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Aug 11, 2008

Eden rated it:

Oh. My. God.

This book. It was never ending! The style of the writing was dull. Yes, some of it did have a poetic twist about it, but really? It was depressing. That's pretty much all that can be said for it - the author can force the reader into depression. When I read the main character's emotions, I actually felt like I was on a down spiral. Yes, that's a good skill. But Alice Hoffman doesn't stop! It is all misery. Not just understandable misery, either. Misery about the stupides More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 17, 2007

Janet rated it:

If I could, I'd give this a firm 3 & 1/2 stars because I'm not sure I loved it but I more than liked it. I like/love most of her books. I like fairy tales and this book was full of fairy tale references - the story itself is really a fairy tale. It is short and it is a quick read. I had great trouble warming to most of the main characters but this was meant to be. The last pages made me cry because, in the end, I really felt for those same characters. Any book that elicits tears deserves, I More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2008

Donna rated it:

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2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2007

Dawn rated it:

Here on Earth is still my favorite Alice Hoffman novel. With Hoffman, it's pretty much hit-or-miss but I never hesitate to pick up her books because of her lovely prose. She writes metaphors so well and is able to make the most squalid things seem magical.

This story opens with a selfish little girl who lays a curse on her mother and is forever tortured when her mother dies soon after. She then lives a half-life as a librarian preoccupied with death and fairytales. One day, she wishe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2009

Kelly rated it:

It took me months to open this book and I am glad I finally did. I had picked it up in the Spring to read on vacation, but then I lost interest for awhile. I had been scared off after re-reading the part about her Mother dying young on the back cover teaser…The story seemed more depressing then uplifting.

But somehow it traveled to the beach with me this summer and thank goodness, as The Ice Queen is a perfect beach read; light, thoughtful and surprising. What surprised me about More...

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Jan 13, 2009

Cynthia rated it:

I had a distant cousin who died on his rooftop, shooting photos during a lightning storm. This book instantly drew me in, as the main characters are survivors of lightning strikes.

(p. 79) "But those roses sent by Lazarus Jones were so sharp a person could cut herself and draw blood. That was the key to my riddle. For all I'd done, for all I'd wished, a rose made of ice was exactly what I deserved."
(p. 108) "And yet there it was. The power of a single idea in my More...

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Nov 27, 2008

Tilbatilba rated it:

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Feb 27, 2011

Bianca rated it:

On a note of boredom last summer, I picked this book up. I still have it sitting on my desk, and not because it was really, really good, but rather because I find myself still trying to figure out how I feel about it.

Hoffman's prose and diction are beautiful (if not a bit melancholy) throughout the course of the book, which allows for easy flow of reading. However, I found myself getting a little bit upset with the main character for being so self-absorbed. It seemed as if she was s More...

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Nov 08, 2009

Emily rated it:

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Oct 29, 2009

Alayne rated it:

The Ice Queen is more than a story, it’s almost an internal extensive self-dialogue. The narrator (unnamed and it took me the whole novel to realize that) at a young age wishes her mother dead and her wish comes true. Because of this she wanders through the rest of her life half asleep, always cold, and alone. When she is struck by lightning her brother moves her to Florida where the real meat of the story starts. She makes a friend, finds a lover, and salvages a relationship with her brother. I More...

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Oct 27, 2009

Ramona rated it:

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1 comment like

Aug 20, 2009

Jake rated it:

I just read this really great book by Alice Hoffman. It's titled The Ice Queen.

From the get-go I was hooked. Hoffman has the knack for creating a narrative that is compelling. The main character, who remains nameless through the whole book, is a woman obsessed with death. As a young girl, she gets mad at her mom as she is driving away. In a moment of fury, she wishes her mom dead. It is the dead of winter and the next day, the young girl wakes up to find that her mom was killed More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2009

Rachell rated it:

The novel doesn't get to the meat of its story, the relationship between the narrator and her brother, until the last two chapters; until then, the reader has to slog through 100+ pages of the narrator's self-pity. I'm not the kind of reader who demands that the main character has to be likeable, or pleasant, even in a first-person narrative, but Hoffman doesn't present any sort of perspective on her character's relentless negativity. And frankly, the story that takes up the bulk of the novel -- More...

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Jul 17, 2009

RNOCEAN rated it:

Frozen in misery since age eight, when the mother she wished would disappear promptly obliged by dying in a car wreck, the thirtysomething unnamed narrator of Hoffman's hypnotic new novel has spent her life avoiding meaningful human contact. As a New Jersey reference librarian, she relentlessly pursues the details of death in all its countless causes while engaging in after-hours backseat trysting with a local cop. After settling near her brother in Florida, the narrator is struck by lightning. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2011

Melissa rated it:

This is one of those books that I loved the way it began and loved the way it ended, it the middle I was wishy-washy at times, but as I said the ending pulled it back up into one I like and would recommend.

Accepting blame for what there is no blame to be had, making wishes and having them come true, living in despair over one's life; these are the makings of this story. But this is also a tale woven with hope, triumph, and a little bit of that "happily ever after".

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Apr 19, 2011

Maria rated it:

I think we've all been asked a thousand times about our favorite books. I've always found it hard to answer and so I would mention my favorite authors instead. But then I found this book. I don't really know what happened... I think it was love at first sight. This is one of those books in which every single word matters. I know that's supposed to happen in every single novel but this book is different... each word is a precious piece in the brilliantly built puzzle that is this story. The emoti More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2011

Femke rated it:

Ik had al veel gehoord over dit boek, vooral veel lovende reacties en dus was ik enorm benieuwd naar dit boek. Ik mocht het ontvangen van Orlando Uitgevers zelf, nadat ik het boek via hun website gewonnen had.

In het begin komt het boek op mij zeer vaag en teleurstellend over. Het verhaal loopt door elkaar en je kunt er eigenlijk geen touw aan vast knopen. Een zeer taai begin, maar ik bleef stug doorlezen. Halverwege het boek wordt je door de schrijfster meegenomen naar een fantasy wer More...

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Feb 18, 2011

Kimberly rated it:

This book started off really interesting. The main character is struck by lightning, and finds herself living with the side effects of this, and learning about the side effects of other strike victims. I continually found myself wondering about the effects of people who have been struck by lightning and wondering how much of the book was true. But then things jumped right into the realm of the unbelievable, like a guy who would burn you if you touched his skin, or another that could spit fire More...

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Feb 07, 2012

Linda rated it:

While reading this book, I began to feel like I was on psychedelic drugs, or at least what I think I would feel like if I took psychedelic drugs. I never have. But, the feeling that came over me as I read about the unnamed woman who commands this story was like listening to PINK FLOYD, underwater. The woman, orphaned young, raised by her grandmother, and wishing to be hit by lightning, is. Hit by lightning. Then she goes into a support group (arranged by her brother, the doctor) for people More...

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Aug 07, 2010

Rose rated it:

"The Ice Queen" marks my first read from Alice Hoffman. Overall, I have to say that it was a good read, so much so that it surprised me. Given that the protagonist isn't the most likable character to follow at first, it more than surprised me when I found myself endearingly following her through her experiences, loves, and on the road to recovery from tragedies in this book. Granted, there's just a smidge of mystical elements that give the story a poetic quality, but I would note thi More...

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Jun 17, 2011

Jen rated it:

The book was good. I don't know if it was me or not, but I have never in my life been so depressed by a book. It was very heavy for me. I thought the protagonist was likeable.

"In chaos theory, does it matter what color the butterfly is?"
p.51

"What is the difference between love and obsession? Didn't both make you stay up all night, wandering the streets, a victim of your own imagination, your own heartbeat? Didn't you fall into both, headfirst in More...

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Nov 22, 2009

Chana rated it:

Exquisite, I really love Alice Hoffman's writing, all that magic, beauty and love she puts into it makes it something to savor. We have to deal with a significant amount of pain in this one as well as a little girl burdened with the guilt of believing that she has caused her mother's death begins the process of learning to feel again through the cataclysmic event of getting hit by lightening when she is an adult. Weather often plays a large part of Alice Hoffman's stories, it really is a magic p More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

A few critics enjoyed Hoffman's foray into the fairy tale genre, calling it a stunning feat of storytelling that breathes new life into the fable's ancient themes of reward and retribution. But others concluded that Hoffman (Blackbird House **** Nov/Dec 2004) strayed too far "into the woods" between a modern story and the fables of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, particularly the latter's "Snow Queen." For many, the author relied too much on clunky metaphor, l

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Jan 13, 2009

Terri rated it:

This is an exciting adventure in a women's life who thinks of herself as a cold person mostly because her mother dies in the month of January and she blames herself for it because she wished her mother to die. As the story unfolds she follows her brother to live in Florida where she gets struck by lightning and has many side effects from it, one being she can't see the color red. She gets involved with her opposite, a man who has a warm/hot body temperature because of getting struck by lightni More...

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Mar 25, 2011

Karly rated it:

A beautiful story of the ties that bind, the importance of love, and the nature of guilt. Alice Hoffman's prose weaves a powerful spell, both realistic, and steeped in the magic of fairy tale and impossible coincidence. She fills this tragic, wonderful story with dimensional characters, running a gamut of emotions, speaking in real dialogue. This is a story of a woman who walks through death for most of her life, only to find what she wants most is to live, to love, to grasp the world fully. In More...

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Jul 17, 2010

Michelle rated it:

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3 comments like

May 07, 2010

Margaret rated it:

It's been years since I liked an Alice Hoffman novel as much as I liked The Ice Queen. The narrator (never named) suffered a tragedy as a girl, and ever since then, she has encased her emotions in ice -- that is, until she is struck by lightning and almost dies. Recovering, she meets a man who is also a lightning survivor and whose heat starts to melt her protective layer.

Mirroring her heroine's life, Hoffman's prose is clear, cool, and spare, so that the vivid passages of descripti More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

I have read a few of Alice Hoffman's books before, and each time I am shocked by how beautifully she writes. For some reason it catches me by surprise in every novel without fail. That said, I think this is my favourite novel so far. Hoffman's prose is...indescribable. It is delicate and beautiful, yet paints a graphic, detailed picture in the reader's mind. The story is part fairy tale, part real life. I am too easily entranced by fairy tales and beautiful prose. I am not sure I would love thi More...

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Apr 08, 2009

Louise rated it:

Ugggh! I can't even imagine what it would be like to be hit with 'lightning'!! Not something I ever want to find out either. I totally enjoyed this Hoffman novel.

From dust jacket:

"Be careful what you wish for. A woman who was touched by tragedy as a child now lives a quiet life, keeping other people at a cool distance. She even believes she wants it that way. Then one day she utters an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by lightning. But instead o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 14, 2010

Susie rated it:

I liked how this book started out but it seemed to fall apart in the middle with all the sex ,yes I know its supposed be a metaphor for her coming alive again. Her whole relationship with Lazarus was ok but I didn’t care about either of them and for it to work for me I have to care about the characters. You can only listen to her talk about the ice in her veins for so long before you scream Shut Up and Get Over it! Yes, your evil, your wishes come true blah blah.

The ending gave our n More...

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