Current mood:

sad

The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman
Rating : 4.5/5
Reason for Reading : TBR Challenge

The beautiful tale follows a little girl after making a wish that changes the rest of her life forever. She becomes icey cold as a result, like the little boy in the Snow Queen fairy tale, and forgets how to love and be loved. Growing up, she moves and one day she is struck by lightening whilst standing in her kitchen and again her life is changed. Instead of dying, she becomes even more icey and isolated.

A morbid fascination with death and dying since she was young, she looks for Lazarus Jones, a fellow lightening attack survivor. He was pronounced dead and taken to the morgue, but suddenly was revived and returns to life. She goes to him seeking the secret of death and instead finds the fire to her ice.

This was a beautiful, poignant, moving and terribly sad tale which I really loved. I would love to see a film adaptation done well of this novel. The supporting characters were interesting and flawed in their own unique way. Rennie is a fellow survivor whose hands are deformed and he has to wear gloves. He shows her his secret at night time when he takes off the gloves he always wears and she sees his hands glow gold. At the time of the strike he was wearing a watch and ring that have been imprinted into his wrists. The gold somehow merged with the fat in his hands and wrists causing the glow. Her brother Ned and his wife Nina are also interesting being very scientific and logical and it is only later in the book that you really get to know them.

There are lots of references to different fairy tales which I really enjoyed and it is very tempting to read The Brothers Grimm tales next. The main message I took away is that it is a persons percieved flaws that make them beautiful to others.