Ice Review
Title: Ice
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Grade: A-
Ideal Audience: Boys & Girls, 13+
Summary: Living in the arctic regions, helping her father conduct research on the ice, Cassie's life is purely scientific. The stories her grandmother told her could only be fictional: stories of Cassie's mother, Gail, being taken as the North Wind's daughter and promised to the Polar Bear King as his wife. But later, Gail promises Cassie to the Polar Bear King, and escapes... only to be kidnapped by the trolls. No, these stories are mere fantasy: Cassie's mother is dead.
Or is she? Cassie's logical, numerical world is thrown upside down when she encounters a talking polar bear. In a desperate bargain, Cassie agrees to marry the Polar Bear King, with her object being to save her mother from the trolls. And with the promise that Gail is now safely at home- despite Cassie's current absence- Cassie is whisked away to Bear's castle.
At first, Cassie is reluctant to be with Bear and share her life with him. But as time goes on, she finds herself growing fond of the creature, who is a polar bear by day, human by night. Little does she know that soon her world will drastically change again, and she will have to go on a journey she could never before have imagined.
My thoughts: Sarah Beth Durst's lyrical tale is enchanting, an icy miracle from start to finish. Although Cassie's change in feelings for Bear is somewhat rapid, the rest of the novel is paced well, and our two main characters are endearing and humorous.
Fans of Durst's previous series, Into the Woods, will find another favorite in Ice.
Ice Feature
- ISBN13: 9781416986430
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Ice Overview
When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.
Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back -- if Cassie will agree to be his bride.
That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her -- until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.
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Customer Reviews
Interesting and entertaining. - -
It kept me on the edge of my seat page after page, the author kept you wanting more. I really enjoyed the book alot.
One weird read - Anidori-Isilee - The Asylum
I greatly enjoyed Sarah Beth Durst's MG novels, INTO THE WILD and OUT OF THE WILD. They're such fun and well-written and just go read them; you probably won't regret it. But ICE? Not so much.
I really wanted to like ICE. I did. For one thing, it's really nice to see an older teen as a protagonist in YA fiction. Also, the cover is beautiful, and I appreciated the science-minded heroine. Really, the setting is fantastic. It's set in the Arctic, where Cassie lives with her father, a researcher in a station. It's such a different setting for a fairy tale retelling. (In this case, it's EAST OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON, which, I'll admit, is not one of my favorites.) But I think that's like the only positives I can say about this book. Besides that I liked Durst's trolls. I thought that was clever.
Basically, EAST OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON is about this polar bear who takes this girl to be his wife, but every night, he climbs into her bed as a human, and he tells her that she cannot once see his face. The girl being curious disobeys, and then trolls come and take away the polar bear, and the girl has to go rescue him. Same deal with ICE. (Yay for fairy tales in which the female character actually does have to do some saving-the-day in the original story.)
And honestly, I had a hard time believing a modern-day young woman would fall in love with a talking polar bear. It just didn't sit right with me, and even if I tell myself that it's just a fairy tale and just an enchantment and he's not really a polar bear, but it just doesn't work. It creeped me out. The book also seemed to end somewhat suddenly, the climax just happening and then - last page. I would have liked more winding down. Also, I felt like Durst's writing was too simplistic for her audience. Her sentences didn't flow right. Add this into all the novel's weirdness and...it wasn't a good combination.
Like I said, I highly recommend INTO THE WILD and OUT OF THE WILD, but ICE? If you want to read it, I suggest the library.
LOVED this book! - Melissa L. Laing -
I love a great fairy tale and this one was amazing! I read it in one night and don't even regret the lost sleep! It is not a young girl read it had very adult situations and was more for adults or older teen! I loved the rich characters and the story was so uniqe! It was well written and you could tell this author had done her homework and knew what she was talking about.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 23, 2010 18:30:06
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