Warning: this review is long and gushing because I love the book so

The Girl with Glass Feet is a beautiful, achingly romantic tale, full of breathless wonder and untold promises. It captured my heart, and I became a part of the story, part of the enchantment. And I loved it, oh so dearly. This book is like a fairytale, a poetically beautiful fairytale. Yet it’s more reminiscent of the original fairytales, with the flow of the writing and the very detailed descriptions. Ali Shaw, though, is modern, so this fairytale has more of a modern feel, with more developed characters and more emotion. But he still manages to make it feel like an old, graceful captivating tale, and it swept me away with its magical allure.

The story begins as a young man, Midas, is in the forest taking pictures. He comes upon a young woman, whose name is Ida, sitting on a rock. He finds her perhaps a bit odd, with her drab and strange appearance, and her rather large boots. Yet he is intrigued with her, of the picture she could pose in a photograph with the right lights and scene. After they part, he keeps thinking about her, about wanting to photograph her, but mostly of her strange boots. She finds him the next day, and they start spending time together. And then he discovers the truth about why she wears those boots. He feels compelled to help her, not necessarily because he feels that he should, but because he sees that she needs help, and he finds he wants to help her. He senses something beautiful from her, and feels drawn to her. But he’s unsure of these awakening feelings.

As their story develops, he starts to find himself, made possible by Ida. She brought light to his life, though he was always searching for it, when taking photographs to create the best possible picture with any light he could find. And he begins to realize that photographs are just captured memories. Nothing more. Those captured memories can’t bring back pleasant memories, not like the ones he remembers when he’s with Ida. He starts to look at life more closely as he is slowly brought out of his camera shell he introverts himself with. As the story progresses, they try to find a cure to Ida’s ailment, supposedly caused by a strange creature that turns everything it looks at pure white. As I kept reading, and was nearing the end, I realized where it was heading, where it had to inevitably go, and I feared for what I knew it would be. I pled with the book to not let it happen, to have a perfect, happily ever after ending. But I realized that that can’t always happen. Happy endings are far and few in between. It’s more the journey that makes the story, the trials and emotions the characters go through, that make them the person they become at the end, no matter the bitter ending it may hold. And I found I was pleased with the ending, though tears were streaming down my face.

I thought the development of the characters was done brilliantly. I connected with each character, I felt for them, I understood them and their plights. Ali Shaw stealthily works a way open for the reader to see into each characters minds, and to understand them better, especially through someone’s else’s eyes who may not think so highly of them. Ida was perhaps my favorite, although I love Midas, for his endearing qualities. He is a sweetheart. Ida is not afraid to let her guard down or to show people that she doesn’t care what they think. She never thinks that she isn’t good enough or beautiful enough to let someone love her. And she cares about people. Not everything is about her, though she still is desperately trying to find a cure. The best description of her is thought by Midas. He was amazed at how she took a moment to encounter the fear, then shouldered it and moved on. She is a strong heroine. She doesn’t let the presence of impending doom reduce her to a pathetic whisper of herself, or purge out the love she could feel for Midas.

The ending was heartbreaking, but amazingly done, with so much emotion and love. So perfect. I am in love with this book. I was enchanted with it. The writing was often thought provoking, infused into the characters minds and words and relaying them to the reader in a delicate, yet deep manner that made me stop and think some times. I didn’t expect to connect so fully with this story, but I did, and I enjoyed every last bit of the journey, and I’m still breathless at the wonder of it.

This is the type of book that everyone should read. It should be loved, and reread and praised for the truly breathtaking novel it is. It’s an engrossing, brilliant read. But it’s a quiet engrossment, that slowly wraps around you, tying you up in knots until you are completely bound, utterly captive to it’s allure, and you find you don’t even want out. You want to stay within the enchantment and never let it go. This is what happened to me. The Girl with Glass Feet is a brilliant jewel in my treasure chest, that will always stay close to my heart. The intriguing enchantment and endearing love story, the heartfelt moments of self realization and discovering one’s self and learning to love and trust others, the beautiful writing that flows slowly, unfolding the entire scene and background, and then flowing smoothly to the next scene; the entire story, every word and thought, stole into my heart, leaving me breathless with wonder and in utter awe with the poignant emotion interwoven into the story. Ali Shaw is a brilliant storyteller, and I praise him for his talent and stunning ability to weave such a heartfelt, beautiful tale.

Example of the writing I loved: It was a humid night, later to become a hated night, played over in his thoughts until he could watch it like a theater, retrospect’s dramatic irony making him scream at his younger self to see sense, see what his father had planned. Gray clouds had hung like dead petals in a spiderweb. In the far distance a lighthouse had pulsed. A haze of moonlight covered everything.