In a fit of childish anger, a little girl wishes never to
see her mother again. Hours later, she learns her mother
was killed on an icy road. The girl grows into a woman,
fascinated by death, frightened by the power of a simple
wish, apathetic about life and love when the inevitable
result is loss.
After moving to Florida to be near her one living relative,
her brother Ned, she's struck by lightning (after wishing
it so). Now the coldness she has always felt takes on a
physical form. She's not burnt, but frozen -- her heart a
lump of ice, colorblind, a mass of tics and physiological
oddities, withdrawing farther into herself. Then she hears
of Lazarus Jones, a fellow lightning victim, who came back
from the dead after his experience. Hoping he can tell her
more about death, she seeks him out -- only to find that he
makes her feel more alive than she has for years. His touch
is like fire, literally and figuratively, burning her skin
and soul. Does she dare wish for a happily ever after of
her own, like those of the fairy tales she loved as a
child, or is the ice inside her too solid to ever be melted?
This is a haunting story about how one event in a life can
alter its course -- the very embodiment of "Be careful what
you wish for." Written in first-person, the narrative draws
us in to a lonely, frozen place with only occasional cracks
in the ice to provide hope for a thaw. Alice Hoffman
creates a dark fairy tale that's lyrical and fascinating,
about how the fear of living can sometimes be more
paralyzing than the fear of death, and that sometimes the
princess must rescue herself from the spell.
From the bestselling author of Practical Magic, a
miraculous, enthralling tale of a woman who is struck by
lightning, and finds her frozen heart is suddenly burning.
Be careful what you wish for. A small town librarian lives
a quiet life without much excitement. One day, she mutters
an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by
lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic
event sparks it into a new beginning. She goes in search of
Lazarus Jones, a fellow survivor who was struck dead, then
simply got up and walked away. Perhaps this stranger who
has seen death face to face can teach her to live without
fear. When she finds him, he is her opposite, a burning man
whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches. As an
obsessive love affair begins between them, both are forced
to hide their most dangerous secrets--what turned one to
ice and the other to fire. A magical story of passion,
loss, and renewal, THE ICE QUEEN is Alice Hoffman at her
electrifying best.