MAMA WATCHMAN READS: THE ICE QUEEN

An eight-year-old girl, angry at her mother for having a life that doesn’t always revolve around her, makes a wish that her mother would disappear-- and so it is. Her mother is killed in a car crash on that cold, frozen night, and the child, in her own way, begins to form an icy shell around her heart to protect herself from the pain and guilt.

As the years have passed, she has grown up to become a librarian with an unhealthy interest in death and dying. When asked to recommend stories for children, she always chooses Grimm’s most gruesome and frightening tales, much to the distress of their parents. Her otherwise emotionless life continues until her grandmother-- with whom she has lived since her mother’s death-- passes away (on the very night that the girl has wished that she be released from her pain).

Her older brother, Ned, comes to take her to the Florida college town where he is a professor involved in the study of storms and the survivors of lightning strikes. As they are leaving, sheet lightning occurs, and her brother starts taking notes of the storm. Without thinking, the girl wishes that she would be struck by lightning. Of course, within a few days, this also comes to be.

The lightning strike affects her in many strange ways, one of which is the inability to see the color red. She seeks out another victim of a strike, \"Lazarus\" Jones. When they meet, she finds that Lazarus is her complete opposite; even his touch leaves blisters on the skin. The heat of their affair finally begins the process of healing, and she eventually faces what really happened on the night that her mother died. She also gets to know her older brother, with whom she has never been close, leading to one of the most poignant scenes in the book.

Written entirely in the first person, the girl’s name is never revealed. I liked that the style of writing made me feel that the middle-- the part that took place between when her mother was killed and her meeting of Lazarus-- was written in shades of grey. If the book were made into a movie, I would think it would gradually be colorized as each scene was filmed from that point on.

The Ice Queen is a book about death and resurrection, as fairy tales so often are. Not just physical death, nor the coma-like trance that is brought on by the poison apple or the prick of the finger on a tainted spinning wheel, but the emotional death and reawakening of a fragile heart. It’s also a cautionary tale, warning us of the danger of taking for granted those we love, or even something as simple as the color of a rose.