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omcruz's review against another edition
3.0
very enjoyable audiobook, well performed. not really magical realism, though sometimes it seems to tip that way, but still feels so implausible as to fit that genre.
meadowbat's review against another edition
3.0
I loved so many elements of this book--the lightning-scarred characters, the intersection of science and fairy tales. And Hoffman works her motifs beautifully: ice, butterflies, the color red. But the characters, a pair of adult orphans and a recluse with a mysterious past, were painted in somewhat broad (if lovely) strokes. I felt like Hoffman kept having to remind me how they were conflicted and why--so it never quite added up emotionally. Maybe in that way it's too much like a fairy tale.
brisingr's review against another edition
4.0
For a librarian, the love of stories came at the same time with the fear of wishes. For her, it was never as easy as in fairytales to solve her problems, to make use of the opportunities presented to her, to find the truth or to start friendships. For her, wishes are realities that she never actually truly wanted. Fascinated by death, after she is struck by lightning she leaves in search of the true survival stories, stories of those who defied the imminent end.
I have no idea how I should react to this book or what to do now that I finished it. I feel a little bit lost at how much I enjoyed it, at how much it managed to get across in, maybe, not enough words.
I will start by saying The Ice Queen ended up being totally different from what I expected it to be. Firstly, I thought there will be magic in it, something fantastic slipped into daily, ordinary lives, and I didn't exactly get that. But there always was, behind every incident, a touch of something special, a reminescing of a fairytale, an element that has been sitting at the base of humanity ever since we learnt to form words and have fun by passing stories one to another. I adored the references, the return to the primary stories, those that formed us and thought us something long before we figured out they're doing it. And these references were even more appreciated thanks to the fact that they're coming from a character that loves them, thinks about them and analyzes them, living for the purpose of sharing the books that hold these collective knowledge of humanity.
Secondly, even a story that amplifies reality, I didn't exactly expect it to touch so many themes, or touch me. Basically, not even twenty pages in, I was on a mined field, waiting to be surprised by something new, unexpected. Sometimes, launching blindly into reading a book ends up badly, and sometimes it's the best, but I am just glad my preconceived ideas were shattered by what you can actually find in Alice Hoffman's book, and now that I think about it, her writing style fits way better the story that is told, than the one I thought it will be told.
Here I will take a short break into actually writing a review, just to mention a little story and fun fact, related to one of the elements of the book: lightning strikes: when I was around 8 years old, I received a book on natural phenomena, and because I was a little devourer of encyclopedias and books about how the world works (ask me anything now, and I will blankly stare at you, though), of course I immediately read it. And there was an impressive chapter on lightning and its effects, and for years to come I was terrified of any storms. For several years now, I just ignored the whole thing, although it still happens that, during really bad storms, I move to my room with no windows, a very good hiding place for scared me. And here I am now, facing my fear, without really wanting to, but at the moment I realized it, I was too involved into reading The Ice Queen to turn back. And it did help because I found a lot of new, interesting things, less frightening and more fascinating; I do feel like this book did enlighten me and dissipated some of my old fears.
The main character of this book doesn't even have a mentioned name, and the first person narrative helps in identifying with her pains, hardships and ideas. It is easy to slip into her skin, she has the most normal and human reactions I've ever met - and this actually applies to all the characters in this book. Each and every one of them wears a mask, the one at work different from the one at home; they get bored and don't listen to each other, they hide things and don't always say what they want and mean to, they regret things that couldn't have been changed and so many others remain unexplained, cut off at the middle or leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. You can almost feel how you live alongside all these characters, and even if you can't accept all of their choices, you can at least understand them, because maybe, in a similar situation, you'd have the same reaction. This is one of the wonderful parts of this book, the way in which the characters don't feel like strangers, but rather curl up around you, searching for the answers to the same questions that you have, reader, as a human being on a journey of life that you don't always understand. And I can't say that our main character is my favorite, but I did appreciate what she means for those around her.
And since we are talking about favorite characters, mine was Renny, a young man with similar experiences to the main character's, but he has a different way of reacting to the life put into his hands, and I adored him for his charisma and energy, his way of being a friend, and also for his suffering and the way he decided to put an end to it.
In this book there are a lot of relationships that get tied together. Starting with family ones; two brother which end up barely talking with each other, that end up together when there's too much hardship for only one to bear; continuing with friendships that are born out of chance or necessity, but develop, because there's no way you're having someone in your life, and don't end up influencing each other; and ending with love relations, a clear and repeated distinctions between love and obsessions being made, but still picturing the many, many ways love ends up in one's life. I still can't get over the way these relationships aren't just this, relationships, but become an universal chant about loss, parting and the importance of a human being. Hoffman manages to transform a story that, on its own, is unique, into general truths. I think this, though, it's the best effect of this book, and so many parts of it mean so much to me exactly because of it.
But no, The Ice Queen is not the best book I've read, maybe not even the most emotional one, but it's an important book. It wakes up the real self within the reader, and it makes it quick and efficiently, ilustrating the failures of others, every page screaming to not end up the same way, maybe; to go through life swifter than the poor characters here.
However, I do believe it is a book you won't regret reading, if you get the chance, although a lot of people seem to either love it or hate it. I am still unsure where I stand, although my rating might want to say something else, but I think I still need time to think this book through and, probably, I will end up thinking about it a lot.
I have no idea how I should react to this book or what to do now that I finished it. I feel a little bit lost at how much I enjoyed it, at how much it managed to get across in, maybe, not enough words.
I will start by saying The Ice Queen ended up being totally different from what I expected it to be. Firstly, I thought there will be magic in it, something fantastic slipped into daily, ordinary lives, and I didn't exactly get that. But there always was, behind every incident, a touch of something special, a reminescing of a fairytale, an element that has been sitting at the base of humanity ever since we learnt to form words and have fun by passing stories one to another. I adored the references, the return to the primary stories, those that formed us and thought us something long before we figured out they're doing it. And these references were even more appreciated thanks to the fact that they're coming from a character that loves them, thinks about them and analyzes them, living for the purpose of sharing the books that hold these collective knowledge of humanity.
Secondly, even a story that amplifies reality, I didn't exactly expect it to touch so many themes, or touch me. Basically, not even twenty pages in, I was on a mined field, waiting to be surprised by something new, unexpected. Sometimes, launching blindly into reading a book ends up badly, and sometimes it's the best, but I am just glad my preconceived ideas were shattered by what you can actually find in Alice Hoffman's book, and now that I think about it, her writing style fits way better the story that is told, than the one I thought it will be told.
Here I will take a short break into actually writing a review, just to mention a little story and fun fact, related to one of the elements of the book: lightning strikes: when I was around 8 years old, I received a book on natural phenomena, and because I was a little devourer of encyclopedias and books about how the world works (ask me anything now, and I will blankly stare at you, though), of course I immediately read it. And there was an impressive chapter on lightning and its effects, and for years to come I was terrified of any storms. For several years now, I just ignored the whole thing, although it still happens that, during really bad storms, I move to my room with no windows, a very good hiding place for scared me. And here I am now, facing my fear, without really wanting to, but at the moment I realized it, I was too involved into reading The Ice Queen to turn back. And it did help because I found a lot of new, interesting things, less frightening and more fascinating; I do feel like this book did enlighten me and dissipated some of my old fears.
The main character of this book doesn't even have a mentioned name, and the first person narrative helps in identifying with her pains, hardships and ideas. It is easy to slip into her skin, she has the most normal and human reactions I've ever met - and this actually applies to all the characters in this book. Each and every one of them wears a mask, the one at work different from the one at home; they get bored and don't listen to each other, they hide things and don't always say what they want and mean to, they regret things that couldn't have been changed and so many others remain unexplained, cut off at the middle or leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. You can almost feel how you live alongside all these characters, and even if you can't accept all of their choices, you can at least understand them, because maybe, in a similar situation, you'd have the same reaction. This is one of the wonderful parts of this book, the way in which the characters don't feel like strangers, but rather curl up around you, searching for the answers to the same questions that you have, reader, as a human being on a journey of life that you don't always understand. And I can't say that our main character is my favorite, but I did appreciate what she means for those around her.
And since we are talking about favorite characters, mine was Renny, a young man with similar experiences to the main character's, but he has a different way of reacting to the life put into his hands, and I adored him for his charisma and energy, his way of being a friend, and also for his suffering and the way he decided to put an end to it.
In this book there are a lot of relationships that get tied together. Starting with family ones; two brother which end up barely talking with each other, that end up together when there's too much hardship for only one to bear; continuing with friendships that are born out of chance or necessity, but develop, because there's no way you're having someone in your life, and don't end up influencing each other; and ending with love relations, a clear and repeated distinctions between love and obsessions being made, but still picturing the many, many ways love ends up in one's life. I still can't get over the way these relationships aren't just this, relationships, but become an universal chant about loss, parting and the importance of a human being. Hoffman manages to transform a story that, on its own, is unique, into general truths. I think this, though, it's the best effect of this book, and so many parts of it mean so much to me exactly because of it.
But no, The Ice Queen is not the best book I've read, maybe not even the most emotional one, but it's an important book. It wakes up the real self within the reader, and it makes it quick and efficiently, ilustrating the failures of others, every page screaming to not end up the same way, maybe; to go through life swifter than the poor characters here.
However, I do believe it is a book you won't regret reading, if you get the chance, although a lot of people seem to either love it or hate it. I am still unsure where I stand, although my rating might want to say something else, but I think I still need time to think this book through and, probably, I will end up thinking about it a lot.
ellie_loves's review against another edition
4.0
I was having a hard time trying to decide what to read and had gone two days before deciding to read this, a book I bought quite a few years ago. It had been sitting on my bookshelf in that same pile most of us have, the "bought and must read at some point pile" and I wished I had read it sooner. I started in the afternoon and finished just before bedtime and found myself mesmerized by the main character, a woman who loses her mother at the age of 8 and becomes obsessed with death and ends up a lightning strike survivor. She is a woman of solitude who does not like to let anyone else in to "her world" but manages to friend another survivor during a case study and becomes obsessed with a story of a man who was struck, presumed dead and came back to life after 50 minutes. A very entertaining and I would say bittersweet book about a woman who learns the best way of dying is by living.
anamazingday's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The last chapter was good. But I don’t know if the journey to get there was worth it for me.
gringuitica's review
3.0
I don't know how to rate this one. It was well written and imaginative, but it filled me with sorrow and grief. I'm sure I would have received it differently at a different point in my life, but now all I want to do is go hug my sleeping 6-year-old.
adship2009's review against another edition
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Not her best work and kinda dark.
jenfantoni's review against another edition
2.0
Not this author’s best. Boring at times but the end was good so I gave it an additional star.
sfrancesb's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
5.0
Beautiful. But will absolutely make you sob.