The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham          Audio Book: 6 hours, 47 minutes       Hardback Book:  272 pages                   

Barrett, a gay man struggling with his emotions over another failed romance sees a vision while walking through Central Park.     He was a non-believer all of his life but the vision he saw made him feel like some God like presemce was letting him know he was not alone, that some supernatural presence was keeping an eye on him.   It changed Barrett’s life, helping him through his heartache.   He was not fearful he was instead assured that there was spiritually more than this existence on earth.  He felt comforted.     Barrett’s older brother, Tyler, is going to marry his girlfriend, Beth, who has terminal cancer.     Tyler is a musician, currently down on his luck, but, he spends most of his time caring for Beth, who is in stage 4 and reeling from her chemo treatments.    Barrett  lives with them, helping to care for Beth.   Beth loves both men and the living arrangement is a content one for all three of them.   Barrett gets to go outside himself by helping to care for Beth, feeling like her other “husband” and helping his brother, Tyler to be able to get away from the constant caregiving in order to get back to his songwriting now and then and getting to do the ocassional gig to bring in some money.   They all 3 ignore the looming death shadow in the apartment and often share laughter to lighten things up.   Liz is Beth’s best friend, an older lady who has a take charge persona and looks after Beth, too.    Much more to the story and there are ties in this modern day version of the Hans Christian Anderson story, “The Snow Queen.”    Having  adjusted to Beth’s illness and making plans for the wedding – things take a weird twist when Beth goes into remission after Barretts’ sighting of the translucent light of God he saw in the park that night in November.     More people are brought into the three’s life bringing joy and more weirdness at times.    Life becomes surreal for all of them as Beth adjusts to remission, Barrett reconciles himself with this God presence in his life and Tyler, who had always enjoyed drugs gets heavier into them to unleash his creativity or is it something more?     An interesting read.    Bittersweet, funny at times, like an ever moving snake burrowing through the snow looking for warmth as the characters journey out on a zigzag bridge.   Families come in all shapes and types.   The dynamic of this three person family is encompassing and illuminating as it shines a bright light like the one Barrett experienced in the park, on what was and is and is to come.

A Distant Heart

A Distant Heart by Sonali Dev     352 pages

Her name means “miracle” in Sanskrit, and to her parents, that’s exactly what Kimaya is. The first baby to survive after several miscarriages, Kimi grows up in a mansion at the top of Mumbai’s Pali Hill, surrounded by love and privilege. But at eleven years old, she develops a rare illness that requires her to be confined to a germ-free ivory tower in her home, with only the Arabian Sea churning outside her window for company. . . . Until one person dares venture into her world.

Tasked at fourteen-years-old with supporting his family, Rahul Savant shows up to wash Kimi’s windows, and an unlikely friendship develops across the plastic curtain of her isolation room. As years pass, Rahul becomes Kimi’s eyes to the outside world—and she becomes his inspiration to better himself by enrolling in the police force. But when a life-saving heart transplant offers the chance of a real future, both must face all that ties them together and keeps them apart.

In reality, I'd give this 2 1/2 stars. It was okay. As far as romances go, this was just barely one. For most of the book the two leads infuriatingly danced the "will they/won't they" while all the while being either oblivious or infuriatingly misunderstanding everything. 

So, the formatting of this book, with two chapters spent in the present, one from each of the main character perspectives, then two chapters set in the past, one each from the main character perspectives, is very tiring. It slows the advancement of the story way down. And the past seems almost no different from the present - it's just full of examples of how Kimi and Rahul continuously get angry/sad/hurt by each other's actions then make up because they're such! good! friends! Well, the present is more of the angry/sad/hurt brooding, with little to no talking about their feelings and a lot of internal monologues about how "this time, it's for real, I won't be in love with them anymore. I've drawn my line in the sand and I need to stop looking/touching/thinking about them." As a reader, you have to wade through all the "past" chapters to find out what it is "this time," that has them at odds with each other. The only reason why I wanted to finish this book was because I wanted to know what that reason was. It was as expected. Very cliched, to say the least about it.

Everything Everything

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon, 310 pages

"The story of a teenage girl who's literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she's ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more." This book is amazing and surprising.  I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the end was not at all what I would have expected.  I was completely taken by surprise.  I would give this to any teen that likes realistic fiction.

The Nest

The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, 244 pages

Creepy, odd and wonderful book!  Steve has a new baby brother who is ill but no one seems to know exactly what’s wrong.  He needs surgery, but he likely will need a lot more than that and he may never be completely normal.  Steve has started having dreams in which he has been talking to some kind of being, but he’s not sure what it is.  She keeps telling him that she is going to fix the baby.  Steve is sure that it’s just a dream but it feels very real too.  At first, the dreams make him feel better but as more time passes, he becomes less sure about what she means about fixing the baby.  I would highly recommend this to upper grade school kids who like scary stories.