Um bonito conto de fadas.

I would like to give this three and a half stars. I really enjoyed the first part of the novel. The descriptions of the people and the landscape were very good, and the secrets of the mysterious child kept me intrigued. I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.

I felt the plot went a bit flat with the entry of a romance toward the end of the book, and I found the ending somewhat unsatisfying. Still, if you are interested in Alaska and the charm of a novel based on a folk tale, it is well worth reading.

I chose it for my library adult book clubs in December 2012. I heard many good comments about it from members as they were reading it, and we had two great discussions about it.

I haven't given a book five stars in a while, but this story was both mesmerizing and beautifully written with rich, descriptive language that perfectly sets the mood and paints vivid pictures in your mind. The relationships between characters are well developed and I found the emotion of the book - highs and lows deeply affected me.

The mystery of the Snow Child was absolutely captivating - it truly is a grown-up fairy tale. This will go down as one of my favorite books.

A Lyrical Tale

I wasn’t sure I should title my review as “A Lyrical Tale”, but I googled the definition of “lyrical” and got “expressing the writer's emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way”. So “lyrical” it remains. Having read the Author’s Notes at the end of this book, I learned that the author’s sudden inspiration and desire to write “The Snow Child” was so strong that she temporarily halted her 5-years-and-counting effort to finish writing her first novel so that she could write this story instead.

The story: Timeframe: 1920’s. A childless couple (Mabel and Jack) in their early 50’s decide to leave friends and family to homestead in Alaska. On a lark, one day they build a snowman (okay, a snow girl). The next day, that snow girl is gone; although on subsequent days they occasionally spot a mysterious young child in the woods nearby. Who is this mysterious child? Where does she live? How can she survive, apparently on her own?

The story is beautifully written. And the descriptions of life in Alaska are vivid and expansive – and sometimes difficult, too. (It turns out the author lives in Alaska.)

There is also a clever subtleness to the writing. For example, whenever Mabel or Jack are with the snow child, there is no use of quotation marks when they say anything to each other -- an interesting literal trick to keep the snow child ethereal. Is she real? Imaginary? Magical? For each of those questions, the answer sometimes seems to be yes and sometimes seems to be no.

This isn’t a terribly adventurous story; but it is an interesting, fanciful tale. The story has few characters, but they are people who are shown to care deeply for each other. And setting the story in Alaska, with its majestic vistas, plentiful wildlife and rugged nature provides a great backdrop to this imaginative tale.

Bottom Line: Definitely worth your time to read.