Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors. Her books have a fairy tale quality to them. They are modern fairy tales set in today’s world. In her novels, what would appear to be a common place tale of love turns into something much more. They are beautiful written tales with a mystical quality to them. It is very hard to describe them, I’ve tried to recommend them to my best friend and my sister, but my verbal description always fails!The Ice Queen is the first audiobook of a Alice Hoffman novel that I have listened to. I enjoyed the experience. Nancy Travis (of Three Men and a Baby fame) read the story and did a fantastic job. Her voice truly was the man character.
The Ice Queen is the story of a nameless librarian. She lives a cold, solitary existence blaming herself for a tragedy that occurred during her childhood. After she is struck by lightening, she feels like she is made of ice. Everything red looks white. She makes a painful recuperation and becomes a part of a lightening strike survivors group. She goes in search of a famed, solitary survivor that was supposedly dead for 40-minutes only to come back to life and walk away. “Lazarus” Jones is the complete opposite of our librarian. His touch is like fire, and his breath can start fires. They begin an all consuming affair. But is Lazarus all that he seems?
The narrator through the novel learns the truth of her past, and how to allow herself to love again. At first I thought she was much too negative, but I then truly enjoyed her growth through the novel. I also loved the talk of fairy tales and loved all of the fairy tale elements of the novel. The librarian and Lazarus seemed liked the tale of Cupid and his true love Psyche, which is one of my favorite myths. The ending of the novel was unexpected and brought a few tears to my eye.
While the book had a fantastic love story at it’s center, it overall ended up being a story about family and the meaning of death. I enjoyed this novel.
Audio Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library
Thanks for the review. Hoffman has been kind of hit and miss for me lately, but this sounds like one that I may enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED the audio version of this book as well.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds amazing! I've always heard so many good things about Hoffman, but have yet to read any books by her. Perhaps I should seek this audio out as well...Thank you for the review.
ReplyDeleteI must read (or listen to) a book by Alice Hoffman! Thanks for your concise review, Laura.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little slow at the beginning, but it is definitely worth it by the end of the novel. Everything is tied together and it is heartwrenching!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds really good and I've always been really curious about Alice Hoffman.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Practical Magic and have two Hoffman books on Mt. TBR but have never actually read any of her books. Kind of embarrassing to admit!
ReplyDeleteHave you read Blackbird House? It's a connected short story collection that I really loved. :)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I haven't read Blackbird House yet. It's been on my list for the last couple of years. Hopefully I get to it soon!
ReplyDeleteI just ordered 3: Green Angel, The Ice Queen, and Blackbird House. I've never read Alice Hoffman, so I hope I'm in for a treat. Btw, I order used books through alibris.com, and spent only 1.99 on each of these. You have to spend $50 to get free shipping, only books from Alibris count toward the shipping. There are other sellers there as well. So, I have 26 books coming to me in the next week or so. The coupon code right now is MAGICAL, which gets you $3 off if you spend $30. If you don't care about reading used, it's a great way to get books inexpensively.
ReplyDeleteAlice definitely knows her stuff when it comes to Lightning! The story line was a bit sad as the main character was so determined to self-destruct until she realized the gifts she was endowed with. I felt my own history come through the character on several occasions and also knew that I had discovered my own talents and gifts over the years as well.
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