The Snow Child

3 1/2 stars.

A few other reviewers have expressed what I felt after finishing the book: the first half is better (more satisfying?) than the second half.

That's not to say that the second half isn't great. But the first half has almost an otherworldly feel to it, something magical about the lives of a husband and wife trying to make a home on the frontier. The descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness absolutely chilled me to the bone, both with their beauty and with the cold, harsh weather.

The sadness of this childless couple brought tears to my eyes. Their disappointment of losing their only child was expertly described to the reader, and I really felt their sadness in my heart. I wanted them to make it on this Alaskan frontier, I wanted them to have a child of their own, I wanted them to be able to write home of their happiness.

And the Snow Child - is she real? She seems magical, a fairy tale, maybe a figment of the couple's imagination.

That's the first half. The second half is quite a bit different. There are more characters, another family befriends our pioneers. The pacing of the book seemed different. Time passed more quickly in the second half, years covered, while the first half included just one long winter.

A good read overall!