Review:- Alice HOFFMAN – “The Ice Queen ”

Year Published: - 2005
Where the book was from:- My own copy (ex-library)
ISBN: - 0 7911 7898 1
Pages: - 211pp
Genre: - General Fiction
Location:- New Jersey / Florida
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *****

One sentence summary:- A woman who prefers not to involve herself in the lives of others finds herself becoming a changed person – physically and mentally – after she is struck by lightning.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- A little girl wishes for something but is devastated when it happens. Ever after she chooses to remain within herself, an icicle for a heart, not involving herself in the doings of others. When she is struck by lightning her whole life changes and against her better judgement she finds herself involved with fellow survivors.

General comments:- A haunting tale of grief, second chances and hidden passions.

Quotations:

Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they’re spoken and you can never taken them back.

To hell with human beings. I’d always felt safer with stories than with flesh and blood.

People hide their truest natures. I understood that; I even applauded it. What sort of world would it be if people bled all over the sidewalks, if they wept under trees, smacked whomever they despised, kissed strangers, revealed themselves? Keep a cloak, that was fine, the thing to do; present a disguise, the outside you, the one you want people to believe.

The truth was, I didn’t want to interfere. Why should it be up to me to touch anyone’s life, guide someone right rather than left, off the road instead of on? Who knows where your advice, interest, love, might lead?

Looking at the box, I realized I couldn’t let go; not even of this. I’d been that way all my life, holding on tight. I couldn’t let go of anything. Except for the things that mattered most.

AUTHOR Notes:- Alice Hoffman (born March 16, 1952) is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer, best known for her 1996 novel Practical Magic, which was adapted for a 1998 film of the same name. Many of her works fall into the genre of magic realism and contain elements of magic, irony, and non-standard romances and relationships.