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Girl in Ice
From the author of The River at Night and Into the Jungle comes a harrowing new thriller set in the unforgiving landscape of the Arctic Circle, as a brilliant linguist struggling to understand the apparent suicide of her twin brother ventures hundreds of miles north to try to communicate with a young girl who has thawed from the ice alive.
Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.
When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North and meet this girl, try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.
The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.
Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.
When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North and meet this girl, try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.
The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2022
349 people are currently reading
28219 people want to read
About the author
Erica Ferencik
7 books963 followersOprah chose Erica Ferencik’s debut novel, The River at Night as a #1 Pick, calling the book “the page-turning novel you’ve been waiting for, a heart-pounding debut.” Entertainment Weekly named it a “Must Read,” and calls the novel “harrowing…a visceral, white knuckle rush.” Miramax has recently optioned the novel for a film.
Her new novel, Into the Jungle, one woman's terrifying journey of survival in the Bolivian Amazon, will be released on May 28, 2019. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, calling it: “[A] ferocious fever dream of a thriller…Ferencik delivers an alternately terrifying and exhilarating tale.” Her work has appeared in Salon and The Boston Globe, as well as on National Public Radio.
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April 18, 2022
Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik
Val Chesterfield, a linguist trained in dead Nordic languages, is just the person for the job when her late twin brother's mentor, Wyatt, a climate scientist, asks her to help him on a remote Greenland island. Val suffers from anxiety that should keep her from accepting the offer except that the climate station is where her brother committed suicide and Val wants to find out what really happened at the ice bound station.
The story already had a dark, claustrophobic feel to it even before Val makes her way to the climate station. Without her meds, the world seems to be too much for Val and she has to scrap together enough meds to make it through the long weeks she'll be at the station. Val seems to be burdened with grief with the loss of the brother, the feeling that she's never been enough for her father, and her descent further into isolation even before she leaves for Greenland.
Now Val will be in an inescapable situation, cloistered with Wyatt, his assistant, two other scientists and an eight year old girl that Wyatt claims he thawed out after he found her frozen in ice. Val's job will be to communicate with the girl because Wyatt wants to know her secret to being able to survive being frozen for possibly hundreds of years. The descriptions of the rank smells of humans and the surroundings, in these close quarters that can't be aired out because the outside air is well below freezing, adds to the walls closing in feeling. The days are just a few hours long and getting shorter, meaning that there is a deadline for Val to finish her work so she can get out before she is stuck in this place for many dark months.
Wyatt seems to be a lumberjack mad scientist type, who makes no attempt to hide his sexual frustration, which makes living in closed quarters with him uncomfortable. He's impatient and demanding and possibly not truthful about what happened to Val's brother or his plans for the girl. Val and the girl begin to make advances in their communications but the girl is not well and she will be lost if Val isn't able to understand what the girl is trying to tell her...something about birds, snakes and circles. The longer Val is at the station the more she is sure that things are very wrong and she may be powerless to do anything about it.
TW: Long ago human deaths and animal deaths
Pub: March 1st 2022
Thank you to Scout Press/Simon & Schuster for the print version of this ARC.
Val Chesterfield, a linguist trained in dead Nordic languages, is just the person for the job when her late twin brother's mentor, Wyatt, a climate scientist, asks her to help him on a remote Greenland island. Val suffers from anxiety that should keep her from accepting the offer except that the climate station is where her brother committed suicide and Val wants to find out what really happened at the ice bound station.
The story already had a dark, claustrophobic feel to it even before Val makes her way to the climate station. Without her meds, the world seems to be too much for Val and she has to scrap together enough meds to make it through the long weeks she'll be at the station. Val seems to be burdened with grief with the loss of the brother, the feeling that she's never been enough for her father, and her descent further into isolation even before she leaves for Greenland.
Now Val will be in an inescapable situation, cloistered with Wyatt, his assistant, two other scientists and an eight year old girl that Wyatt claims he thawed out after he found her frozen in ice. Val's job will be to communicate with the girl because Wyatt wants to know her secret to being able to survive being frozen for possibly hundreds of years. The descriptions of the rank smells of humans and the surroundings, in these close quarters that can't be aired out because the outside air is well below freezing, adds to the walls closing in feeling. The days are just a few hours long and getting shorter, meaning that there is a deadline for Val to finish her work so she can get out before she is stuck in this place for many dark months.
Wyatt seems to be a lumberjack mad scientist type, who makes no attempt to hide his sexual frustration, which makes living in closed quarters with him uncomfortable. He's impatient and demanding and possibly not truthful about what happened to Val's brother or his plans for the girl. Val and the girl begin to make advances in their communications but the girl is not well and she will be lost if Val isn't able to understand what the girl is trying to tell her...something about birds, snakes and circles. The longer Val is at the station the more she is sure that things are very wrong and she may be powerless to do anything about it.
TW: Long ago human deaths and animal deaths
Pub: March 1st 2022
Thank you to Scout Press/Simon & Schuster for the print version of this ARC.
February 11, 2022
4.5*
Bundle up and get your cup of hot cocoa…it’s going to be a chilly trip to the Arctic Circle!
Val is a linguistics expert currently teaching at University level. She just received a life-changing call that a girl has literally been thawed out of a piece of ice in the frozen Arctic expanse. It’s impossible to determine how long she’d been entombed in ice. What is certain…she is most certainly alive! And talking. But no one can figure out what language. The lead researcher requests Val’s assistance to aid in assessing this very foreign speech. But there’s a major complication. It’s the same place her twin brother died under curious circumstances. Perhaps she can do double duty and find some closure while also assisting with this most fascinating discovery.
I loved the interactions between Val and the girl as she tries to gain her trust and learn to communicate.
This is the second book I’ve read by this author. Her previous, Into the Jungle had us venturing deep into the Bolivian jungle. Erica Ferencik adds a unique twist by including interesting facts about the global region her stories take place. Here, we’re venturing as far north as humanly possible.
With the added details she provides, I felt I was right there next to Val. The bitter cold, the stark vastness of the surroundings.
My bags are packed and passport in hand. I’m ready for my next adventure. Where are you taking us next, Ms. Ferencik?
Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books
Bundle up and get your cup of hot cocoa…it’s going to be a chilly trip to the Arctic Circle!
Val is a linguistics expert currently teaching at University level. She just received a life-changing call that a girl has literally been thawed out of a piece of ice in the frozen Arctic expanse. It’s impossible to determine how long she’d been entombed in ice. What is certain…she is most certainly alive! And talking. But no one can figure out what language. The lead researcher requests Val’s assistance to aid in assessing this very foreign speech. But there’s a major complication. It’s the same place her twin brother died under curious circumstances. Perhaps she can do double duty and find some closure while also assisting with this most fascinating discovery.
I loved the interactions between Val and the girl as she tries to gain her trust and learn to communicate.
This is the second book I’ve read by this author. Her previous, Into the Jungle had us venturing deep into the Bolivian jungle. Erica Ferencik adds a unique twist by including interesting facts about the global region her stories take place. Here, we’re venturing as far north as humanly possible.
With the added details she provides, I felt I was right there next to Val. The bitter cold, the stark vastness of the surroundings.
My bags are packed and passport in hand. I’m ready for my next adventure. Where are you taking us next, Ms. Ferencik?
Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books
April 1, 2022
4.5 stars! The author, Erica Ferencik, has written a third descriptive, atmospheric book focusing on adventure, danger, and survival in diverse environments. She transports the reader into her settings to the extent you have a vivid picture of the locations and feel the surroundings her characters endure. Her last book was set in the humid, steaming, tropical Bolivian jungle. Girl In Ice immerses the reader in the bitter, treeless frozen tundra on a remote Arctic island off the north coast of Greenland with its polar bears, walruses, northern birds, and sea life. You can feel the chill.
I thought the plot defied belief but was exciting and thrilling. Val leads a sheltered life due to high anxiety and fear of the unfamiliar. She fortifies herself with medication and alcoholic beverages. She is a talented linguist specializing in extinct Nordic languages and teaches at a university. You have a remarkable, compelling, suspense-filled story ahead if you suspend disbelief.
Her twin brother died while working at a northern station researching climate. He was obsessed with climate change that he feared would gradually lead to human and animal life extinction. Already people further south are dying by being flash frozen by ice winds. He died after wandering out of the northern station without protective clothing in the bitter minus 50 degrees cold. Suicide was suspected. Val is distraught over her brother's death.
Wyatt is the scientist in charge of the station. He was the mentor and co-worker with her brother before his death. Val receives a call from Wyatt, who claims he was able to thaw out a little girl found frozen in ice. She is now alive and terrified. The girl speaks an unknown language, and he needs Val to fly north to interpret what the girl is trying to say. Val is panicked by the idea of travel. Her father urges her to go to learn what really happened to her brother. They both suspect foul play. They believe he would never have acted recklessly or committed suicide. Val consents to make the journey despite her dread, ensuring she has plenty of her nerve medication for the flight and for her time in the tundra.
When she tries to communicate with the girl, Sigfrid, who appears to be about age 7, she feels she is speaking an extinct tribal language with few roots in present native speech. Nevertheless, they form a strong bond. The girl frantically draws pictures in an attempt to make Val understand. A series of drawings depict a sea bird and a snake, and others with a number of circles. These pictures puzzle Val and the girl sickens. Val believes the little girl is dying, and the pictures are conveying to Val a way to save her life.
The small group at the station work in different assigned roles in a claustrophobic setting. There are personality clashes. A young married couple lost a child, and a middle-aged woman who works as a cook and mechanic lost her husband and daughter in an accident. Along with Val, they are burdened by grief. Wyatt has mood swings from helpful, reasonable, but flirtatious to rude and demanding. Val suspects him of not being forthcoming about her brother's death, how he brought the girl back from the frozen state, and his future plans for the child. He pushes Val to rush in her communication with the girl and blames her for not learning the child's language quickly enough. This must be done soon before the 24-hour darkness sets in and the station is abandoned. Val suspects that Wyatt has stolen her medication. Some team members believe Sigfrid is simply a girl Wyatt found wandering in the wilderness who became lost her family. They want to bring her home. They think Wyatt has created a scientific fraud to promote his research. Now, the belief is growing that she may have been in the frozen state for hundreds of years.
Val is alarmed to see that the young girl is dying, and the child is aware of her approaching death. She must rapidly learn the meaning of her words and drawings in order to save her. She has grown to love her and must summon every bit of courage she didn't know she had to protect her. The finale is an intense, pulse-pounding, action-packed thriller, and not everyone will survive.
Recommended!
I thought the plot defied belief but was exciting and thrilling. Val leads a sheltered life due to high anxiety and fear of the unfamiliar. She fortifies herself with medication and alcoholic beverages. She is a talented linguist specializing in extinct Nordic languages and teaches at a university. You have a remarkable, compelling, suspense-filled story ahead if you suspend disbelief.
Her twin brother died while working at a northern station researching climate. He was obsessed with climate change that he feared would gradually lead to human and animal life extinction. Already people further south are dying by being flash frozen by ice winds. He died after wandering out of the northern station without protective clothing in the bitter minus 50 degrees cold. Suicide was suspected. Val is distraught over her brother's death.
Wyatt is the scientist in charge of the station. He was the mentor and co-worker with her brother before his death. Val receives a call from Wyatt, who claims he was able to thaw out a little girl found frozen in ice. She is now alive and terrified. The girl speaks an unknown language, and he needs Val to fly north to interpret what the girl is trying to say. Val is panicked by the idea of travel. Her father urges her to go to learn what really happened to her brother. They both suspect foul play. They believe he would never have acted recklessly or committed suicide. Val consents to make the journey despite her dread, ensuring she has plenty of her nerve medication for the flight and for her time in the tundra.
When she tries to communicate with the girl, Sigfrid, who appears to be about age 7, she feels she is speaking an extinct tribal language with few roots in present native speech. Nevertheless, they form a strong bond. The girl frantically draws pictures in an attempt to make Val understand. A series of drawings depict a sea bird and a snake, and others with a number of circles. These pictures puzzle Val and the girl sickens. Val believes the little girl is dying, and the pictures are conveying to Val a way to save her life.
The small group at the station work in different assigned roles in a claustrophobic setting. There are personality clashes. A young married couple lost a child, and a middle-aged woman who works as a cook and mechanic lost her husband and daughter in an accident. Along with Val, they are burdened by grief. Wyatt has mood swings from helpful, reasonable, but flirtatious to rude and demanding. Val suspects him of not being forthcoming about her brother's death, how he brought the girl back from the frozen state, and his future plans for the child. He pushes Val to rush in her communication with the girl and blames her for not learning the child's language quickly enough. This must be done soon before the 24-hour darkness sets in and the station is abandoned. Val suspects that Wyatt has stolen her medication. Some team members believe Sigfrid is simply a girl Wyatt found wandering in the wilderness who became lost her family. They want to bring her home. They think Wyatt has created a scientific fraud to promote his research. Now, the belief is growing that she may have been in the frozen state for hundreds of years.
Val is alarmed to see that the young girl is dying, and the child is aware of her approaching death. She must rapidly learn the meaning of her words and drawings in order to save her. She has grown to love her and must summon every bit of courage she didn't know she had to protect her. The finale is an intense, pulse-pounding, action-packed thriller, and not everyone will survive.
Recommended!
April 13, 2022
Valerie Chesterfield travels to a climate research station on Taararmiut Island off Greenland's northwest coast where a little girl found under an ice crevasse is thawed out alive. Val's a linguist and her expertise in (dead) Nordic language is possibly the only way to communicate with the girl.
This is an outstanding atmospheric thriller! I feel a sense of danger from polar freezing temperature, isolation, and the unknown in such an inhospitable setting. I feel the rush against time to help save the girl. At the same time, Val has anxiety issues over the mysterious death of her twin brother Andy, a climate scientist and she's unable to accept it to be a suicide.
Overall, very enjoyable and feels like a locked-room thriller even though there's vast land outside the station, it'll probably get you killed as well. I love learning about arctic land and sea animals. I'll be looking for more novels by this author.
The audio is great because I wouldn't know how to say many of those words.😄
This is an outstanding atmospheric thriller! I feel a sense of danger from polar freezing temperature, isolation, and the unknown in such an inhospitable setting. I feel the rush against time to help save the girl. At the same time, Val has anxiety issues over the mysterious death of her twin brother Andy, a climate scientist and she's unable to accept it to be a suicide.
Overall, very enjoyable and feels like a locked-room thriller even though there's vast land outside the station, it'll probably get you killed as well. I love learning about arctic land and sea animals. I'll be looking for more novels by this author.
The audio is great because I wouldn't know how to say many of those words.😄
November 13, 2022
**Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery/Scout, and Erica Ferencik for an ARC of this book! Now in paperback!**
"Some say the world will end in fire...some say in ice”-Robert Frost
While many find their personal take on eternal torment to encompass the former...mine is ABSOLUTELY the latter...which made this creepy, chilling, mysterious and harrowing tale from Erica Ferencik my personal worst nightmare!
Val studies languages: near, far, and forgotten. She specializes in lost Nordic languages, and while still recovering from the passing of her twin Andy, deep in the heart of the chilliest climates, she is beckoned by Andy's former mentor and research partner, Wyatt, to help him in the same region with a 'special' project. A girl has been recovered from the ice after many years....after being frozen ALIVE. Wyatt turns to Val to try to decipher the mysterious girl's language and find out more about the sinister and suspicious circumstances that led to Andy's demise. To do this, she also must conquer her fear of the wide open unknown that has kept her paralyzed indoors, relying on pills to steel her nerves.
As time presses on, Val's frustration and fear begins to rise, as she builds a connection with this special child and becomes increasingly wary of Wyatt and his intentions. Why is he so desperate to find out WHAT this girl knows? How did she come back...and why? Is there a secret too dark and too deadly for the arctic to keep? And will Val stumble on the truth about Andy's death...and make it home from the bitter, unforgiving cold before it claims her, too?
I mean it when I say that cold is my nemesis, so even looking at this gorgeous yet terrifying cover had me scrambling for the covers! This was a perfect winter read (might as well get it over with at once and rip the Band-Aid off later, amirite?) although it certainly would fit well during spooky season too. Although I have absolutely zero ambition to EVER go to Antarctica and frankly hope I don't live to experience the next Ice Age 🧊, Ferencik grabs the reader from page one and thrusts you into this clime, to the point where you can almost feel the arctic wind beating against you and the quiet stillness of the tundra begins to drown out your thoughts---SO eerie!
There is quite a bit of technical talk in terms of Wyatt's research throughout, but none of it feels snooze-worthy or too complex. Rather, Ferencik gets your mind racing and your imagination wheeling..and while this book TECHNICALLY takes place in the real world, you will feel utterly transported. I was as baffled as Val, and fascinated by the myriad possibilities as to why on Earth this girl was back to life...and HOW.
And of course, the Girl in question is the absolute heart and soul of this story. Tragic, mysterious, timid, intriguing and mesmerizing, her byplay with Val and uncovering layer after layer of her backstory kept me transfixed. Though this is most definitely a mystery/thriller tale, there is a tremendous amount of heart present to balance the impending (or nearly impending) doom, and these characters leapt off the page....so much so, that at the end of the book, I was gutted it was over. I never expected such a connection in such a short time (this one is less than 300 pages long!) but I absolutely wanted more! I know there probably isn't a sequel in store, but there IS a great and neatly written epilogue in this one, so I was grateful at least to have that!
Erica Ferencik is a stunning writer, and nothing was lost in translation here: this book is chilling, visceral, and haunting...and although Spring is nearly here, make sure you have your heat cranked, a blanket on, and a warm beverage in hand before beginning this particular Arctic journey...IF you intend to make it out alive! 🥶 😉
4.5 stars
"Some say the world will end in fire...some say in ice”-Robert Frost
While many find their personal take on eternal torment to encompass the former...mine is ABSOLUTELY the latter...which made this creepy, chilling, mysterious and harrowing tale from Erica Ferencik my personal worst nightmare!
Val studies languages: near, far, and forgotten. She specializes in lost Nordic languages, and while still recovering from the passing of her twin Andy, deep in the heart of the chilliest climates, she is beckoned by Andy's former mentor and research partner, Wyatt, to help him in the same region with a 'special' project. A girl has been recovered from the ice after many years....after being frozen ALIVE. Wyatt turns to Val to try to decipher the mysterious girl's language and find out more about the sinister and suspicious circumstances that led to Andy's demise. To do this, she also must conquer her fear of the wide open unknown that has kept her paralyzed indoors, relying on pills to steel her nerves.
As time presses on, Val's frustration and fear begins to rise, as she builds a connection with this special child and becomes increasingly wary of Wyatt and his intentions. Why is he so desperate to find out WHAT this girl knows? How did she come back...and why? Is there a secret too dark and too deadly for the arctic to keep? And will Val stumble on the truth about Andy's death...and make it home from the bitter, unforgiving cold before it claims her, too?
I mean it when I say that cold is my nemesis, so even looking at this gorgeous yet terrifying cover had me scrambling for the covers! This was a perfect winter read (might as well get it over with at once and rip the Band-Aid off later, amirite?) although it certainly would fit well during spooky season too. Although I have absolutely zero ambition to EVER go to Antarctica and frankly hope I don't live to experience the next Ice Age 🧊, Ferencik grabs the reader from page one and thrusts you into this clime, to the point where you can almost feel the arctic wind beating against you and the quiet stillness of the tundra begins to drown out your thoughts---SO eerie!
There is quite a bit of technical talk in terms of Wyatt's research throughout, but none of it feels snooze-worthy or too complex. Rather, Ferencik gets your mind racing and your imagination wheeling..and while this book TECHNICALLY takes place in the real world, you will feel utterly transported. I was as baffled as Val, and fascinated by the myriad possibilities as to why on Earth this girl was back to life...and HOW.
And of course, the Girl in question is the absolute heart and soul of this story. Tragic, mysterious, timid, intriguing and mesmerizing, her byplay with Val and uncovering layer after layer of her backstory kept me transfixed. Though this is most definitely a mystery/thriller tale, there is a tremendous amount of heart present to balance the impending (or nearly impending) doom, and these characters leapt off the page....so much so, that at the end of the book, I was gutted it was over. I never expected such a connection in such a short time (this one is less than 300 pages long!) but I absolutely wanted more! I know there probably isn't a sequel in store, but there IS a great and neatly written epilogue in this one, so I was grateful at least to have that!
Erica Ferencik is a stunning writer, and nothing was lost in translation here: this book is chilling, visceral, and haunting...and although Spring is nearly here, make sure you have your heat cranked, a blanket on, and a warm beverage in hand before beginning this particular Arctic journey...IF you intend to make it out alive! 🥶 😉
4.5 stars
February 21, 2022
"Never had my curiosity about a place or a language overridden my 'just say no' reflex. I'm tethered to the familiar...what I perceive as safe...".
Val Chesterfield was a linguist with a fascination for extinct tongues-Old Norse and Old Danish. By dissecting words into morphemes (the smallest unit of language that has meaning) and "deciphering a chuck of language-even a word... the distance between me and another human being, just for that moment, was erased."
On a remote Greenland Island above the Arctic Circle, Climate Scientist Wyatt Speeks discovered an eight year old girl, in ice, in Glacier 35A. After being thawed out alive, she screamed in fear, in an unknown tongue. Wyatt e-mailed Val with a plea to come to the climate research station at Nuunyviak Island, off Greenland's northwest coast. Val's twin brother Andy, mentored by Wyatt, had recently taken his own life while stationed there. Despite her misgivings and riddled with anxiety, Val decided to go to Greenland to solve two mysteries. She was determined to discover why Andy was found outside the Arctic station, frozen to death, wearing only boxer shorts and was poised to decode the strange language spoken by the young girl.
A little girl, frozen in place ten feet down the wall of a crevasse, was now cast into unfamiliar, scary surroundings. Val needed to learn as much as possible about what happened to her. Caribou skin coat...sealskin leggings...sealskin shirt...the usual outfit for indigenous people in super remote settlements. "In a salad of languages including Old Norse, Val spoke to the girl [Sigrid] through a closed door...Just a child, but from what world, and how could [Val] possibly enter it?"
Wyatt was very secretive. He wanted to be in the loop about everything concerning Sigrid's communications. But...why was he not forthcoming about his pet mouse, Odin, and the fact that Odin had been frozen and brought back to life more than once? What other truths might Wyatt be hiding? Polar night, coming in October, would engulf the research station into total darkness with prevailing temperatures of sixty below or colder. Val was told she had only weeks to create a bond with Sigrid and decode her language.
Her molars were worn down, a wild child, living in a world where caribou hides were chewed to soften them. "[Sigrid's] expressive face, capable of conveying humor, sarcasm, pain, delight, fear and maybe even love...moaning two words over and over...the words felt like pure emotion..." Drawings of circles....birds...snakes...Sigrid's health was waning. What was she trying to say?
"Girl in Ice" by Erica Ferencik is a thriller that speaks to the issue of climate change. In Ferencik's own words, her "passion is to create un-put-downable novels set in some of the most inhospitable regions on earth." For this reader, that goal was accomplished! Highly recommended.
Thank you Gallery/Scout Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Val Chesterfield was a linguist with a fascination for extinct tongues-Old Norse and Old Danish. By dissecting words into morphemes (the smallest unit of language that has meaning) and "deciphering a chuck of language-even a word... the distance between me and another human being, just for that moment, was erased."
On a remote Greenland Island above the Arctic Circle, Climate Scientist Wyatt Speeks discovered an eight year old girl, in ice, in Glacier 35A. After being thawed out alive, she screamed in fear, in an unknown tongue. Wyatt e-mailed Val with a plea to come to the climate research station at Nuunyviak Island, off Greenland's northwest coast. Val's twin brother Andy, mentored by Wyatt, had recently taken his own life while stationed there. Despite her misgivings and riddled with anxiety, Val decided to go to Greenland to solve two mysteries. She was determined to discover why Andy was found outside the Arctic station, frozen to death, wearing only boxer shorts and was poised to decode the strange language spoken by the young girl.
A little girl, frozen in place ten feet down the wall of a crevasse, was now cast into unfamiliar, scary surroundings. Val needed to learn as much as possible about what happened to her. Caribou skin coat...sealskin leggings...sealskin shirt...the usual outfit for indigenous people in super remote settlements. "In a salad of languages including Old Norse, Val spoke to the girl [Sigrid] through a closed door...Just a child, but from what world, and how could [Val] possibly enter it?"
Wyatt was very secretive. He wanted to be in the loop about everything concerning Sigrid's communications. But...why was he not forthcoming about his pet mouse, Odin, and the fact that Odin had been frozen and brought back to life more than once? What other truths might Wyatt be hiding? Polar night, coming in October, would engulf the research station into total darkness with prevailing temperatures of sixty below or colder. Val was told she had only weeks to create a bond with Sigrid and decode her language.
Her molars were worn down, a wild child, living in a world where caribou hides were chewed to soften them. "[Sigrid's] expressive face, capable of conveying humor, sarcasm, pain, delight, fear and maybe even love...moaning two words over and over...the words felt like pure emotion..." Drawings of circles....birds...snakes...Sigrid's health was waning. What was she trying to say?
"Girl in Ice" by Erica Ferencik is a thriller that speaks to the issue of climate change. In Ferencik's own words, her "passion is to create un-put-downable novels set in some of the most inhospitable regions on earth." For this reader, that goal was accomplished! Highly recommended.
Thank you Gallery/Scout Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
March 15, 2022
**3.5 Stars**
Yeah, another book filled with ice and snow. This time we are in the Arctic Circle, where Val Chesterfield is called in to decipher what language a little girl is speaking. Not just any little girl, but a child that was defrosted from a block of ice and survived. Crazy town right? Did I mention Val's twin brother was on this discovery until he committed suicide by becoming a human popsicle? Val suspects foul play. She takes it upon herself to investigate because her father is an ass.
There is a lot going on in the book, but mostly it is Val trying to get the child to communicate. I disliked the main character. She just let Wyatt, a fellow researcher, bully her. I would have thrown Wyatt and his not girlfriend in the ice pit accidentally on purpose. Interesting read.
Yeah, another book filled with ice and snow. This time we are in the Arctic Circle, where Val Chesterfield is called in to decipher what language a little girl is speaking. Not just any little girl, but a child that was defrosted from a block of ice and survived. Crazy town right? Did I mention Val's twin brother was on this discovery until he committed suicide by becoming a human popsicle? Val suspects foul play. She takes it upon herself to investigate because her father is an ass.
There is a lot going on in the book, but mostly it is Val trying to get the child to communicate. I disliked the main character. She just let Wyatt, a fellow researcher, bully her. I would have thrown Wyatt and his not girlfriend in the ice pit accidentally on purpose. Interesting read.
March 13, 2022
I really enjoyed “Girl in Ice” by Erica Ferencik. this is the first book I've read by that author, and I doubt it will be my last.
Set in the future, with a bit of science fiction, a young girl found frozen by researchers in the Artic ice, defrosts alive. If you can get past that tidbit of SciFi, you will enjoy this story. This is an atmospheric tale in the freezing tundra with climate change undertones running through the story.
The head researcher, Wyatt finds the girl and contacts a fellow researcher, Val, who is a linguistics specialist of dead Nordic languages. The girl speaks a language that Wyatt does not understand. He wants Val there to help him figure out what happened to her, how she became flash frozen. To add more tension, Val’s twin brother inexplicably died at that expedition months prior. Val also has anxiety and travel phobias.
Once Val overcomes her travel phobia, she develops a close relationship with the girl. But her fears are staggering. Furthermore, Wyatt doesn’t seem to be forthcoming in his research creating strain.
Author Ferencik shines writing this frigid Nordic tale. Her descriptions of the bitter terrain along with the linguistic elements create an interesting story.
Set in the future, with a bit of science fiction, a young girl found frozen by researchers in the Artic ice, defrosts alive. If you can get past that tidbit of SciFi, you will enjoy this story. This is an atmospheric tale in the freezing tundra with climate change undertones running through the story.
The head researcher, Wyatt finds the girl and contacts a fellow researcher, Val, who is a linguistics specialist of dead Nordic languages. The girl speaks a language that Wyatt does not understand. He wants Val there to help him figure out what happened to her, how she became flash frozen. To add more tension, Val’s twin brother inexplicably died at that expedition months prior. Val also has anxiety and travel phobias.
Once Val overcomes her travel phobia, she develops a close relationship with the girl. But her fears are staggering. Furthermore, Wyatt doesn’t seem to be forthcoming in his research creating strain.
Author Ferencik shines writing this frigid Nordic tale. Her descriptions of the bitter terrain along with the linguistic elements create an interesting story.
March 2, 2022
NOW AVAILABLE!
val chesterfield is a renowned linguist whose crippling anxiety disorder has forced her to turn down numerous opportunities to study rare languages in the field.
dead languages are her special passion, and her life is quiet, lonely—the act of translation satisfying the frisson of human connection that others derive from a more traditional social life.
those who cannot travel, teach, and val's sent many students off on the scholarly linguistical indiana jones adventures she wishes she could pursue. she is finally coaxed out of her academia-swaddled comfort zone by wyatt speeks. the ornery climate researcher is requesting her expertise on a hush-hush project: a young girl's body was discovered frozen in a glacier off the coast of greenland, hundreds of miles from any known indigenous population. miraculously, she has been thawed out alive, but she is speaking a language no one can decipher.
the offer's secondary lure is that wyatt is the last person to have seen val's beloved twin brother andy alive before his inexplicable suicide five months earlier, and val's nonagenarian father—crankily installed in a nursing home with lung cancer, diabetes, and a grudge against andy's mentor wyatt—encourages her to buck up and go off to one of the world's most remote locations to find out what really happened to his favorite twin.
it's set in nuunyviak—an uninhabited island off the northwest coast of greenland—where val, wyatt, and the girl named sigrid wedge themselves into tiny buildings made insignificant against the massive nothingness of nature along with the mechanic/cook jeanne, and the married polar marine scientists nora and raj chandra-revard (who offset everyone else's gloomy loneliness with their chirp chirpy-love). val makes some progress in communicating with the girl, but the endeavor goes from "interesting academic pursuit" to "matter of great urgency" when sigrid starts getting sick and val can't figure out what sigrid is so desperately trying to get across in order to save her.
it's atmospherically superb—as claustrophobic inside the research facility as it is outside, although it's too slow-paced to be the thriller it claims to be. there's a pretty significant action sequence chonk at the end—so cold and harrowing, however, the story has a softer, more emotional texture than a typical thriller; containing themes of grief and healing, of forming a connection to the earth and to other people, of love, nature and vulnerability, and a leetle touch of magic.
there's also a lot of lovely, lovely language stuff
but also a reminder about how bewilderingly complex language can be, flashing my dusty brain back to my ONE undergrad linguistics class:
i mean, it's a wonder any of us can communicate with anyone anywhere anytime but it does make me feel better about writing such an inarticulate review.
the takeaway here is that i need to be sent off to the arctic circle in a tiny little hut so everyone will leave me alone and i can just get things done.
come to my blog!
val chesterfield is a renowned linguist whose crippling anxiety disorder has forced her to turn down numerous opportunities to study rare languages in the field.
dead languages are her special passion, and her life is quiet, lonely—the act of translation satisfying the frisson of human connection that others derive from a more traditional social life.
I felt safest in my office, alone with my books, charts, runic symbols, and scraps of old text; and when I deciphered a chunk of language—even a word!—a thrill of understanding juddered up my spine. The distance between me and another human being, just for that moment, was erased. It was as if someone were speaking to me, and me alone.
those who cannot travel, teach, and val's sent many students off on the scholarly linguistical indiana jones adventures she wishes she could pursue. she is finally coaxed out of her academia-swaddled comfort zone by wyatt speeks. the ornery climate researcher is requesting her expertise on a hush-hush project: a young girl's body was discovered frozen in a glacier off the coast of greenland, hundreds of miles from any known indigenous population. miraculously, she has been thawed out alive, but she is speaking a language no one can decipher.
the offer's secondary lure is that wyatt is the last person to have seen val's beloved twin brother andy alive before his inexplicable suicide five months earlier, and val's nonagenarian father—crankily installed in a nursing home with lung cancer, diabetes, and a grudge against andy's mentor wyatt—encourages her to buck up and go off to one of the world's most remote locations to find out what really happened to his favorite twin.
it's set in nuunyviak—an uninhabited island off the northwest coast of greenland—where val, wyatt, and the girl named sigrid wedge themselves into tiny buildings made insignificant against the massive nothingness of nature along with the mechanic/cook jeanne, and the married polar marine scientists nora and raj chandra-revard (who offset everyone else's gloomy loneliness with their chirp chirpy-love). val makes some progress in communicating with the girl, but the endeavor goes from "interesting academic pursuit" to "matter of great urgency" when sigrid starts getting sick and val can't figure out what sigrid is so desperately trying to get across in order to save her.
it's atmospherically superb—as claustrophobic inside the research facility as it is outside, although it's too slow-paced to be the thriller it claims to be. there's a pretty significant action sequence chonk at the end—so cold and harrowing, however, the story has a softer, more emotional texture than a typical thriller; containing themes of grief and healing, of forming a connection to the earth and to other people, of love, nature and vulnerability, and a leetle touch of magic.
there's also a lot of lovely, lovely language stuff
The word in Inuktitut for climate change translates to "a friend acting strangely"—what a personal and beautiful way of describing a relationship to the natural world.
but also a reminder about how bewilderingly complex language can be, flashing my dusty brain back to my ONE undergrad linguistics class:
I'd forgotten the complexity of West Greenlandic, which is a polysynthetic language, meaning the words are composed of multiple elements called morphemes, word parts that often created "sentence-words"—the longest of which is over 200 letters long. Nouns were inflected for one of eight cases and for possession. Eight moods as well as the number and gender of both the sentence's subject and object inflected every verb. Countless subdialects sprang like weeds. On top of this, most things had two names, the common one and the word used for outsiders—white people, called Qallunaat—to confuse them.
i mean, it's a wonder any of us can communicate with anyone anywhere anytime but it does make me feel better about writing such an inarticulate review.
the takeaway here is that i need to be sent off to the arctic circle in a tiny little hut so everyone will leave me alone and i can just get things done.
come to my blog!
April 3, 2022
I’ve not read Erica Ferencik’s other books, The River at Night and Into the Jungle, but I bought them because the premises sound too good to miss. Girl in Ice sounded equally fascinating.
Val is a linguist, an expert in dead languages. Her brother, Andy, is a researcher in the Arctic when he dies by suicide, which Val finds questionable.
Shortly after, a girl is found in the ice, once frozen and now thawed, and speaking a language no one can understand. Andy’s colleague, Wyatt, calls on Val to possibly communicate with this person. In the process, she also hopes to uncover the truth about her brother’s death.
I was fully invested in this atmospheric story set in the harsh climes of Greenland. There’s a claustrophobic feeling because everyone is stuck inside due to the extreme cold. I also enjoyed the linguistics theme that took me right back to a couple undergrad classes because language has always fascinated me. I loved Sigrid, the girl in the ice, and I appreciated the author addressing mental illness and climate change.
Overall, this was exactly the “something different” I needed from a thriller, and I’m grateful for the time I spent with it.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Val is a linguist, an expert in dead languages. Her brother, Andy, is a researcher in the Arctic when he dies by suicide, which Val finds questionable.
Shortly after, a girl is found in the ice, once frozen and now thawed, and speaking a language no one can understand. Andy’s colleague, Wyatt, calls on Val to possibly communicate with this person. In the process, she also hopes to uncover the truth about her brother’s death.
I was fully invested in this atmospheric story set in the harsh climes of Greenland. There’s a claustrophobic feeling because everyone is stuck inside due to the extreme cold. I also enjoyed the linguistics theme that took me right back to a couple undergrad classes because language has always fascinated me. I loved Sigrid, the girl in the ice, and I appreciated the author addressing mental illness and climate change.
Overall, this was exactly the “something different” I needed from a thriller, and I’m grateful for the time I spent with it.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
June 26, 2022
I was a little concerned about listening to this. Lately, I’ve been sorely disappointed by books with unreliable narrators. And when I learned that Val had anxiety issues that she needed medication for, and that she hadn’t really traveled at all before she decided to head to the Arctic Circle north of Greenland, I was really concerned. But it turned out I needn’t have worried.
Val’s twin commits suicide at that same base where Val arrives. She’s a linguist specializing in old northern languages and she’s there to help communicate with a young girl found frozen in the ice who was miraculously revived.
Ferencik does a fabulous job putting the reader in the scene. You feel the bitter cold, the claustrophobia. It reminded me in a weird way of The Shining, as everyone is on edge and bad personality traits seem to come out in the close quarters. Wyatt is more concerned about his scientific discoveries than the health and wellbeing of Sigfrid, the young girl.
The story does require large suspensions of belief. And I don’t even mean the whole “girl thaws out from an iceberg concept”. There weren’t multiple incidents when Sigfrid seems able to understand huge swaths of English, within just a few weeks. Flip side, Val is barely able to understand Sigfrid. And when she starts to make progress, she spends more time trying to teach Sigfrid English rather than learning Sigfrid’s language. Would a linguist really not want to learn a new language?
But despite some parts not hanging together, I will admit to being entranced by the story. I wanted to know whose will would win out. It was a great ending, fast paced but definitely satisfying.
I was also very impressed with Vivienne Leheny as the narrator.
Val’s twin commits suicide at that same base where Val arrives. She’s a linguist specializing in old northern languages and she’s there to help communicate with a young girl found frozen in the ice who was miraculously revived.
Ferencik does a fabulous job putting the reader in the scene. You feel the bitter cold, the claustrophobia. It reminded me in a weird way of The Shining, as everyone is on edge and bad personality traits seem to come out in the close quarters. Wyatt is more concerned about his scientific discoveries than the health and wellbeing of Sigfrid, the young girl.
The story does require large suspensions of belief. And I don’t even mean the whole “girl thaws out from an iceberg concept”. There weren’t multiple incidents when Sigfrid seems able to understand huge swaths of English, within just a few weeks. Flip side, Val is barely able to understand Sigfrid. And when she starts to make progress, she spends more time trying to teach Sigfrid English rather than learning Sigfrid’s language. Would a linguist really not want to learn a new language?
But despite some parts not hanging together, I will admit to being entranced by the story. I wanted to know whose will would win out. It was a great ending, fast paced but definitely satisfying.
I was also very impressed with Vivienne Leheny as the narrator.
April 13, 2022
3. 5 stars rounded up for a somewhat implausible mystery. Val Chesterfield is a brilliant linguist, and specializes in extinct/obscure languages, including Inuit. This was an uncorrected proof sent to me by Scout Press. There was a note apologizing for the use of the phrase "Polar Eskimo." It explained that the phrase would be corrected in the final printing.
Val is grieving the loss of her twin brother, Andy, who was doing ground breaking research at a remote outpost in Greenland. His death was mysterious. Then Val gets an email from Wyatt Speeks, her brother's colleague. He explains that he has found a body of a young girl frozen in the ice. She thawed out alive. Sher speaks a language that he has never heard before. Can she please come to Greenland and interpret?
Val is afraid of travel, and has never been outside of her home state, Massachusetts, except for a high school field trip to Washington, DC, where had a panic attack.
Val does go to Greenland and solves both mysteries, which do connect at the end.
One quote: Val describing herself: "The person who clung to her routine of rigid control: up at six, never in bed later than ten after a Columbo rerun, only to stare into the dark wondering, Why am I always afraid, and what, exactly am I afraid of?"
Val is grieving the loss of her twin brother, Andy, who was doing ground breaking research at a remote outpost in Greenland. His death was mysterious. Then Val gets an email from Wyatt Speeks, her brother's colleague. He explains that he has found a body of a young girl frozen in the ice. She thawed out alive. Sher speaks a language that he has never heard before. Can she please come to Greenland and interpret?
Val is afraid of travel, and has never been outside of her home state, Massachusetts, except for a high school field trip to Washington, DC, where had a panic attack.
Val does go to Greenland and solves both mysteries, which do connect at the end.
One quote: Val describing herself: "The person who clung to her routine of rigid control: up at six, never in bed later than ten after a Columbo rerun, only to stare into the dark wondering, Why am I always afraid, and what, exactly am I afraid of?"
August 14, 2022
Next!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
July 18, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
An intriguing, locked-room sort of thriller set in the Arctic Circle that dabbles in communing with nature, the ethics of scientific research, and finding a common language (quite literally). The writing is solid, with rhetorical flourishes exhibited around the natural elements, with a well-balanced cast of characters whose competing desires are apparent right away (perhaps a little too apparent).
There are aspects of this book that really sung for me. The focus on linguistics and communication--as the protagonist is an expert in the field--add a dimension to the plot that I haven't yet encountered. Not only does it characterize the relationship between the protagonist and the titular "girl in ice," but the focus on language elevates the setting as well. That is, the author poses questions about how language shapes our perceptions of nature, how we interact with it, and the emotional nuances we lose when a language evolves or dies out.
However, the plotline around the dead brother is almost nonexistent, an initial motivator that gets no page time other than the protagonist occasionally getting mad and screaming at the head scientist, "what happened to my brother?!?!" with no provocation or tact. The plot, then, is entirely dependent on the thawed-out kid, an intriguing mystery that nonetheless becomes claustrophobic without other tensions to break it up. (And yes, things are claustrophobic in an isolated research lab, but that's a little too close to the imitative fallacy for my tastes.)
Without revealing spoilers, I have to take a star off for the ending, which felt both rushed and drawn out, as if Ferencik drafted out a few different options and randomly decided to go with this version of the choose-your-own-adventure.
Still, a fun read, with a wholly original plot, that I suggest mystery and thriller junkies to check out.
An intriguing, locked-room sort of thriller set in the Arctic Circle that dabbles in communing with nature, the ethics of scientific research, and finding a common language (quite literally). The writing is solid, with rhetorical flourishes exhibited around the natural elements, with a well-balanced cast of characters whose competing desires are apparent right away (perhaps a little too apparent).
There are aspects of this book that really sung for me. The focus on linguistics and communication--as the protagonist is an expert in the field--add a dimension to the plot that I haven't yet encountered. Not only does it characterize the relationship between the protagonist and the titular "girl in ice," but the focus on language elevates the setting as well. That is, the author poses questions about how language shapes our perceptions of nature, how we interact with it, and the emotional nuances we lose when a language evolves or dies out.
However, the plotline around the dead brother is almost nonexistent, an initial motivator that gets no page time other than the protagonist occasionally getting mad and screaming at the head scientist, "what happened to my brother?!?!" with no provocation or tact. The plot, then, is entirely dependent on the thawed-out kid, an intriguing mystery that nonetheless becomes claustrophobic without other tensions to break it up. (And yes, things are claustrophobic in an isolated research lab, but that's a little too close to the imitative fallacy for my tastes.)
Without revealing spoilers, I have to take a star off for the ending, which felt both rushed and drawn out, as if Ferencik drafted out a few different options and randomly decided to go with this version of the choose-your-own-adventure.
Still, a fun read, with a wholly original plot, that I suggest mystery and thriller junkies to check out.
March 23, 2022
I liked the premise of this thriller. A group of climate researchers discover the frozen body of a young girl who, amazingly, is still alive when she is thawed out. Their research then shifts to trying to find out what kept her alive. There has already been one death at the camp when a linguist is summoned to try to communicate with the girl. The villain of the book was a little too blatantly evil, but the parts of the book dealing with attempts to communicate with the girl held my interest. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator read the entire book with a breathlessness that was not called for. It was annoying. 3.5 stars
December 7, 2021
I feel like such a grumpy reader lately with giving less than stellar reviews. I was excited about this book because I saw a lot of my favorite authors giving blurbs about it, but sadly it was way too slow for my liking. If you like slow building drama, this book would work for you. I thought it would venture on the side of horror, but it didn't provide the scares that it could've with its storyline.
May 18, 2025
A definite genre blender, to be sure!
GIRL IN ICE is a mystery, a sci-fi possibility, an anthropological treatise on linguistics and the etymology and kinship of dead languages couched in a psychological thriller, a cautionary tale on climate warming, a human drama of a pathologically introverted young woman suffering from anxiety disorder, a story of scientific exploration in the far northern reaches of Greenland – gosh, what’s not to like?
Val Chesterfield is a linguist, in fact, she’s THE world’s acknowledged expert in dead Nordic languages. So when a scientist conducting climate research in the all too brief summer of Arctic Greenland manages a scientific impossibility – thawing a young girl, deep frozen in a glacier for centuries, and bringing her back to life – Chesterfield is called in an attempt to communicate with the young girl speaking a language that seems to bear no relationship to any known language on the planet, living or dead. Only two problems (aside from the scientific issues, of course) – Val’s anxiety disorder is near crippling in its intensity and renders her virtually housebound; and, the research outpost in Greenland is the location where her brother ostensibly committed suicide by walking out of the warmth of the lab and freezing himself to death in the open tundra. And (no guessing necessary here!!) Val has never believed the verdict of suicide and is convinced her brother was murdered but the number of possible suspects is vanishingly small!
Full points to the author for her imagination and ability to pull together a list of plot components that is delicious on the face of it. And there is no doubt that the author’s portrayal of Val’s scientific efforts to parse the young girl’s language and to communicate with her were absolutely intriguing and completely convincing. In addition, the gritty portrayal of the difficulties of living, working, and completing scientific research in one of the harshest environments on the planet was near poetic in its realistic intensity. But, for me (a convinced diehard sci-fi fan and a believer in allowing an author plenty of room for literary license), the science was simply too far over the top (I think?!) I suppose I have to acknowledge that just because something has never been done and would currently be considered impossible doesn’t mean that it will forever be so but …
Enjoyable and definitely recommended. Just set your scientific judgment aside and let the story wash over you.
Paul Weiss
GIRL IN ICE is a mystery, a sci-fi possibility, an anthropological treatise on linguistics and the etymology and kinship of dead languages couched in a psychological thriller, a cautionary tale on climate warming, a human drama of a pathologically introverted young woman suffering from anxiety disorder, a story of scientific exploration in the far northern reaches of Greenland – gosh, what’s not to like?
Val Chesterfield is a linguist, in fact, she’s THE world’s acknowledged expert in dead Nordic languages. So when a scientist conducting climate research in the all too brief summer of Arctic Greenland manages a scientific impossibility – thawing a young girl, deep frozen in a glacier for centuries, and bringing her back to life – Chesterfield is called in an attempt to communicate with the young girl speaking a language that seems to bear no relationship to any known language on the planet, living or dead. Only two problems (aside from the scientific issues, of course) – Val’s anxiety disorder is near crippling in its intensity and renders her virtually housebound; and, the research outpost in Greenland is the location where her brother ostensibly committed suicide by walking out of the warmth of the lab and freezing himself to death in the open tundra. And (no guessing necessary here!!) Val has never believed the verdict of suicide and is convinced her brother was murdered but the number of possible suspects is vanishingly small!
Full points to the author for her imagination and ability to pull together a list of plot components that is delicious on the face of it. And there is no doubt that the author’s portrayal of Val’s scientific efforts to parse the young girl’s language and to communicate with her were absolutely intriguing and completely convincing. In addition, the gritty portrayal of the difficulties of living, working, and completing scientific research in one of the harshest environments on the planet was near poetic in its realistic intensity. But, for me (a convinced diehard sci-fi fan and a believer in allowing an author plenty of room for literary license), the science was simply too far over the top (I think?!) I suppose I have to acknowledge that just because something has never been done and would currently be considered impossible doesn’t mean that it will forever be so but …
Enjoyable and definitely recommended. Just set your scientific judgment aside and let the story wash over you.
Paul Weiss
March 6, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝕀 𝕤𝕒𝕚𝕕 𝕓𝕣𝕣𝕣𝕣…. 𝕀𝕥’𝕤 𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖!
⏰ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Val is an anxiety-fighting linguist grappling with the suicide of her twin brother Andy, when his mentor/coworker/fellow scientist Wyatt calls to enlist her help. In Greenland. Yup.. Arctic GREENLAND. He claims to have thawed a native girl from the ice who speaks a language no one understands. Val, in disbelief, reluctantly embarks on the journey, not merely to aid in linguistics (to whatever this is), but to uncover what actually caused her brother’s death. What she uncovers is a lengthy, improbable, fantastical adventure in deception and intrigue she never saw coming.
💡𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: Cue the cocoa! Everything about this book is meant to be chilling - from the freezing location, to the cold demeanor of some characters, to the biting cold plot.
𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝐲’𝐚𝐥𝐥.
I can relate to Val because I battled agoraphobia and no doubt - Val fits that diagnosis. To have her place herself in a locus with wide open spaces, unknowns, wild and untamed? Yes please. That’s some epic exposure therapy! Proverbial “fish out of water.” Loved that plot point.
The story is heavily laced with a clear message about the effects of climate change (bravo!) and takes place in 2023, a mere year in the future; that was unique with shock-provoking factual information, and I think was a writing choice in order to avoid the pandemic issue (please be OVER already!) while focusing on the climate crisis.
My issues were with plot points just toooo improbable for me though (it’s science fiction folks - you can’t thaw people alive… yet) and to reveal anything further would be a spoiler and that ain’t me. Though I’ll say this -𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙎 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚. This is a book that might teach you that.
𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆𝗠𝗮𝗴𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
📚𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Mystery/Science Fiction
😍𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: if you’re in the mood for a crazy, stark locale and a mystery that’s unlike others.
🙅♀️ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Climate change deniers.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Gallery Books/Gallery Scout Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for making me put on a sweater. Several. And it’s 70 degrees here.
𝕀 𝕤𝕒𝕚𝕕 𝕓𝕣𝕣𝕣𝕣…. 𝕀𝕥’𝕤 𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕕 𝕚𝕟 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖!
⏰ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Val is an anxiety-fighting linguist grappling with the suicide of her twin brother Andy, when his mentor/coworker/fellow scientist Wyatt calls to enlist her help. In Greenland. Yup.. Arctic GREENLAND. He claims to have thawed a native girl from the ice who speaks a language no one understands. Val, in disbelief, reluctantly embarks on the journey, not merely to aid in linguistics (to whatever this is), but to uncover what actually caused her brother’s death. What she uncovers is a lengthy, improbable, fantastical adventure in deception and intrigue she never saw coming.
💡𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: Cue the cocoa! Everything about this book is meant to be chilling - from the freezing location, to the cold demeanor of some characters, to the biting cold plot.
𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝐲’𝐚𝐥𝐥.
I can relate to Val because I battled agoraphobia and no doubt - Val fits that diagnosis. To have her place herself in a locus with wide open spaces, unknowns, wild and untamed? Yes please. That’s some epic exposure therapy! Proverbial “fish out of water.” Loved that plot point.
The story is heavily laced with a clear message about the effects of climate change (bravo!) and takes place in 2023, a mere year in the future; that was unique with shock-provoking factual information, and I think was a writing choice in order to avoid the pandemic issue (please be OVER already!) while focusing on the climate crisis.
My issues were with plot points just toooo improbable for me though (it’s science fiction folks - you can’t thaw people alive… yet) and to reveal anything further would be a spoiler and that ain’t me. Though I’ll say this -𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙎 𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚. This is a book that might teach you that.
𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆𝗠𝗮𝗴𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.
📚𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Mystery/Science Fiction
😍𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: if you’re in the mood for a crazy, stark locale and a mystery that’s unlike others.
🙅♀️ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Climate change deniers.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Gallery Books/Gallery Scout Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for making me put on a sweater. Several. And it’s 70 degrees here.
March 9, 2022
“We found a body in the ice out on Glacier 35A. A young girl. We were able to cut through the ice and bring her back to the compound. Val, she thawed out alive. Don’t ask me to explain it, I can’t.”Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for sending me an ARC of Girl in Ice in exchange for an honest review.
…
I lost my way when I tried to explain the word hope. But she told me about a word in her language for a particular kind of hope: the feeling a hunter has when he’s waited all day at a breathing hole for a seal and one comes up but he misses with his harpoon, and even though the sun is going down and he’s hungry and cold, he knows he’ll try again tomorrow, and tomorrow he’ll be successful. He has no doubt.
I love that word.
The Goodreads description of Girl in Ice fully describes the plot. Val is a linguist who lived in the shadow of her twin brother Andy. Soon after she’s told that Andy committed suicide by deliberately walking unprotected outside his Arctic research station, Val gets a call from Andy’s mentor Wyatt, who says he needs Val’s help to communicate with an 8-year-old girl he claims he thawed alive from the ice. Intrigued by the mysterious girl, and determined to find out what really happened to her brother, Val puts her grief and anxiety aside and travels to this brutal land known simply as the Enormity….
There are parts of Girl in Ice that I quite enjoyed. Struggling, anxious Val is a sympathetic character, even if a bit cliché. Her interactions with the girl are realistic and often moving. The author does a good job obscuring whether enigmatic Wyatt is just a crappy person or an actual villain. The heavy focus on establishing a way to communicate with the girl was reminiscent of Embassytown or the movie Arrival. Perhaps best of all is the story’s setting. Whether inside the claustrophobic research station or outside on (or occasionally under) the ice, the setting is its own character, driving the characters towards various acts for their own survival.
We were really in it now. Alone in an astonishing country of snow and ice that was simply not of human scale. We pitched forward on the flat expanse. My heart beat weakly in the chilled rigid box of my body; I walked on feet I no longer felt.But there was a lot in Girl in Ice that I struggled with. The story moves pretty slowly until the very end, when it moves really fast. The mystery about what happened to Andy ends up being not very mysterious. The mystery about the girl is hampered by the hand waving away of the scientific impossibility of thawing a human alive from the ice. And the attempts to raise the stakes of Wyatt’s research by describing people being flash frozen by “ice winds” in different countries around the world? Well, that’s straight out of the silliest parts of the climate thriller The Day After Tomorrow, a movie I love, but not for its realism.
Girl in Ice is that rare book that’s a firm 3-star read—not bad, but not very good either. I expect the only part I will ultimately remember is the Arctic Circle setting, which is cool (pun intended 😄) but not enough to sustain a novel.
April 6, 2022
I was really intrigued by the premise of this book. The protagonist, Valerie Chesterfield, receives a request from her twin brother's professor to come to Greenland to work with a girl who was found frozen in the Arctic, and subsequently thawed out. She also wants to find out what happened to her twin brother who died somewhat mysteriously there.
I love the idea of linguistics intertwined into the story and how the ancient language of this thawed out girl was used to express emotions that there may not be a single word for in English. However, there were a lot of subplots that just didn't go deep enough. I didn't have to have super technical scientific explanations, but do need more to be totally immersed. For example, there was an ice wind phenomena of katabatic winds, sweeping across the planet and instantly freezing people who were no where near icy slopes.
I found the descriptions of the icy landscape beautiful and mesmerizing. The reader really gets a real picture of what the scientists and researchers endure when they go on these assignments.
I love the idea of linguistics intertwined into the story and how the ancient language of this thawed out girl was used to express emotions that there may not be a single word for in English. However, there were a lot of subplots that just didn't go deep enough. I didn't have to have super technical scientific explanations, but do need more to be totally immersed. For example, there was an ice wind phenomena of katabatic winds, sweeping across the planet and instantly freezing people who were no where near icy slopes.
I found the descriptions of the icy landscape beautiful and mesmerizing. The reader really gets a real picture of what the scientists and researchers endure when they go on these assignments.
January 23, 2022
4.5 stars. I rarely rate thrillers more than 4 stars, but this one was exceptional. The Arctic setting was unique for its isolation, harshness, and beauty. The story behind the girl in the ice was both ridiculous and crazily plausible. The heroine suffers from anxiety and loneliness. Most people in her life either didn't see her or didn't like her. I really liked her and admired her intelligence. I certainly admire the author's intelligence. It was such a lovely change to read a whip-smart, page-turning thriller that was both spooky and at times, quite tender. What a great winter read.
March 3, 2022
Girl In Ice is a heart stopping, can't put it down, highly atmospheric thriller from cover to cover. Everything about this story reeks of danger - the killer setting, the complex plot line, the unreliable characters, the dark ill-boding tone. The only thing clear is that one or more people will die before the story ends.
Val Chesterfield gets a call from Wyatt, a friend of her deceased twin brother Andy, begging her to come to a remote island off Greenland to help him determine what language a young girl discovered frozen in ice is speaking. Wyatt, a climate scientist, claims the girl thawed out alive. Val, a linguist excelling in dead Nordic languages, is curious yet hesitant to travel to the locale of her brother's suicide. She has her doubts as to what happened to her brother and ultimately, the need to know is what drives her out of her comfort zone to Greenland. What she finds upon arrival is a bitterly cold, harsh landscape where death comes quickly to those who dare venture outside without adequate protection. And yet she's supposed to believe that her scientist brother walked outside in only boxers, laid down and froze to death. Val is determined to learn the truth of her brother's death, the young girl's heritage and what's really going on with Wyatt and his assistant in this God forsaken frozen world.
To say Girl In Ice is highly atmospheric is an understatement. The climate and landscape controls the story, dictating much of what happens while driving the maddening pace forward. I imagine it's much like speeding downhill in a bobsled or on skis at breakneck speeds as it's hard to catch a breath reading this story. I frantically turned pages looking for answers - afraid to stop, afraid to read on. I don't recall the last time I read a book and felt so utterly immersed in a story that I had literally had chills and a growing sense of dread. The sinister tone is ever increasing and the sense of danger is almost overwhelming. Ferencik does a brilliant job of drawing readers into the story and holding them hostage along with the characters who are cut off from the rest of the world by the life threatening weather. The story unfolds through Val's point of view as she struggles to survive one blow and one crisis after another. Her work with the young mysterious girl is heart touching and yet even there, there's a sense of the clock ticking toward some disastrous event. I'm not saying more about the plot line because readers need to travel this treacherous journey without prior knowledge other than what's known in the blurb to fully experience it.
Girl In Ice is an intensely explosive, raw, gut-wrenching thriller that had me on the edge of my seat until I read the final page. It's a story I won't forget anytime soon. The escalating danger from surrounding sources, the unknown of what's really happening and the knowledge that there's no escape for these characters drives a fervent pace through unforeseen twists and turns to the epic ending. I challenge any fan of suspense thrillers to put this one down before finishing once they get into it. Girl In Ice left my heart a little raw with my emotions all over the place. It's definitely a favorite of 2022 for me. What a movie this one would make! Highly recommended to fans of mysteries, suspense, and highly atmospheric thrillers.
Many thanks to Gallery/Scout Press for an arc of this book.
Reviewed at Cross My Heart Reviews
Val Chesterfield gets a call from Wyatt, a friend of her deceased twin brother Andy, begging her to come to a remote island off Greenland to help him determine what language a young girl discovered frozen in ice is speaking. Wyatt, a climate scientist, claims the girl thawed out alive. Val, a linguist excelling in dead Nordic languages, is curious yet hesitant to travel to the locale of her brother's suicide. She has her doubts as to what happened to her brother and ultimately, the need to know is what drives her out of her comfort zone to Greenland. What she finds upon arrival is a bitterly cold, harsh landscape where death comes quickly to those who dare venture outside without adequate protection. And yet she's supposed to believe that her scientist brother walked outside in only boxers, laid down and froze to death. Val is determined to learn the truth of her brother's death, the young girl's heritage and what's really going on with Wyatt and his assistant in this God forsaken frozen world.
To say Girl In Ice is highly atmospheric is an understatement. The climate and landscape controls the story, dictating much of what happens while driving the maddening pace forward. I imagine it's much like speeding downhill in a bobsled or on skis at breakneck speeds as it's hard to catch a breath reading this story. I frantically turned pages looking for answers - afraid to stop, afraid to read on. I don't recall the last time I read a book and felt so utterly immersed in a story that I had literally had chills and a growing sense of dread. The sinister tone is ever increasing and the sense of danger is almost overwhelming. Ferencik does a brilliant job of drawing readers into the story and holding them hostage along with the characters who are cut off from the rest of the world by the life threatening weather. The story unfolds through Val's point of view as she struggles to survive one blow and one crisis after another. Her work with the young mysterious girl is heart touching and yet even there, there's a sense of the clock ticking toward some disastrous event. I'm not saying more about the plot line because readers need to travel this treacherous journey without prior knowledge other than what's known in the blurb to fully experience it.
Girl In Ice is an intensely explosive, raw, gut-wrenching thriller that had me on the edge of my seat until I read the final page. It's a story I won't forget anytime soon. The escalating danger from surrounding sources, the unknown of what's really happening and the knowledge that there's no escape for these characters drives a fervent pace through unforeseen twists and turns to the epic ending. I challenge any fan of suspense thrillers to put this one down before finishing once they get into it. Girl In Ice left my heart a little raw with my emotions all over the place. It's definitely a favorite of 2022 for me. What a movie this one would make! Highly recommended to fans of mysteries, suspense, and highly atmospheric thrillers.
Many thanks to Gallery/Scout Press for an arc of this book.
Reviewed at Cross My Heart Reviews
November 26, 2021
Wow. This book was so much more than I thought it would be. I wanted to read it, because the idea of someone found in ice thawing out alive sounded intriguing. It definitely met my expectations there, but the book was about so much more than that. I’m not even sure where to start; this book had everything, and was everything.
Val is a linguist, specializing in ancient Nordic languages. One day, she gets an email from a scientist she knows, asking for her help. He claims to have found a young girl frozen in a glacier, and when they thawed her out, she woke up. She is now hysterical and the scientist, Wyatt, is begging Val to come to Greenland and decipher what this girl is saying.
I know what you’re thinking - that’s ridiculous and impossible…that’s what Val was thinking, too, but Wyatt insists that he’s not kidding, and sends her a tape of the girl talking. She’s been crying, obviously asking for something, and they can’t place the language. Val can’t either, but she hears the anguish in the girl’s voice, and really wants to help. This is what she does - dead languages are her passion, and she thinks in time, she could unlock the door to this girl’s mind.
Two problems:
1. She knows Wyatt because her twin brother, Andy, was also a scientist and he committed suicide at the base she’ll be going to. He was found outside in his underwear, curled up and frozen to death. Val’s father has always believed that Wyatt had something to do with Andy’s death, and he’s wary of Val being isolated with that man for weeks.
2. Val has panic disorder, and is terrified of flying. She doesn’t travel, only goes to a few places in town where she feels safe, and she knows she is going to need A LOT of medication if she’s going to be able to get on a military plane and live in an uninhabited part of the world. She bravely overcomes her fears (not completely, but she makes it), and meets two other people who will also be doing some research in the Arctic.
Once she gets there, work begins with the girl. Her language is vaguely ancient West Greenlandic and Norse, but it’s not either of those. The cadence is different, the words are unknown to Val, and she’s completely stumped. This girl is terrified and trying to communicate something, but they are both getting frustrated with not understanding each other.
One thing that I thought would be a side-part I’d mostly gloss over was the part about languages. I didn’t realize how fascinating ancient languages are, and this book was great at explaining how linguists work - it’s very intricate, very difficult and very cool. There were many beautiful things in this book, but I’m surprised by how much I loved the parts about Norse languages. When I read that the Arctic way of saying “climate change” roughly translates to “my friend is hurting”, I thought it was so hauntingly beautiful. I’ll never forget that one.
This book does discuss climate change, as you’d assume when people are living on a polar shelf, and it also touches on mental illness. There are a few other characters, like the couple coming to do research, and their stories were all great. The little girl, who is eventually found out to be named Sigrid, steals the show. It was hard not to fall in love with her character; she’s one of my favorites this year (well, next year - the book is slated to come out in February).
The writing in this is stellar, and the author transports you to the Arctic with her vivid and beautiful imagery. It’s definitely a thriller, but it’s just a perfect story all around. There is no question that this is a five star book for me, and one I’ll keep thinking about for awhile.
(Thank you to Gallery Books, Erica Ferencik, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
Val is a linguist, specializing in ancient Nordic languages. One day, she gets an email from a scientist she knows, asking for her help. He claims to have found a young girl frozen in a glacier, and when they thawed her out, she woke up. She is now hysterical and the scientist, Wyatt, is begging Val to come to Greenland and decipher what this girl is saying.
I know what you’re thinking - that’s ridiculous and impossible…that’s what Val was thinking, too, but Wyatt insists that he’s not kidding, and sends her a tape of the girl talking. She’s been crying, obviously asking for something, and they can’t place the language. Val can’t either, but she hears the anguish in the girl’s voice, and really wants to help. This is what she does - dead languages are her passion, and she thinks in time, she could unlock the door to this girl’s mind.
Two problems:
1. She knows Wyatt because her twin brother, Andy, was also a scientist and he committed suicide at the base she’ll be going to. He was found outside in his underwear, curled up and frozen to death. Val’s father has always believed that Wyatt had something to do with Andy’s death, and he’s wary of Val being isolated with that man for weeks.
2. Val has panic disorder, and is terrified of flying. She doesn’t travel, only goes to a few places in town where she feels safe, and she knows she is going to need A LOT of medication if she’s going to be able to get on a military plane and live in an uninhabited part of the world. She bravely overcomes her fears (not completely, but she makes it), and meets two other people who will also be doing some research in the Arctic.
Once she gets there, work begins with the girl. Her language is vaguely ancient West Greenlandic and Norse, but it’s not either of those. The cadence is different, the words are unknown to Val, and she’s completely stumped. This girl is terrified and trying to communicate something, but they are both getting frustrated with not understanding each other.
One thing that I thought would be a side-part I’d mostly gloss over was the part about languages. I didn’t realize how fascinating ancient languages are, and this book was great at explaining how linguists work - it’s very intricate, very difficult and very cool. There were many beautiful things in this book, but I’m surprised by how much I loved the parts about Norse languages. When I read that the Arctic way of saying “climate change” roughly translates to “my friend is hurting”, I thought it was so hauntingly beautiful. I’ll never forget that one.
This book does discuss climate change, as you’d assume when people are living on a polar shelf, and it also touches on mental illness. There are a few other characters, like the couple coming to do research, and their stories were all great. The little girl, who is eventually found out to be named Sigrid, steals the show. It was hard not to fall in love with her character; she’s one of my favorites this year (well, next year - the book is slated to come out in February).
The writing in this is stellar, and the author transports you to the Arctic with her vivid and beautiful imagery. It’s definitely a thriller, but it’s just a perfect story all around. There is no question that this is a five star book for me, and one I’ll keep thinking about for awhile.
(Thank you to Gallery Books, Erica Ferencik, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)
December 5, 2022
I have to say this book took me completely by surprise. While it was at times a little slower than I would have liked I was greatly rewarded for my patience. This story was absolutely fascinating and while the mystery was about the slowest burn I’ve ever seen to a mystery the end completely made up for that. I was completely fascinated by the information about language - things I never even knew I would want to know. The narrator was a fascinating character - anxious to the point of being almost reclusive she cannot resist when an old colleague calls her to ask her to help with a child he found…and claims was frozen solid when he found her. She speaks a language no one can place and her rescuer is convinced she is from an ancient civilization.
March 11, 2022
First off, I would like to thank Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Girl In Ice by Erica Ferencik. It blew me away. I loved everything about it, from the title, to the cover, to the story inside.
The Girl In Ice was thawed out by the research team studying climate change on an island off the coast of Greenland. The Arctic Circle…I can’t imagine being there at any time, let alone when danger lurks. Where will it come from? I figured it out pretty quick, but I could not be certain. Didn’t matter anyway. The writing kept me glued to the pages.
Valerie ‘Val’ Chesterfield was already somewhat acquainted with the research being carried out. Her brother, Andy, had been a part of it…until he was found outside, frozen. Well, that makes me very suspicious. When the Girl In Ice was found and no one could understand her, Val, being a linguist who specialized in Nordic languages, was called in to help. She didn’t believe the story about her brother, so now she can find out for herself what really happened.
The Girl In Ice is desperately trying to communicate with them.
I love when an author can include things that interest me, like climate change. It makes the story more believable, except for the girl in the ice coming to life. I don’t think I can believe that could happen, but hey, there are those that believe in cryogenics, so…….
I watched Val grow, change, develop into an strong, independent, loyal person that has yet to find her place in the world, but happy to be in it.
The world building was so realistically created that I almost believed I could feel the cold, hear the snow squeaking under my feet, and it made me wonder…about what research Erica Ferencik did. Her detailed descriptions allowed her to paint so vividly with words an environment so harsh, otherworldly…and I was lost in it.
A sense of danger arose early and hung on every page. I had a feeling about some things that come to pass, but Erica Ferencik supplied plenty of book surprises to keep me on my toes. I ignored everything around me, except coffee and restroom breaks. I read hundreds of books a year, so that is not any easy thing to do.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Girl In Ice by Erica Ferencik.
See more at fundinmental
The Girl In Ice was thawed out by the research team studying climate change on an island off the coast of Greenland. The Arctic Circle…I can’t imagine being there at any time, let alone when danger lurks. Where will it come from? I figured it out pretty quick, but I could not be certain. Didn’t matter anyway. The writing kept me glued to the pages.
Valerie ‘Val’ Chesterfield was already somewhat acquainted with the research being carried out. Her brother, Andy, had been a part of it…until he was found outside, frozen. Well, that makes me very suspicious. When the Girl In Ice was found and no one could understand her, Val, being a linguist who specialized in Nordic languages, was called in to help. She didn’t believe the story about her brother, so now she can find out for herself what really happened.
The Girl In Ice is desperately trying to communicate with them.
I love when an author can include things that interest me, like climate change. It makes the story more believable, except for the girl in the ice coming to life. I don’t think I can believe that could happen, but hey, there are those that believe in cryogenics, so…….
I watched Val grow, change, develop into an strong, independent, loyal person that has yet to find her place in the world, but happy to be in it.
The world building was so realistically created that I almost believed I could feel the cold, hear the snow squeaking under my feet, and it made me wonder…about what research Erica Ferencik did. Her detailed descriptions allowed her to paint so vividly with words an environment so harsh, otherworldly…and I was lost in it.
A sense of danger arose early and hung on every page. I had a feeling about some things that come to pass, but Erica Ferencik supplied plenty of book surprises to keep me on my toes. I ignored everything around me, except coffee and restroom breaks. I read hundreds of books a year, so that is not any easy thing to do.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Girl In Ice by Erica Ferencik.
See more at fundinmental
March 16, 2022
What an amazing story, this author captures the awesomeness of nature itself, the quiet and calm to the ferocious whipping winds and complete control of an entire area. And in this whirlwind are people, living lives while trying to understand everything around them. Val Chesterfield is a linguist specializing in dead Nordic languages, but she is pretty 'dead' herself, frozen in her little world and in fear of any change around her. Her brother, Andy, is a climate scientist living on a barren island off the coast of Greenland. He is her twin, now supposedly a victim of suicide, something Val refuses to believe. His work partner, Wyatt, contacts Val asking her to come out there as he has an amazing find and needs her linguist skills. A girl who speaks a language no one can understand...
A wild adventure in the Arctic Circle follows, as Val puts her fears behind her to help a young girl who no one else can know about yet. An intriguing story with some intense scenes, characters you feel for and some you can't stand in a book that takes you out in the cold. I received an ARC from the author and publisher and I offer you my honest thoughts and feelings in this review.
A wild adventure in the Arctic Circle follows, as Val puts her fears behind her to help a young girl who no one else can know about yet. An intriguing story with some intense scenes, characters you feel for and some you can't stand in a book that takes you out in the cold. I received an ARC from the author and publisher and I offer you my honest thoughts and feelings in this review.
December 21, 2021
3.75 stars Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review. Thanks to Gallery/Scout Press. Publication is March 1, 2022
This was the type of book that I was ready for. The type that I needed to help me out of my reading funk. A fiction, suspense novel that just took me away. One that I could immerse myself in and just follow where the story lead.
A young girl is frozen in the ice, in Greenland. She is thawed and brought back to life by the team of scientists working at that outpost, but no one can understand her. Val is called in. Her specialty is linguistics. However Val is being called to the Greenland outpost that her twin brother recently died at. But was it suicide? Val's personal mission is to get to the bottom of her brothers death, all the while trying to figure out what language this young girl speaks.
This is the type story that you just have to release your mind to the book. Don't critic every little thing that happens. This is fiction with a twist of fantasy. Just by riding the wave of the story it will reward you a number of times throughout.
This was the type of book that I was ready for. The type that I needed to help me out of my reading funk. A fiction, suspense novel that just took me away. One that I could immerse myself in and just follow where the story lead.
A young girl is frozen in the ice, in Greenland. She is thawed and brought back to life by the team of scientists working at that outpost, but no one can understand her. Val is called in. Her specialty is linguistics. However Val is being called to the Greenland outpost that her twin brother recently died at. But was it suicide? Val's personal mission is to get to the bottom of her brothers death, all the while trying to figure out what language this young girl speaks.
This is the type story that you just have to release your mind to the book. Don't critic every little thing that happens. This is fiction with a twist of fantasy. Just by riding the wave of the story it will reward you a number of times throughout.
February 2, 2022
Val Chesterfield’s twin brother Andy was stationed at a remote research post on an island off the coast of Greenland, when one night he stepped outside into the freezing cold to die.
Now, almost six months later, a girl has been found there, frozen in the ice; but when she thaws out she’s miraculously alive, and speaking a language no-one understands. As a linguist and a sister, Val can’t resist the invitation to visit the site of her brother’s dead and attempt to unlock the mystery of this child and the frozen landscapes of the north.
Some books just demand to be read in one sitting, and Girl in Ice is certainly one of them. Erica Ferencik brought Greenland to life in my imagination from the moment Val first flew over the icebergs of its frozen seas. The remoteness and danger of just the environment of the island and its research station would have provided plenty of dramatic tension on their own – just surviving the local weather and wildlife isn’t something to take for granted. There are, however, human dynamics galore; Andy wasn’t alone when he took his own life, and the other outpost staff there that day, Wyatt and Jeanne, remain. Val, usually too anxious to leave even her home state, and uncertain of herself, isn’t sure whether she’s imagining that something seems slightly wrong, and the girl she’s pulled herself completely out of her comfort zone to help is reluctant even to be in the same room as other people – let alone attempt to communicate.
Between the characters, the landscape, and that creepingly ominous atmosphere, Girl in Ice had me genuinely torn between my need to read faster and learn just what was going on, and my need to spin the book out, so that I didn’t finish too soon. Val was such a sympathetic character, struggling with her own demons but determined to finally break out of the safe shell she’d trapped herself in, and her specialty of linguistics meant some fascinating details about language, especially the words in other languages for specific tones of emotion.
Whether I was desperate to solve a mystery, marveling at a beautifully described part of the northern scenery, or absorbing some fascinating tidbit of knowledge, this book held me rapt from start to end. Already one of my favorite books of next year, I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.
3.5, really - this review originally appeared on mysteryandsuspense.com
Now, almost six months later, a girl has been found there, frozen in the ice; but when she thaws out she’s miraculously alive, and speaking a language no-one understands. As a linguist and a sister, Val can’t resist the invitation to visit the site of her brother’s dead and attempt to unlock the mystery of this child and the frozen landscapes of the north.
Some books just demand to be read in one sitting, and Girl in Ice is certainly one of them. Erica Ferencik brought Greenland to life in my imagination from the moment Val first flew over the icebergs of its frozen seas. The remoteness and danger of just the environment of the island and its research station would have provided plenty of dramatic tension on their own – just surviving the local weather and wildlife isn’t something to take for granted. There are, however, human dynamics galore; Andy wasn’t alone when he took his own life, and the other outpost staff there that day, Wyatt and Jeanne, remain. Val, usually too anxious to leave even her home state, and uncertain of herself, isn’t sure whether she’s imagining that something seems slightly wrong, and the girl she’s pulled herself completely out of her comfort zone to help is reluctant even to be in the same room as other people – let alone attempt to communicate.
Between the characters, the landscape, and that creepingly ominous atmosphere, Girl in Ice had me genuinely torn between my need to read faster and learn just what was going on, and my need to spin the book out, so that I didn’t finish too soon. Val was such a sympathetic character, struggling with her own demons but determined to finally break out of the safe shell she’d trapped herself in, and her specialty of linguistics meant some fascinating details about language, especially the words in other languages for specific tones of emotion.
Whether I was desperate to solve a mystery, marveling at a beautifully described part of the northern scenery, or absorbing some fascinating tidbit of knowledge, this book held me rapt from start to end. Already one of my favorite books of next year, I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.
3.5, really - this review originally appeared on mysteryandsuspense.com
December 23, 2021
Thank you so much to Scout Press and Erica Ferencik for my copy of Girl in Ice! The book is completely stunning and the cover drew me in from the beginning. It’s about Val, a woman trained in Nordic languages. She is heartbroken because he brother recently committed suicide by wandering into the freezing weather of Greenland. When his coworker discovers a girl frozen in ice who thaws out alive, he calls Val to come interpret what the girl is saying.
Val is intrigued because she not only wants to come help interpret in this crazy situation, but she also wants to learn more about her brother’s death. From the minute she meets the girl, she and Val have a special connection. Val discovers the girl is dying and the key to saving her is found in the research her brother had been doing. She isn’t sure how everything ties together, but she knows that there is something crazy going on.
Thoughts: I like how this book was a locked room style mystery. The premise was very unique and not something I’ve read about before. The book was very slow paced but it had a wonderful setting. It was more of a fantasy book than a thriller, because things were not believable as in a traditional thriller.
Val wasn’t my favorite as a main character. There were some interesting parts of the story but others were just slow and had a few plot holes. Some of the storylines caught my attention but never ended up anywhere. 3-stars.
Val is intrigued because she not only wants to come help interpret in this crazy situation, but she also wants to learn more about her brother’s death. From the minute she meets the girl, she and Val have a special connection. Val discovers the girl is dying and the key to saving her is found in the research her brother had been doing. She isn’t sure how everything ties together, but she knows that there is something crazy going on.
Thoughts: I like how this book was a locked room style mystery. The premise was very unique and not something I’ve read about before. The book was very slow paced but it had a wonderful setting. It was more of a fantasy book than a thriller, because things were not believable as in a traditional thriller.
Val wasn’t my favorite as a main character. There were some interesting parts of the story but others were just slow and had a few plot holes. Some of the storylines caught my attention but never ended up anywhere. 3-stars.
May 15, 2022
3.5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Anxiety: the crippling kind. I'm tethered to the familiar, the safe, or what I perceive as safe.
Girl in Ice was a mystery, thriller, and touch of scifi story that took an intriguing idea but didn't completely deliver on all of its executions. Told in first person from Val, a linguist who has anxiety that keeps her from deviating from the known, she eats the same meals, can't bring herself to travel to new places, and lost her twin brother to suicide five months ago. She receives a phone call from her brother's mentor who he had been studying climate change with on a small uninhabited island off Greenland's northwest coast, Wyatt claims he found a young girl frozen in the ice and she has miraculously thawed out alive and is frantically speaking a language that no one can understand. Wyatt wants Val to put her linguistic genius to use and help him figure out what the girl is saying. Val's anxiety makes it nearly impossible for her to travel but she never believed the story of her brother's suicide and her father is pressuring her to go to the Arctic Circle to find out the truth of what really happened.
What is she saying, what does she want, what has happened to her?
The Arctic Circle setting with it's isolation helps to add a sense of eerie and helplessness and the small cast of characters, Val, Wyatt, the brusque mechanic Jeanne, the married couple scientists, and the girl found in the ice, Sigrid, narrow the focus and add to the thriller feel of urgency for Val to figure out what is going on before it's too late. The story was a bit bottom heavy with the slower creeping of Val arriving in the Arctic Circle, introduction of characters, very gradual growing of understanding between Val and Sigrid, and then the rush to understanding and some reveals in the last 20%. That very ending rush left some answers in its wake, the scifi component and some of the mystery but left others missing, like the ultimate answer about some deaths. The author almost gave too much backstory to some characters because their inclusion left some threads dangling. I also was a little disappointed in how Jeanne's character was utilized and the ending.
To be encased in this glacial prison, eyes frozen open in terror, how long had she been like that?
The use of a very real crisis, climate change, and then adding in some danger of ice winds (a changing of temperature so quick it instantly freezes people) and then adding in the scifi-ish elements made this story's basics intriguing but the rushing in the ending gave this more of a deflated balloon feeling. Some side stories and secondary characterizations ending up not feeling needed because of how they weren't wrapped up, not puzzle piece explained, and ultimately felt needed to be edited out. However, there were some memorable scenes, like the mass grave site of flash frozen people caught in mid-battle, and the mystery/thriller feeling of dread is definitely felt in the middle with questions of is Val's anxiety the culprit or is she really in danger. If looking for a touch of scifi in your mystery and thriller reading, this would provide an easy afternoon chilling read.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Anxiety: the crippling kind. I'm tethered to the familiar, the safe, or what I perceive as safe.
Girl in Ice was a mystery, thriller, and touch of scifi story that took an intriguing idea but didn't completely deliver on all of its executions. Told in first person from Val, a linguist who has anxiety that keeps her from deviating from the known, she eats the same meals, can't bring herself to travel to new places, and lost her twin brother to suicide five months ago. She receives a phone call from her brother's mentor who he had been studying climate change with on a small uninhabited island off Greenland's northwest coast, Wyatt claims he found a young girl frozen in the ice and she has miraculously thawed out alive and is frantically speaking a language that no one can understand. Wyatt wants Val to put her linguistic genius to use and help him figure out what the girl is saying. Val's anxiety makes it nearly impossible for her to travel but she never believed the story of her brother's suicide and her father is pressuring her to go to the Arctic Circle to find out the truth of what really happened.
What is she saying, what does she want, what has happened to her?
The Arctic Circle setting with it's isolation helps to add a sense of eerie and helplessness and the small cast of characters, Val, Wyatt, the brusque mechanic Jeanne, the married couple scientists, and the girl found in the ice, Sigrid, narrow the focus and add to the thriller feel of urgency for Val to figure out what is going on before it's too late. The story was a bit bottom heavy with the slower creeping of Val arriving in the Arctic Circle, introduction of characters, very gradual growing of understanding between Val and Sigrid, and then the rush to understanding and some reveals in the last 20%. That very ending rush left some answers in its wake, the scifi component and some of the mystery but left others missing, like the ultimate answer about some deaths. The author almost gave too much backstory to some characters because their inclusion left some threads dangling. I also was a little disappointed in how Jeanne's character was utilized and the ending.
To be encased in this glacial prison, eyes frozen open in terror, how long had she been like that?
The use of a very real crisis, climate change, and then adding in some danger of ice winds (a changing of temperature so quick it instantly freezes people) and then adding in the scifi-ish elements made this story's basics intriguing but the rushing in the ending gave this more of a deflated balloon feeling. Some side stories and secondary characterizations ending up not feeling needed because of how they weren't wrapped up, not puzzle piece explained, and ultimately felt needed to be edited out. However, there were some memorable scenes, like the mass grave site of flash frozen people caught in mid-battle, and the mystery/thriller feeling of dread is definitely felt in the middle with questions of is Val's anxiety the culprit or is she really in danger. If looking for a touch of scifi in your mystery and thriller reading, this would provide an easy afternoon chilling read.
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