Goodreads | Dawn's review

Dawn's review

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/177515.The_Ice_Queen_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Ice Queen: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1172449324m/177515.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/177515.The_Ice_Queen_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Ice Queen: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3502.Alice_Hoffman">Alice Hoffman</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7417528?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars 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 wishes herself to be struck by lightning. This leads to a cascade of unpredictable events culminating in surprising and sad discoveries, and ultimately, fulfillment.
 
 I enjoyed the allusions to the Grimm's fairy tales and the chaos theory but I had a difficult time feeling anything for the main characters in the first three-quarters of the book. The last quarter is not to be missed!
 
 My favorite quote from the book:
 "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 into quicksand? Wasn't every man in love a fool and every woman a slave?
 
 Love was like rain: it turned to ice, or it disappeared. Now you saw it, now you couldn't find it no matter how hard you might search. Love evaporated; obsession was realer; it hurt, like a pin in your bottom, a stone in your shoe. It didn't go away in the blink of an eye. A morning phone call filled with regret. A letter that said, Dear you, good-bye from me. Obsession tasted like something familiar. Something you'd known your whole life. It settled and lurked; it stayed with you."
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/329823?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Dawn's review
rating:
bookshelves: speculative-fiction
recommended for: fans of fractured fairytales

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 wishes herself to be struck by lightning. This leads to a cascade of unpredictable events culminating in surprising and sad discoveries, and ultimately, fulfillment.

I enjoyed the allusions to the Grimm's fairy tales and the chaos theory but I had a difficult time feeling anything for the main characters in the first three-quarters of the book. The last quarter is not to be missed!

My favorite quote from the book:
"What is the difference between love and obsession? Didn't both make you stay up al...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it) flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Dawn's books »