The Snow Child

I loved the blended genres in this book. It was perfect to get me ready for my trip to Alaska.

Combining the magical themes of an old Russian fairy tale with the harsh realities of homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920s, this novel manages to sweep the reader into the sights, sounds and feelings associated with the experience of snow and the other-worldliness a snowy landscape can evoke. The characters in this novel are wonderfully imagined and fulfill the job of moving the story forward despite a familiar plot. Although I knew this was inspired by a children's fairy tale, the story is told in a way that makes it universal. I found myself wrapped up in the theme of the significance of family and friends, how essential these aspects of life are especially when you are in survival mode.

Incredible. It's written with such attention to detail, both in the icy landscapes it depicts and the characters, that every moment is captivating. I'll admit, it is somewhat repetitive. It doesn't leave its couple of locations, and yet I never found my attention wavering.

The Snow Child is a stunningly poignant, human, and engaging novel.

The ending was unsatisfying for me, but loved loved loved the book overall.

Sooooo slow. Just didn't grab me, didn't feel it moving anywhere. Just not my style. a maybe another time I'd enjoy it more? Who knows. 

3.5 stars. Beautiful descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness and a gentle retelling of a fairytale.

télen gondoltam folytatni, de végül elfelejtettem meg itt amúgy is csak végeláthatatlan esőzés van, úgyhogy maradok a be nem fejezésnél.

I read this for a book discussion that I wanted to attend. Some things about this story I really liked–the writing about the woods and mountains of Alaska, the wildlife and the cold, and the life of people who were trying to make a living in a beautiful but harsh environment. Also, I liked the sense of mystery about the snow child and how she is treated as a part of the environment for much of the story. I loved the idea of a retelling of the Snow Maiden fairy tale in this environment, but I thought that aspect of the story was handled clumsily, especially toward the end. Still, I enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to hearing what people have to say about it at the discussion.

Beautifully told and emotional

The Snow Child is a heartwarming story of a childless couple, and the child they made of snow one day. It's a story of hardships, relationships, friendships, and parenthood (almost wrote parentships there). The language is easy, but slow at times, as it is filled with descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness and snow. Lots and lots of snow. The book will make you feel cold sometimes. It's easy to forget that it's set in the 1920's, but towards the second part you start to notice the little things, here and there, that make it clear it's the 20's. I'm glad I took my time reading this book, because it meant I could spend more time with the characters, and their developments felt more realistic that way. The Snow Child is divided into three parts, so I'll divide this review into three parts.

The first part: This is where we get to know Mabel and Jack, it was slow but it was also explaining their day to day lives in Alaska. We get a lot of background about the old couple, and their longing for a child. The second part: We meet the child, Faina, Mabel and Jack's characters slowly develop during these chapters. The chapters are somewhat faster, and months go by. It isn't always clear how much time has gone by between each chapter, but the weather and seasons are always mentioned. I guess that the characters also measured time with seasons. It is during those chapters that we meet the Bensons, and really get to know Esther and her son Garret. Mabel and Jack face a lot of hardships, and we watch them both grow into better people as they deal with the harsh Alaskan winters and the lack of crops. The Russian book Mabel owns clearly foreshadows a tragic ending, although we don't quite know how it will all end up. I loved how it felt like Garret was their son. It was also a little sad, how Faina was like a daughter to them, but they could never force her to live with them as she wasn't really their daughter. The third and final part of the novel goes by too quickly. Six years have gone by, Faina is much older, and so is Garret. It's exciting, because the Benson's finally meet Faina, and now they know that Mabel didn't have "cabin fever" for the past six years. You can almost predict that Faina and Garret will be good friends, and they do. I loved how they both changed throughout the book, and couldn't help but love them. The same applies to Mabel, Jack and Esther. The ending wasn't shocking, it is already known that Faina is going to go somehow, even though I hoped it wouldn't be that way. It was still sad when she was gone. It makes you think that maybe the same thing happened to her mother. I felt like the ending was satisfying, the epilogue is set a few years after Faina is gone, and Eowyn Ivey wraps it all up so that there are no unanswered questions. There are quite a few chapters that make you go aww and smile, whilst getting teary-eyed; Mabel and Jack having a snow fight and building a snow child; skating with Faina; Garret going to Jack to ask for Faina's hand in marriage; pretty much all the scenes where Mabel and Jack really felt like they were parents; and the wedding.

❝She looked directly up into the northern lights and she wondered if those cold-burning spectres might not draw her breath, her very soul, out of her chest and into the stars.❞

A lovely novel that is part fairy tale, part wilderness survival adventure, part love story, part nature guide. My favorite passage comes very early on:

“All her life she had believed in something more, in the mystery that shape-shifted at the edge of her senses. It was the flutter of moth wings on glass and the promise of river nymphs in the dappled creek beds. It was the smell of oak trees on the summer evening she fell in love, and the way dawn threw itself across the cow pond and turned the water to light.” (page 5)

Anyone who feels the same way as Mabel will enjoy this novel.

Jack and Mabel have gone to Alaska to homestead. They struggle to survive in the cold, remote place. Both miss deeply the child they will now never have.

One day the two have a spot of fun and make a snow child. And then Mabel spots...what is it?...could it be?...a little girl. Jack sees it, too. Who is this mysterious child? Did the snow child come to life?

A tender story that touched me very much.

I read this book a little while ago. It is a story that I will remember and read again at a later date.

A heart rendering read about a couple who longed for a child of their own.

This book was a delight to read, it was descriptive, the story flowed. It gave you the sense of isolation - living in the wilderness and coldness.

An excellent read.

You can see more at www.thepinkreader.com

This had been in my TBR pile forever, and I finally got around to reading it while traveling. It's emotional and melancholy, for sure, and also reminded me a lot not only of tales of “snow children” but similar tales of selkies and the like. If you're familiar with the folklore, you'll appreciate the story on an additional level, I think!

I absolutely adored this book. I never really write this much about books, but I think because this one touched on some really personal and heavy topics for me I wanted to cover a bit of this one. I think it's a really unique fantasy story due to it following an older couple still feeling the grief of losing their baby many years before and who are also struggling a bit in their marriage and with the state of their own lives - I just don't often see those themes in fantasy. It's a retelling of the snow child folktale, which I had never heard of before - “There once was an old man and woman who loved each other very much and were content with their lot in life except for one great sadness - they had no children of their own.” So for some (like me) there might need to be some handling with care, especially if you've experienced the loss of a child. It's set in Alaska in the early 20th century. I found it magical and whimsical, especially against the interior Alaska backdrop - “I don't know if you get used to it really, it just get's in your blood so you can't stand to be anywhere else,” - if you know, you know. I think another reason why this is special is because it's dual POV of the couple, so you're able to see the drivers of their (sometimes poor or hurtful) decisions, which as someone who had marital relationship problems I appreciated seeing both sides. Of course it won't be for everyone, but if 1) what I said before interests you, 2) you want an emotional, loving and/or “real” story (and if you liked those aspects in Sword of Kaigen this might interest you or vice-versa), 3) you like the woods, hunting/fishing/trapping or homesteading, or 4) are in the mood for a book that will make you feel the cold and the brutality and beauty of winter, check this out.

This was a powerful and moving book about family, appreciation for one another, and making a new life. I liked how Faina brought Jack and Mabel closer together.

I devoured this book, I just forgot to update my reading status. A good friend recommended it to me and I loved it! I won't tell you anything except that it is full mystery and magic! It made me feel like an innocent child again while I read.

There was no part of this book that didn't have me completely enthralled and hanging on every syllable.

Highly recommend.

This story has me so emotional right now... I knew I was going to end up heartbroken but not like this... it touched so many fibers in me that I just can't...

It is beautifully written, and the freedom and wilderness of Faina made this all the more enjoyable and hurtful at the same time. And as a mother I do feel very close to Mabel so this hits hard...

The story has a lot of nuances, and I did have a great time reading it, I just didn't want it to end!

I don't know how I'll recover from this, I just want to think of this as a life-changing journey. It leaves some questions in the end, though, worth discussing in a book club, but as an individual it leaves me thinking and I haven't decided whether I want that or not.

My only observation is regarding the editing, I don't know if it is only in the Kindle version or it's also in the printed edition, but it was a bit hard to understand when the dialogues happened because they were written within the narrative.

Magical

3 1/2 stars.

A few other reviewers have expressed what I felt after finishing the book: the first half is better (more satisfying?) than the second half.

That's not to say that the second half isn't great. But the first half has almost an otherworldly feel to it, something magical about the lives of a husband and wife trying to make a home on the frontier. The descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness absolutely chilled me to the bone, both with their beauty and with the cold, harsh weather.

The sadness of this childless couple brought tears to my eyes. Their disappointment of losing their only child was expertly described to the reader, and I really felt their sadness in my heart. I wanted them to make it on this Alaskan frontier, I wanted them to have a child of their own, I wanted them to be able to write home of their happiness.

And the Snow Child - is she real? She seems magical, a fairy tale, maybe a figment of the couple's imagination.

That's the first half. The second half is quite a bit different. There are more characters, another family befriends our pioneers. The pacing of the book seemed different. Time passed more quickly in the second half, years covered, while the first half included just one long winter.

A good read overall!

For three quarters of its length The Snow Child is nearly a perfect read. The story of a girl made from snow unravels at a slow pace, necessary for the gradual unfolding that makes the novel so exquisite. Ivey skillfully interweaves the grace of the snow child with the textures of an untamed Alaskan wilderness. The story is most affective in its simple subtlety; through Ivey possesses a way with words, she lets the beauty of the story speak for itself. The story mirrors its subject. It is the sort of tale one wishes to get lost in, to dance in its mystery and to catch on one's tongue.

The last eighty pages or so of The Snow Child loses some of these qualities. It's jarring, largely unmagical, and cold, which could all potentially work if it felt like the coming of a blizzard, but it feels more like a mudslide. By no means is this part of the novel bad, it just loses so much of what made the rest of the book fabulous. I loved these characters and I felt like they really deserved a much better ending. There is so much that could have been done with such a lovely story that anything but the best is a letdown.

It is hard to drop this book from five stars because it is really good. Really good. It just didn't quite reach its full potential. When The Snow Child is at its best, however, it is really that good.

Beautiful.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
An aging couple receives their lifelong dream of raising a child, but with a twist—this child belongs to the snow.
Jack and Mabel, an old, childless couple, move to the Alaskan wilderness to start a homestead on their own. They've just buried their newborn and their grief has become immobilizing; they hope a change in scenery will help them move on. As their silent grief slowly tears the two apart, the first Alaskan winter hits, bringing a deep snowfall with it, and Jack and Mabel come together to build a little snow-child in the yard. They lovingly shape a young face with stark features, dressing it with coat, scarf, hat, and gloves, a wild berry to stain the lips deep red. The next morning, their little snow-child has disappeared, taking the winter clothing with it and leaving only mysterious footprints in the snow. After that day, Jack and Mabel catch glimpses of a young girl in the forest wearing the same winter clothes and eventually build trust with her and raise her as their own. They learn her real name—Faina—and attempt to accept her mystical relationship with the forest and snow. Faina comes and goes with winter, staying only until the first signs of Spring. Mable and Jack plead with the young girl to live with them at their homestead, stay through the summer, and go to school like a normal girl, but Faina refuses with determination and conviction to remain a child of the snow. This conflict continues throughout the rest of the book and only runs into complications when Faina starts to befriend and fall in love with a young boy from the neighboring homestead.
Eowyn Ivey writes with beautiful imagery that pulls the reader into the world of the Alaskan frontier, while also providing a nearness with the characters by writing through several of their perspectives. The plot is filled with multiple elements of magical realism that leave a lasting impact on the reader. The main characters of the story, Mabel and Jack, struggle themselves to accept the mystical elements that their snow child exhibits. Faina thrives in extremely cold temperatures, lives perfectly fine on her own in the wild, snowflakes don't melt when she touches them, she comes and goes with winter—all these elements and more are expertly interwoven within reality to make the characters and the reader view the lines between the mystical and real as increasingly blurred. This book will have you invested at every page and leave you with a new vision of the world and family—a must-read.