The Ice Queen: A Novel
by Alice Hoffman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alice HoffmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-03
ISBN: 0316154385
Number of pages: 211
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of The Ice Queen: A Novel
Book Review: "Be careful what you wish for"
Summary: 2 Stars
I am not sure how I feel about this book. I usually love Alice Hoffman's magical elements that she is able to weave into her stories. In this book, I thought the "magic" was going to be related more to the narrator's (we never learn her name) iciness - or her apparant ability to make death wishes. In fact, I was completely drawn in to the first several pages of the book, where the narrator tells the story of wishing she never sees her mother again. This intro hooked me, immediately.
Maybe I am giving an overly harsh review, but Hoffman startd to lose me once the narrator was struck by lightening. I feel that this should have been another story entirely. I couldnt follow the connection between the beginning of the book - the narrator's loss of emotions and feeling, and overly iciness - and the lightening victims. Her love affair with Lazarus Jones "melted" her icy heart? Not for this reader. While, obviously, I read how "hot" Jones was, and how he and the "dinosaur" could breathe fire, I never once connected the fire and ice metaphor until I read it in another reviewers comment.
I was completely lost once Ned got sick. I just dont think that plot line was necessary. Hoffman makes the argument that the narrator is so emotionless with an icy heart, yet, once she loses everyone she loves - her mother, Jones, Renny, her brother - her heart melts and she is healed?
I was able to get through this book because Hoffman writes well. I love her use of metaphors (in the case a lot of fairy tales and snow), and her description of things is always so perfectly done without going on and on for paragraphs. Overall the story line for me was disjointed and not connected. This is definitely not her best work.
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