Search - The Ice Queen

As with every Alice Hoffman book, I enjoyed this one. I think primarily this intrigued me so much because of the subject matter and the research she put in that she ends up sharing with the readers. I learned so much about lightning strike survivors that I feel as if I'd read a non-fiction book about them.

The main character is maybe a bit difficult to warm up to (pardon the pun), but the elements of this story - and the writing - save the novel, and turn it into something touching and deep.

This book wasn't really my cup of tea. It was too abstract and didn't have enough action for my liking. However, I don't think that's a reflection on the book itself, it's simply not the genre I usually like to read from.

The author writes well; her words flow together nicely, and she's able to easily take something ordinary, such as a lightning storm or an orange orchard, or even a dead mole or a pile of flies, and turn it into something extraordinarily beautiful, or sad and repulsive. It was this vivid use of imagery in her words that kept me reading—that and the fact it's a fairly short book at only 211 pages—when I might otherwise have put it aside and went on to something else.

Why did I decide to read this book in the first place then you might wonder. Well, because I've heard this author's name quite a bit and wanted to try out one of her books for myself. I almost hate to give it a numeric rating here though since my rating will be mostly subjective based on how I personally liked the story in relation to the other books I've read. If I look at it objectively though, I'd have to give it kudos for the quality of writing, the wonderful use of imagery, and the fact that underneath it all, there was a poignant and touching story there.

Good book, good writing by Alice Hoffman, but it was a little slow and difficult to read. It's also not a really upbeat book, after reading it, I felt kinda depressed.

I very much enjoyed this book and thought it well written and a unique read. Some readers say they were bored with it but I don't understand how. I loved it!

This was a very fast read. It was certainly entertaining but for the majority of the book, I did not care for the main character. I thought she was rather childish, which was perhaps, the whole point, but it still did not make me like her. Her being a librarian was nice, and I certainly enjoyed this a lot more than _The Dewey Decimal System of Love_ (the last book that I read where the main character was a librarian). The fairy tale aspect was really the strongest part of the whole book... Some of the other themes, plot lines and characters were much weaker.

The last chapter of this book was nice, even though I didn't much like before it. It was very nice the way everything came together in a fuzzy warm happy ending. But I have to say mid-way through I decided Alice Hoffman writes as though she's not a native English speaker, lots of random phrasing and immediate contradictions, the kind of thing a listener forgives in a toddler or a foreigner. I had no pity or comprehension for the main character who blames herself as a child for causing her mother's death by wishing it in an angry fit, lives a life of self-isolation (as a stereotypical librarian of course), and then brings misery to herself once again when she sarcastically wishes she'd be struck by lightning. There's a scientist brother with a mathematician wife, a support group for fellow lightning struck victims, and an abandoned affair with a police officer who shares her obsession with death. She lets down a bunch of people including her supposed best friend Renny and boss librarian Frances, and some moles in her yard get eaten by her cat; and there's a lot of bust heaving supernaturalesque lightning survivor sex, intrigue involving fairy tales, some suspense, and then there was the very nice ending.