The Snow Child: Review

Admittedly my book of choice has some element of the fantastical. When I read the description for The Snow Child I was intrigued. An elderly couple moves to the Alaskan frontier in the 1920’s to escape the emotional stress of losing a baby. Times are tough on the homestead and just when they think they won’t last through another winter, their fortune changes. In the momentary bliss of the first snow of winter they make an angelic girl out of snow. The very next day their creation is gone, but they see glimpses of of small pixie-like girl running throughout the forest with a fox as a companion. She is wearing the mittens of child they made out of snow. Spoilers to follow…
So initially I thought I was in for a whimsical tale of a snow fairy that is brought to life by the love and desperation of a childless couple. But the tale had a different way of unfolding with probably better lessons and outcome.

Instead of a fairy tale we learn the snow child is a real life orphan who lives in the vast Alaskan wilderness. Fast, cunning and strong, Faina (Fay-een-uh) actually survives on her own as a young child. A bit of a stretch, if you ask me. I suppose that’s the fairy tale part since it borders the line of the impossible. So our barren couple finally get a child in their life. But she only visits them in the winter months and disappears in the spring when the snow melts. During the first two parts of the book I kept riding on a line of whether she is real or not? Which I gather you’re supposed to, just as Jack and Mabel question. The circumstances of her appearances and existence followed so closely with Mabel’s Snow Child story from childhood.

Time passes and Faina grows to a young woman. She and Garrett, a neighbor of Mabel and Jack, fall in love as they spend their days together in the wilderness. When Faina becomes pregnant and they decide to marry, her whimsy unravels a little making her more human and blurring the line of real and fairytale.

The ending, though bittersweet, was appropriate. After Faina and Garrett marry and have their child, Faina has trouble staying home during the summer months (because she’s actually made of snow?) One night she has a terrible fever and in the morning nothing is left of her except her coat and mittens and a pile of snow. Much like the literal melting of the snow child in the fairytale. Again, you’re left wondering if she was snow sprite that helped an elderly couple or a real girl who lives in the wild and was unable bear the captivity of domesticity.

One theme that could be drawn was the idea of trying to tame something wild. Trying to bridle the spirit of something so free as Faina. The first book Mabel gave Garrett was Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Coincidence? I think not. Another could be about learning to accept joy in your life without questioning it. Enjoying it and being thankful for it.

I liked the style of writing and the imagery of the Alaskan landscape was definitely a strong point. The author, Eowyn Ivey is an Alaskan native which becomes obvious is the prose when she captures senses like the smell of spring or the description of the array of flora that creeps and hides in the wilderness. Overall a good read.