up on you unawares. I had finished it months ago but it was only as I finally rejoined the GR reviewers and sat down to write this that I realized it was still reverberating gently in my mind.It is a love story but not a straightforward one. There is an underlying theme of the need to come to terms with bitterness and self hatred. There is the recognition that gradually dawns for characters and readers alike as to how misunderstanding, misrepresentation and misreading of situations and people can cripple and maim horribly and yet it might one day only take one decent act of generous love, one seemingly insignificant show of patient understanding to transform and melt a frozen life. The heroine, by one childish word spoken in a petulant bad temper, feels she wreaks havoc in her heart because words once spoken echo round and around and if the chamber begins to freeze then the echo bounces and rebounds and builds in strength until the whys and wherefores and even possibility of love and relationship get drowned out and the easiest way to deal with the echo is to slam the chamber shut and leave it so. The story is the unpicking of the implications of this bolted door and uses images of lightning strikes and glacial freezes to conjure the battle undergone by those who, through unconscious choices or misunderstood acts of others, have fixed obstacles and barricades as protections and defences. It is a genuinely moving story of rediscovery and second chances and, if it is not too over-sentimental, it is the description of the oft sneered at thought that it is never too late and that the miraculous does not necessarily mean the same to every person.ps. As avid readers will know it is interesting how you can suddenly find a personal theme occurring over a period although only noticing it as you look back. 'The Ice Queen' began the theme of monarch butterflies which seemed to flutter gently through much of my reading in shy glimpses over these last few months. With hindsight this coincidentally was building up to my sponsored cycle across Costa Rica in early April where I encountered these beautiful creatures. Indeed for one memorable time, as I cycled along a busy main road, I was accompanied by one particularly muscular specimen powering along at my side. Sadly I was unable to stop as there was no verge so photographic evidence remains unachieved.
What do You think about The Ice Queen (2006)?
What an unusual love story!! And what lovely words used to tell it. This book wasn’t anything like what I expected it to be. I was greatly misled by the cover, which said to me — “typical fairytale romance, likely Harlequin style.” But Hoffman is much more sophisticated than that and has a wealth of imagination and wondrously beautiful ideas. I literally devoured the book (and I should have been STUDYING, damnit! LOL!). Only two very minor complaints that pulled this down from a perfect 5: First
—Donna
Frozen in misery since age eight, when the mother she wished would disappear promptly obliged by dying in a car wreck, the thirtysomething unnamed narrator of Hoffman's hypnotic new novel has spent her life avoiding meaningful human contact. As a New Jersey reference librarian, she relentlessly pursues the details of death in all its countless causes while engaging in after-hours backseat trysting with a local cop. After settling near her brother in Florida, the narrator is struck by lightning. Now, with the color red stripped from her vision, she sees the ice that has surrounded her heart all these years. When she learns of a local legend named Lazarus Jones, dead for 40 minutes after his own strike, she feels compelled to track him down. Their affair ignites, literally, for Jones's aftereffects are so severe that touching him causes burns. Hoffman's genius allows the lovers to hang in suspended animation until the outside world intrudes, more threatening than the near-fatal electrical disruptions that have defined their lives. Less-skilled hands would have left readers awash in sticky metaphors of heat and ice. Have no such fear with the formidable Alice Hoffman.A 5 out of 5. I would read Alice Hoffman if she published the yellow pages or even an address book. I adore her writing, her sense of fantasty and her imagination and know of no other writer that has this ability.
—RNOCEAN
It's Alice Hoffman. Therefore it is almost impossible to rate this book less than four stars. But I'll warn you: It's one of her more depressing novels. Alice Hoffman loves to drag her characters through beautiful and magical mud before she gives them their happy ending, and so it is with this book. However, the uplifting ending is bittersweet and extremely short, with the majority of the book dedicated to metallic buzzing headaches, color-blindness, and the after-effects of both a dead mother, and a lightning strike. Of course it's well written...it's Hoffman...and one passage toward the end made me cry. But if you're prone to headaches, take a Tylenol before you read.
—Grace
