(read in french but reviewed in English parce que mon francais ecrit est pouri). 

The ice palace is a story of two girls - one is kind, beloved by her school mates, and a generally well adjusted creature living happily in a Norwegian town. The other is a new student, recently orphaned, who has moved in with an aunt she barely knows. But they're magnetically drawn to one another and spend an evening of tension and things unsaid. That powerful scene arrives early in the book, and cultivates in an eleven year old girl saying that she doesn't think that she'll go to heaven. 

And then the new girl wanders in the woods, to the natural phenomenon of an ice palace set in a waterfall, and disappears. 

The remaining two thirds of the novel are tense, atmospheric, and a lot of "no plot just vibes". And the vibes are largely disconcerting. This is a novel about things unsaid and about the social retreat of the girl who is left behind. There's recurring scenes of villagers asking her, begging her, to tell them what happened the night before the disappearance, just to get a clue as to where the new arrival could possibly be... But she remains resolutely quiet, despite herself. 

I'm not sure I "got" this book, and I don't think that I enjoyed reading it. It filled me with an odd sense of discomfort that I can reach to again now while trying to tell you about it. The writing was exquisite and the atmosphere was nothing short of disconcerting. I was left somewhat unsatisfied but...perhaps that was the point? 

Recommended if you're into books where nothing much happens, where the setting is a character, and that feels like a puzzle that's tough to crack. 2.75 stars on SG rounded up to 3 on GR.