The Snow Child

I have been, or can be if you click on a link and make a purchase, compensated via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value for writing this post. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Every so often, there is a book who’s brief description grabs my attention so strongly that I just know I have to read that book.  Being able to review a title that has such a strong tug for me is a definite boon for a blogger like me.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is one such title.  Maybe seeing that the author is an Alaskan was part of the draw.  Or, that the story is set in Alaska which is the state we currently call home.  Or, maybe even because there is a fairy tale aspect to the story.  Personally, I think it was all three things that caused me to want this book to enter my house and be read.

Synopsis of The Snow Child:

 

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone–but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

 

My Thoughts on The Snow Child

I do not know if I can even do justice to how much I enjoyed this title.

Ms. Ivey has done a fantastic job at capturing the reader’s attention and drawing them into the story.  The main characters of Jack and Mabel are well done and I found myself empathizing with aspects of their lives.  (Thankfully, I don’t have to experience winter night outhouse runs like the earlier homesteaders did!)  Descriptions of the Alaskan terrain are fantastic as well.  Even the fairy tale aspect of the story is handled in such a way (indirect quotes for dialog) that the reader knows it is different from the everyday life with an element of magic to it.

Reading this title also has me wanting to read the original Russian folktales that inspired this work of fiction.  The other thing I felt after finishing the book was a longing for more… more ‘painting’ of life in the Alaskan wilderness and more telling of the story than was there.  This story not only drew me in with the desire to read long after the family went to bed.  This story also entered my dreams!

I suspect this will not be the only novel written by Ms. Ivey.  Since receiving the title for review, I have spotted it as the featured book of the month in Costco’s magazine and heard that it is also spotlighted in other venues.  She most definitely has a true gift for storytelling and I hope her next work is as compelling as this one.  And, if I’m truly fortunate, I might have the chance to meet her some day and share in person just how much I loved her book.  (Considering she is only 30 minutes up the road and active in the writing community up here, it’s not that impossible of a dream.)

The Snow Child is available in hardcover format for $24.99 retail (less on Amazon or at a warehouse store like Costco.) You can also purchase it ($11.99) for (affiliate) Kindle or Nook as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer ~ I was sent a copy of The Snow Child from the Hachette Book Group (Reagan Arthur Books) to facilitate this review.  No monetary compensation was provided and all opinions expressed are my own.