Oh, so this is a retelling. Of a Hans Christian Andersen
story, “The Snow Queen”. It’s one I’ve never heard of. But that’s not saying
much, as when it comes to HCA, I haven’t read a lot.
So I didn’t go into reading Jacque Stevens’ Winter Falls
with any preconceived notions or baggage about how the story should go.
There are two worlds here. The first is the snowy world of
Katie Graham and her family, and the roguish Shay. There are inns and ice
skates. Logging and trains. There’s a Model T at one point, if I recall, and
another male on crutches and with an IV in his arm. This world is muddled. At
first, it felt like the timeless, somewhat wooly world created by Lois Lowry in
The Giver, but the more I read, the more this world entered the wool of
ambiguity. Katie’s specific slice of the world seemed pre-industrial
revolution. But then there was the Model T and the IV. So I don’t know.
The second world is richer – it’s the world of fairy tales
where (spoiler) Katie finds the mother she never knew and just leaves her
there.
Like all fairy tales, this is a tale of wanting something.
Katie wants a lot. But there are a lot of complications in Katie’s way, least
of all the Snow Queen who comes to her vaguely time-defined village and takes
away Shay, who could probably be played by sleazy-cool John Cusack if this book
were filmed. (He might be a little old for the role, but you get the picture.)
Katie’s biggest obstacle is, of course, Katie, something she learns while on
her journey through the fairy tale world, which she entered after leaping after
Ophelia off a bridge into the water.
Things just kinda blandly happen in this book. Even the
battle between good and evil at the end is fairly bland, with no real sense of
menace (you’d think a Snow Queen would get tired of freezing her enemies or
creatures-as-tools, but nooooooooo). And the encounter with the fairy of fall?
Borr-ing. This is where Katie meets the cat-like woman who is her mother, lost
in this fairy tale limbo between life and “the light,” which is left undefined.
Her mother shows little interest in her, and we learn why (no spoilers this time).
Even the How Do We Solve This Problem denouement at the end is kinda bland.
Stevens falls into the same trap I do as a writer – all of
her characters sound the same. There’s little variation in voice.
It’s an okay book if you’re a fan of the Hans Christian
Andersen tale, and want a slightly soppy romance. Other than that . . .
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