Book Summary and Reviews of Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik

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Janie-Hickok-Siess

A Gripping Adventure Imbued with Science Fiction & Mystery
Girl In Ice is set at the extremely remote Tarrarmiut Arctic Science Station, a research facility off the coast of Greenland. At that very venue, linguist and professor Val Chesterfield's twin brother, Andy, allegedly committed suicide five months earlier by walking outside in the dead of night wearing only his boxer shorts and freezing to death. What would cause Andy to take his life in that manner? Val and her brother have been deeply troubled not about Andy's death, and skeptical of the reported circumstances surrounding his demise.

Val receives an email from Wyatt Speek, Andy's mentor and fellow researcher, to which he attaches a brief recording, asking her to come to the research station. The recording is just a snippet of a young girl speaking in an unknown language and Wyatt insists that he needs Val's expertise to decipher it. Val suffers from anxiety: "the crippling kind. I'm tethered to the familiar, the safe, or what I perceive as safe," she explains in the first-person narrative Ferencik employs to tell the story. She pays a visit to her ninety-one-year-old father at the nursing home where he is cared for. He was once a climate scientist "with a fierce intellect and fiercer temper," and Val has always known that Andy was his favorite child. Because their father has never believed that Andy killed himself, he convinces Val to go to Greenland not only to solve the mystery about the language the young girl is speaking but also to find the truth about Andy's death. He persuades Val, in part because Andy and Val made a pact to never hurt themselves and Val can't accept that Andy broke his promise.

With her anxiety medication in hand, Val travels to the research station for a seven-week mission. There, in addition to Wyatt, are married polar marine scientists Nora and Rajeev Chandra-Revard who will be working in a dome over the ice, diving into the icy water to retrieve samples and specimens to be studied. Like Val, they have signed a contract prohibiting them from discussing the girl anywhere except at the site. Jeanne, the station's mechanic and cook who lost her husband and daughter to a drunk driver, decided to leave Minnesota to work with Wyatt at the research facility.

Wyatt explains how he found the girl encased in ice, frozen as though running, and with a battery-powered saw cut a huge block loose and transported it to camp. He adamantly claims that she thawed out alive. Since then she has only screamed and thrashed about, breaking lamps and dumping everything out of the kitchen drawers. "She's freaked-out and confused. Inconsolable." Indeed, when Val first comes face to face with her, she screams and runs away. She refuses to bathe and wears a far-too-large, filthy Christmas sweater that once belonged to either Wyatt or Jeanne. Wyatt demands that whatever progress Val makes be reported solely to him.

Ferencik relates a fascinating tale about how Val, a woman who must suddenly confront her demons, bonds with the little girl. Eventually her named is revealed to be Sigrid. Val works to gain the child's trust even as emshe/em becomes increasingly distrustful of Wyatt, the stories he tells, and his motives. Gradually, Val and Sigrid form a tenuous bond, as Sigrid repeats words that Val struggles to understand -- they appear to contain only fragments of the languages about which she is knowledgeable. (The language Sigrid speaks was actually created by Ferencik to tell the tale.) Sigrid draws the same picture over and over, with increasing vehemence that convinces Val she is attempting to communicate something vitally important. But what is she trying to convey? At the same time, Val's suspicions about Wyatt are heightened by her discoveries of evidence related to his ongoing research and experiments. Val forms an alliance with Nora and Raj, who are also growing extremely wary of Wyatt, and keeps her progress with Sigrid a secret from him, fearful of what he may be capable of doing with the information.

Ferencik's evocative prose sweeps readers off to Greenland, along with Val. Her descriptions of Val's trip there, as well as the terrain and harsh conditions, are stunning, providing an immersive backdrop against which her story plays out. Her characters are well-defined, especially Val, a highly intelligent and empathic linguist who has recently divorced a "rageaholic." She battles anxiety that limits her ability to fully experience life, and her trip to Greenland -- the exact place where her twin brother recently died -- exacerbates her fears and misgivings. But she is committed to her work and, once she meets little Sigrid, feels a deep commitment to helping the child communicate what she has endured and, hopefully, be returned her to her home and family.

When Val first arrives, Sigrid does not, according to Ferencik, see the value in communicating. She appears to be about seven or eight years old, but if Wyatt's story can be believed, she was frozen in the ice for hundreds of years. She has awakened in a strange place, surrounded by people who dress and speak in ways she could never have imagined, and as time goes on, she begins to sense who among the adults are her friends and who cannot be trusted. She becomes ill and her desperation to make Val understand what is happening to her and what she needs intensifies. As Val begins piecing together the clues that Sigrid is providing, it is clear that there is no time to waste, and Val emmust/em secret her progress from Wyatt, whose behavior becomes increasingly erratic and frightening. She grows defiantly protective of Sigrid.

Ferencik says, "A big part of being human is a deep desire to be understood. Really understood, because if we don't feel seen, there is no bigger loneliness." Communication is the centerpiece of Ferencik's story, but it is not limited to the burgeoning transmission of information and feelings between Val and Sigrid. Val must look at Sigrid's movements and gestures, listen to her, pay attention to her inflection, and study her drawings (that she hides from Wyatt) in an effort to understand what Sigrid is trying to tell her. Ferencik also showcases the various ways that Val and the other characters communicate, and how their communication style impacts their relationships, especially in the case of Val's troubled relationship with the father she always believed viewed her as second best to Andy.

Grief is another theme explored in the story. Every character is grieving in some way. Val is mourning Andy, Sigrid misses her family, and Jeanne has escaped to Greenland after tragically losing her husband and daughter. Wyatt is "grieving himself and his lack of success," while Nora and Raj have lost a child, which is one of the reasons why they form a strong attachment to Sigrid.

Grief is intricately intertwined with fear, and Val's anxiety causes her to fear many things. Can she overcome her fears in time to prevent tragedy? "I've always loved thrillers that take place in challenging settings," Ferencik relates. And a more challenging setting is difficult to imagine. The "great polar Enormity" -- as Val calls it -- enhances the risks associated with simply existing (the dangers include subzero temperatures, blinding snows, and polar bears, just for starters). That, coupled with the circumstances in which Val finds herself, and Ferencik's deft acceleration of the story's pace toward an explosive conclusion, make the dramatic tension palpable and compelling.

Girl In Ice is an engrossing adventure imbued with elements of science fiction and mystery, at the heart of which is an insightful and thought-provoking examination of the way in which people communicate with each other and overcome fear, as well as a commentary on climate change and what we can let science teach us. Readers will find themselves taking both Vale and little Sigrid into their hearts, cheering Val on as she strives to overcome her fears and provide Sigrid with what she needs to survive . . . before time runs out.

Thanks to NetGalley for a paperback copy of the book to review.

Lana_Maskus

Dystopian Mystery Page Turner
Containing elements of science fiction and dystopian fiction, this mystery thriller kept me turning the pages in order to know the answer to the numerous questions arising throughout the novel. Although the characters seemed to fit into usual tropes: Unreliable female narrator, mad scientist protagonist, Igor-like assistant, innocent child around whom the story revolves, and baby yearning ancillary couple, they all were well-drawn and believable. The story line moved along at a good clip, and I found the ending to be satisfying. Often authors rush to the end of the book, but this was not the case with Ms. Ferencik. I had not previously read any of her books but am now definitely going to read her backlist books, Into the Jungle and The River at Night.