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Jan 17, 2012

karen rated it:

when i was about one hundred pages from the end of this book, i tugged on greg's sleeve at work, and said, "is this gonna end sad??"

and he refused to answer.

i think that was a good impulse.

because i almost don't wanna review this. this book was such a beautiful journey, and taking place as it does over a number of years, there are naturally high and low points, emotionally.

but i'm not going to tell you how it ends up.

i More...

39 comments like (80 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Isamlq rated it:

I loved…

…The back story, why they were in Alaska to begin with was heartbreaking. Know that it isn’t a quick story, rather it’s slow and filled with emotions that could be hard and then soft then funny then good. The story stretches over a pretty long period … and in this period, I saw how each of them grew with each other and grew accustomed to things.

…That it really was the fresh start she was looking for. And against this new backdrop, I saw how they got to know each o More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Nathan rated it:

It's truly gratifying to come across a book that evokes the senses to such a degree that its flavor is brought to the palate. Such is the case with Eowyn Ivey's debut novel, The Snow Child. Infused with aspects of pine boughs, mountain herbs, woolen mittens and inspired by happenstance, it breathes new life into an old Russian children's tale Ivey stumbled upon in her bookstore.

We come to know of aging Jack and Mabel through their childless sorrows, playful intense love and survivali More...

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Wendy Darling rated it:

4.5 shining stars Utterly, utterly gorgeous. Review to come.

50 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2012

Blair rated it:

Eowyn Ivey's debut The Snow Child is one of those zeitgeist books that seems to have a significant buzz about it right now. Whether this is because of great PR, reader word-of-mouth or simply that it's really that good, people seem to be talking about this book, and the burgeoning hype, along with the promise of an intriguing, magical story, grabbed my interest. When I spotted a special offer (fyi - use the code SNOWCHIL at Amazon UK to get the hardback for £5.99!), I was sold.

Beginn More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Traci rated it:

I'm not sure that I can do justice to this book any more than other readers.

Everything about The Snow Child is perfect. From the charming cover design, to the excellent timing of the release date, to the magical prose that so beautifully meshes reality and fairy tale. It's so difficult to find this trifecta these days, but it's a treat for the reader when it happens.

I have to be honest and say that parts of this book were very difficult for me. I had to put it down fa More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2012

Debbie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2012

Abbi rated it:

The NYT review of this made me think that, whilst it was likely a fine novel, it wasn't one I would appreciate. Not my thing, I thought. But then my preferred bookseller put it in my hand this morning and said, buy this, and I did not argue, because I trust him, and I am infinitely glad of this, because it is, frankly, astonishing. In all the senses. It surprised me immensely.

"They were going to be partners, she and Jack. Now he sat laughing with strangers when he hadn't smil More...

2 comments like

Feb 20, 2012

Brian rated it:

Set at the beginning of the twentieth century, The Snow Child is the story of Mabel who is unable to face the conviviality of friends and family after giving birth to a stillborn child, and her husband, Jack. Seeking isolation and a fresh start, they move to Alaska where they encounter Faina, an apparently magical child who lives in the snowy wilderness. Faina’s presence brings both joy and sorrow and ultimately redemption from grief.

Lyrical and often beautifully observed, The Snow C More...

0 comments like

Feb 19, 2012

Julia rated it:

Inspired by a Russian fairytale, this book has a palpable sense of fantasy about it. It's set in the 1920s. Jack and Mabel, long married and approaching 50, decide to leave Pennsylvania to start a new life on a remote plot of land in Alaska. They are unprepared for how difficult the experience will be and Mabel starts to sink into depression, compounded by her grief at losing a baby (their only child) some years prior. One night they build a little girl out of snow, decorating her with mitt More...

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Feb 14, 2012

Heather Noble rated it:

The landscape of Alaska and the Wolverine Valley is inextricably woven into the telling of this tale. There is much the restrained, even reticent, author chooses to show rather than tell as the seasons, the landscape and the animals native to this extreme climate encompass the fates of the novel's stoic characters.
And the human characters do not prosper or find solace until they weave themselves into the patterns and rhythms of the uncompromising climate.
Each plot development or cha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Sharon rated it:

Eowyn Ivey takes a Russian fairy tale and creates her own magical story. Based in Alaska just after the First World War, this is a tale of a couple in their late 40’s early 50’s who have moved to escape from their woes. ie a baby who died in childbirth.

They struggle to come to terms with the harshness of the Alaskan summers and winters and are about to give up when one magical winter night they build a ‘snowgirl’ in their front yard. In the morning it has disappeared and only a tr More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Deborah rated it:

Wow, now this is a beautiful story. We first meet Jack and Mabel when they are trying to eek out a life in Alaska - they have only been there a short while and are still trying to get themselves settled, but life in Alaska in difficult. The weather is hostile, the setting desolate and Jack and Mabel are on the brink of starvation. And there is another matter troubling them - desperate for a child of their own, they are struggling to come to terms with their inability to have children and, in fac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2011

Deborah rated it:

(Book received for independent review from the Amazon Vine program.)

For the time of year you can't do better than this stunning debut by Eowyn Ivey. The Snow Child is a beautifully written novel of longing and loss, and the battle of human beings to make their place at the edge of habitable nature.

In the wilds of Alaska Jack and Mabel build a snowman - a girl - on the night of the first snowfall. After this a little girl mysteriously enters their life. From the book I gather More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2011

Teresa rated it:

•Hardcover: 416 pages
•Publisher: Headline Review (16 Feb 2012)
With a nod to Russian folklore, Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel is truly a thing of beauty. In the 1920s, middle-aged couple, Mabel and Jack, up sticks and move to Alaska, hoping to flee the heartbreaking memories of their still-born child. How can this vast, bleak landscape possibly fill their empty hearts? Hope comes with the appearance of Faina, a quasi-feral child who brings equal amounts of joy and sadness int More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

Dulwichbooks rated it:

Atmospheric debut novel from a Canadian author with fantastic descriptions of the Alaskan landscape so much so that you can nearly feel the cold coming off the pages.
Moving from a warm and loving environment to a cold and inhospitable land in Alaska in the 1920’s is either mad or brave, but that’s what Mabel and Jack did much to the surprise of their families. Having lost a child they were still grieving when they arrived on their land without much of a plan for survival.
So when a chi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

James rated it:

Thank goodness! When I got to the end of Eowyn's "The Snow Child," I wanted more very badly, and at last I have a chance to at least get back with my new friends, the characters. I am considering what I say very carefully -- I do not want to exaggerate. I think I have read two books twice in my life -- C.S. Lewis' Perelandra and That Hideous Strength -- but I have never before read a book that made me want to reread it RIGHT AWAY. I'll bet I could sit down with someone who wanted t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Marilyn rated it:

oh this story is so compelling - I can't WAIT to finish and then I'll be bitter, BITTER because I've finished it!And here's my review -

Alaska wilderness, obdurate and mercurial is the final destination for dreamers of freedom, schemers of fortune, last salvation for silencing inner demons. Jack and Mabel are an unlikely pair to homestead frontier wilderness. Neither rugged nor young, they harbor dread of surviving their first harsh winter with enough food and energy to plant in spri More...

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Feb 19, 2012

Larry rated it:

This is a terrific book. Jack and Mabel left behind their comfortable lives for the adventure and excitement of settling their own homestead in 1920s Alaska. But after a few brutal winters, the reality of their decision is crippling them both—Jack can't seem to find a way to success despite all of his physical efforts, and Mabel is depressed and lonely, still longing for the child they lost a number of years before. They both worry they might not survive the coming winter, for different reasons. More...

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Feb 09, 2012

Nada rated it:

Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/20...

The Snow Child is a re-interpretation of an old Russian tale. This version tells the story of Jack and Mabel, an older couple who long to have a child but have given up of hope of ever doing so. They have recently relocated to Alaska in an effort to escape a life surrounded by other people's children. Yet, their sadness accompanies them.

As the story goes, one day after a snow storm, they build a More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Bex rated it:

I was so excited when I unpacked about a billion copies of this book, it looked so good package-wise. I loved the premise too - that it was a remaking of a Fairy Tale - and I also loved the setting. I read a book called Blood and Ice a few years ago and since I've really enjoyed books set in Tundra-like places. This one is set in the 1920's in Alaska. Mabel and Jack, a middle-aged couple at the heart of the novel are good people, but I feel that nothing really happened or nothing was said that m More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Jessica rated it:

I sometimes found myself completely swallowed up in this book. The wilds of 1920's Alaska, never ending dark days of winter and the midnight sun of summer, set the background for a tale on the brink of both reality and fairy tale.

This first time author did a fabulous job of telling a story that I think would translate into an amazing movie! I can just imagine the epic scenery now...

I worried a story based on this particular Russian fairy tale of a child made from snow wo More...

0 comments like

Feb 22, 2012

Ian rated it:

Inspired by the Russian fairy tale Snegurochka, The Snow Child has a palpable sense of fantasy about it. The story begins with the incredibly difficult and impractical life for a childless couple in remote Alaska---Jack buckling under the weight of the work of the farm, and Mabel dissolving from loneliness and despair---but in a moment of frivolity during the couple's first winter, they build a child out of snow. The couple awakes in the morning to find the snow child gone, but over the next fe More...

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Feb 19, 2012

Cheryl rated it:

I loved this book! It was like reading a fairytale for adults. The life of Mabel and Jack mimics in some ways the old fairytale, The Snow Child. They are an older, childless couple who lives in Alaska in the 1920's and are trying to farm the land. One night, they make a little child out of snow, dressing her in a pair of Mable's old mittens and scarf, and then later they catch a glimpse of a little girl with blond hair hiding in the woods near their farm. Lonely, imaginative Mabel thinks sh More...

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Feb 10, 2012

Ellie rated it:

Mabel and Jack cannot have children. They move to Alaska to start a new life, one without the pressures of polite society. However it is not easy, the farm work is hard for her husband and money is tight. They struggle to survive the dark, cold winters and start to move apart. One night, as the snow falls, Mabel is overcome by a childish urge to make a snowman, no, a snow child. She gives it mittens and a hat and Jack carves a beautiful face in the ice. The next morning, the snow child is gone, More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Fleur rated it:

Eowyn Ivey’s first novel, The Snow Child, is so wonderful that I am very nearly lost for words.

Early in the 1920s Mabel and Jack move to Alaska. They are middle-aged and childless, and they know that, after a still-birth, they are unlikely to ever have a child to raise.

They plan a new life.

That new life is hard. Their homestead is isolated, their land is difficult to work, and as winter comes their food stocks are perilously low.

But Mabel and Jack hav More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2012

Brenda (Lansdowne) rated it:

With a winter as mild as we have had, I needed to go to a book to find some cold and snow, so I picked up The Snow Child after seeing it here on the website. Combining the elements of 1920s Alaska with the ethereal lightness of the magic of a fairytale, I was transported to the world of Jack and Mabel, a middle-aged, childless couple that learns that it is not the family you are born into, but the one that you make yourself that becomes the most meaningful. Struggling in the wilderness on thei More...

1 comment like

Feb 11, 2012

Rakhee rated it:

I enjoyed this book so much and more than I thought I would. Based on a Russian folk tale, the book follows the story of Jack and Mabel, pioneers in Alaska in the 1920s. The couple long for a child and the absence of a child from their lives has become the defining feature of their marriage at the start of the book. Somehow this loss and absence has created a gulf between them and they are unable to communicate clearly about their deepest desires at the start. Yet, the whole book becomes a m More...

1 comment like

Jan 21, 2012

Krystal rated it:

This is one book worth marking as a to-read for 2012! Jack and Mabel married a little on the late side and experienced a miscarriage. The sad couple moved to Alaska and tried to bury their unhappiness over their inability to have children. One night, when the two are particularly sad and feeling a little frivolous, they build a snow girl, complete with all of the fixings. The next day, the snow child is gone and footprints are left in her place. The couple do think that this is a little odd More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2012

Kimberly(Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer) rated it:

The Snow Child is Eowyn Ivey debut novel and it is absolutely breathtaking. Set in 1920’s Alaska, and based on a Russian fairytale this lyrical tale stole my heart. Ivey expertly crafts characters and paints a world that immediately draws you in. Set against the harsh and beautiful landscape of Alaska and laced with magic, hope, and fairy dust; I will never look at snow the same way again.

Jack and Mabel have tried unsuccessfully to have children. After Mabel delivers a stillborn, sh More...

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