Winter's Child [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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Reason for Reading: I've wanted to read this series for ages and have just never got around to it. Finally, I brought this book out from my backlog and read my first book in the series!

I just absolutely adored this book! When I went to get my picture for my blog post I noticed that it didn't have a very high overall rating and looked at the ratings chart to see that the opinions were all over the place on this one, from horrible to terrific. Now I don't read other reviews before I've written my own but I'm going to guess the diverse opinions on this book are due to the ending. Personally, I liked the ending. I had expected it to happen, there were clues that hinted at this happening earlier in the book and I wasn't surprised. The author could have perhaps developed this extra character, or his relationship, a bit better, so that the ending scene isn't quite so shocking to the characters in the story but it really came as no shock to this reader.

Dokey has managed to keep a fairy tale quality to her story while at the same time creating two teen characters who don't feel any less modern for it. There are no cars in this world, Grace cannot wear pants, Kai is a watchmaker apprentice while Grace does fancy embroidery; all in keeping with some medieval fairy tale world. Ye the teens speak and act quite naturally as modern teens would, with an easy report between each other and natural modern day language but it does not feel out of place at all. Dokey has created her world well.

This retelling of The Snow Queen is much different from the original yet Dokey manages to keep many key ingredients present while turning the story away from Andersen's original dark tale into a true romance story. The Snow Queen is a good guy this time, being a young cursed 16 year old girl called The Winter Child. Kai is the one who follows after her and elements such as the broken mirror and Grace's visit with the old lady who tries to keep her forever and the thief girl are included. The story is told in alternating voices, mostly of Grace and the Winter Child, though Kai speaks up as well. I always enjoy books told from various points of view but did find Kai's chapters to be the weakest. The fairy tale atmosphere is kept alive throughout the story and I think that may be what some readers will find hard to believe when it comes to the ending. I think the ending was great, and expected but others may find it too sudden. However, it is a fairy tale after all, where anything may happen.

Cameron Dokey has respun plenty of fairy tales, whether she added a new twist or fleshed out undeveloped characters of a well-known story. But "Winter's Child," a retelling of the classic story of the Snow Queen, basically falls flat on its face -- while her style is exquisite and the story starts off strong, everything starts unraveling by the middle of the book.

As children, Kai and Grace were told the story of the Winter Child -- Deirdre, a princess snatched up and dropped by the North Wind, and left with a shard of icy mirror in her heart. But as the friends grow up together, they start suffering the loss of their loved ones -- his father, then his mother and her beloved Oma. With no one left for either of them, Kai proposes to his beloved friend... and she refuses him, because she wants to experience the world.

But a disgruntled Kai vanishes that night when the Winter Child appears at his window, and Grace regrets her selfish decision. She sets out across the snowy mountains to find the icy palace where the Winter Child began her long journey to heal injured hearts like her own -- but she has some terrible obstacles to overcome. And what feelings do both Deidre and Grace have for Kai?

"Winter's Child" is one of those stories that starts off strong with a unique twist (the "Snow Queen" is a cursed immortal teenager), but runs out of gas quickly. It starts off strong with the ethereal fairy tales of how the Winter Child came to be, and the grittier story of a free-spirited girl and her down-to-earth, loving best friend. Coal mines, stitchwork, and frost on the windows -- Dokey's beautiful writing brings it to life.

But the plot starts falling apart after Kai leaves -- Grace goes wandering off and gets accosted by a bandit girl and a crazy old lady on her way to the castle. These little interludes don't have any plot purpose, and don't really teach anything -- they exist apparently because Dokey needed to flesh out the otherwise sparse storyline, so Grace wouldn't get to her destination too fast.

And the final act is an exercise in confusion and disappointment. It seems like Dokey had no idea what to do, so she just did anything to wrap it up: characters' attitudes do complete 180's, the central Big Life Lesson is forgotten (making Grace's character development pointless), and the love triangle is handled far too slickly and conveniently. Eleventh-hour instant soulmates popping up just when they're needed is always a bad thing.

Grace is perhaps the most intriguing character of the story, since her love for Kai is at war with her adventurous nature -- and over the course of the book, she finds that the wide world isn't quite as nice as she thought. Unfortunately Deirdre is handled rather clumsily: though she's ageless, supposedly loveless and has drifted alone through the world, she acts like just an emo teenager.

"Winter's Child has plenty of ideas, but unfortunately the story is too short for the book -- and Cameron Dokey loses her grip on it by the time the climax rolls around. Only for completists.

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