Girl in Ice

Val is a brilliant linguist, grieving the loss of her twin brother, and struggling with anxiety that is not fully addressed by her medication. There are very few places that she is comfortable enough or even able to force herself to go. Her life is basically work at the university, visiting her dying father, and home. But when she gets an email from her deceased brother's mentor that includes a recording of a girl he claims was frozen solid and defrosted alive in the Arctic, she decides to get on a plane not only to see if she can interpret this girl's language but to visit the place of her bother's death and find out what truly happened to him.
The small cast of characters being basically trapped together in a desolate sub zero setting created an instant atmosphere of dread and cabin fever. Add to that the mystery of how a child could be defrosted alive and the sci fi sub plot of climate change leading to people all over the world being flash frozen and I was hooked on this thriller from the start.

I received an advance copy for review.

What an interesting book. A woman who is painfully anxious about stepping outside the boundaries of a constricted life decides to do what her elderly father asks of her - go to a remote research site in Greenland to find out why her outgoing and adventurous twin brother froze to death there. As it happens, the dead twin's research colleague has need of her specialty - figuring out obscure languages. Once she arrives she finds out why: they found a girl frozen in a block of ice deep in a crevasse and, strangely enough, she is alive and speaking an unfamiliar language. Once there, things are much stranger than she would have guessed, but she works diligently to connect with the girl and find a way to communicate. returnreturnI tore through the book, and enjoyed the relationship between the protagonist, and the girl, the linguistics theme, and the description of the Arctic setting. There's a creepiness about the isolation and the main scientist is a bit mad. One scene definitely verged on horror, with a touch of don't-go-into-that-basement-in-your nightie about it. There is also a strong environmentalist message that isn't overdone. And a plot element that strains credulity, so needed careful handling. returnreturnWhile I wasted no time reading to the end, I wish the author had spent a bit more time working out the mindset of the main character (I had a very hard time connecting the uncertain and neurotic woman in the opening pages and how she acted later - that definitely could use more connect-the-dots - and there were times when consistency in the characters was sacrificed for the demands of the plot, which could have paved over some of its potholes. So a fascinating, but flawed story that has left me with some vivid images and a lingering curiosity about an unusual child.