The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

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.  (from goodreads.com)

I rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I downloaded/borrowed it from the library but I didn't realize how captivating this storyline would be.  Alice Hoffman is a writing genius and after finishing this book I found myself immediately scouring amazon.com to find another book by her.  So far, I've been able to resist purchasing anything (mainly because it's approaching midnight and my judgment at this time of night is not always very sound). 

It starts off with a little girl who loves fairy tales.  Tragedy strikes her family and she is guilt-ridden for the rest of her childhood and young adulthood.  Her guilt goes so deep that she doesn't allow herself any pleasure or happiness, even with her grandmother.  It's almost as if she sees herself in the third person and her descriptions of events in her life are objective and almost scientific.  She doesn't seem to realize that some of the people she worked so hard to stay detached from were simultaneously trying to get closer to her.  She cared for her grandmother's health when she got sick.  She moved in and did all the cleaning, cooking, and caring for her grandmother because she felt it was her duty.  In return, her grandmother loved her.  Her grandmother thought she did it because she loved her.  Likewise, when Ned, the narrator's brother, returns to the narrator's life, she remains distant and cold.  Hence, the title of the book and the narrator's identification with the ice maidens in fairy tales. 

As time passes, the narrator finds that relationships are much more complicated than fairy tales lead you to believe.  Almost unknowingly, she makes friends and becomes closer with her family.  She adopts pets and finds herself worrying about their welfare.  She starts to care about people.  She becomes involved in other people's secrets.  She tugs you along in her journey of self-realization.  By the end of the book I found myself so entranced that I was sad there wasn't any more to read.  It's one of those books where you get to know the characters and care about them and when it's over, you almost find yourself wondering about them.  The words that aren't said, the meaning between the lines on the pages, are what define a character.  A good character is multi-faceted and has lots of layers.  It's someone that you feel like you know, not just as a character in a book, but as a real person.  How likely is it that I will ever know an actual lightning-strike survivor?  Probably not very.  But, Hoffman has weaved a story here that makes you feel like you know the narrator, her friends, and her family.  What is logical, what is fantasy, what is the difference between probability and absolutes?  Hoffman can make you think that up is down and right is left.  I can't wait to re-read this again and see if there's anything I missed the first time around.