The Ice Queen--A Novel

Contrary to the popular saying, wishing sometimes DOES make it true, as Hoffman's 8-year-old unnamed narrator learned when she wished her mother dead. Not surprisingly, after that she learned to cope by keeping people at a distance, growing up to be an isolated, suicidal New Jersey librarian. Then lightening strikes--literally. Afterwards, life slowly begins to change as she explores relationships with other lightning survivors who teach her friendship, passion, and the value of reaching outside herself. Nancy Travis's narration begins tightly controlled, full of cynicism and despair, and broadens slowly and subtly as this young woman opens herself to the world and allows herself to feel pain and passion and hope. J.E.M. 2006 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 21, 2005
"Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes... burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back." Thus begins Hoffman's (Practical Magic
; Here on Earth
) stellar 18th novel about healing and transformation. As an eight-year-old, the unnamed narrator makes a terrible wish that comes true; remorseful for the next 30 years, she shuts down emotionally to become a self-proclaimed ice queen. Unlike her brother, Ned, who relies on logic, math and science to make sense of the world, the loner librarian fears the chaotic randomness of existence and is obsessed by death. Then lightning strikes, literally. In a flash, she's jolted out of her rut, noticing for the first time all that she's been taking for granted—even the color red, which after the strike she can no longer see: "How could I have been so stupid to ignore everything I'd had in my life? The color red alone was worth kingdoms." The novel turns sultry when the slowly melting ice queen seeks out reclusive Lazarus Jones, a fellow lightning survivor who came back to life after 40 minutes of death: "I wanted a man like that, one it was impossible to kill, who wouldn't flinch if you wished him dead." Blanketed in prose that has never been dreamier and gloriously vivid imagery, this life-affirming fable is ripe with Hoffman's trademark symbolism and magic, but with a steelier edge: "Every fairy tale had a bloody lining. Every one had teeth and claws." Both longtime fans and newcomers will relish it. Agent, Elaine Markson. 10-city author tour.

Starred review from October 1, 2005
In a lyrically erotic novel, Hoffman explores the lifelong reverberations of loss and wishes best left unfulfilled. The story is rich with descriptions and dark humor as the librarian narrator ponders her obsessive research on methods and causes of death and the power of wishes before dealing with a lightning strike that leaves her even more emotionally frozen. She seeks salvation with another legendary lightning victim, her opposite, Lazarus Jones. The first part of the book is almost too cyclically repetitive, but the last third is powerfully charged with characters who find connection in surprising and appropriate ways. It is in this last section that Hoffman is at her best, matching the most personal moments of "The River King" or "Practical Magic". Nancy Travis gives an uncompromising reading of what would be melodramatic in lesser hands. Highly recommended.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2005
Adult/High School -At the age of eight, the narrator learns the power of a spoken wish. Angry at her mother, she wishes never to see her again. When the woman dies in a car accident, the child resolves to be quiet and imagines her own fairy tale: a girl turns to ice and her heart becomes hard and unbreakable. As an adult, she becomes a reference librarian and an expert in death and ways of dying. Indifferent and unfeeling, she is unable to have meaningful relationships. She allows her brother to move her to Florida, where another wish is fulfilled: she is struck by lightning. Her hair falls out, she limps, she loses the ability to see the color red, and her heart freezes. Enrolled in a study of lightning victims, she learns about a local recluse who was dead for 40 minutes, then walked away. The nameless woman seeks him out; she wants to know what her mother experienced at the moment of death. They begin a passionate love affair. As opposites (she is ice, he is fire), the only way they can touch is in water. Hoffman incorporates elements of fairy tales ( -The Snow Queen, - -Beauty and the Beast -), chaos theory, and magic realism. Although the story borders on the trite and the dual imagery (fire/ice, heat/cold, red/colorless) is sometimes overdone, the narration is powerful and the ending is satisfying if a bit predictable. Hoffman's fans will find much that is familiar and appealing." -Sandy Freund, Richard Byrd Library, Fairfax County, VA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2005
Over the course of writing her 18 beguiling novels, Hoffman has perfected her nique and vivifying blend of romance, magic, and redemption, a mode of storytelling she uses with great panache to link the workings of nature with the spectrum of human emotions. Here she draws on her key inspiration, fairy tales, and her fascination with how chaos theory makes the connection between, let's say, the flapping of a bat's wings and a young girl's anger at her mother. Ever since she was eight years old, Hoffman's narrator, a devoted reference librarian, has believed that her temper tantrum caused her mother's death. Her guilt turned her solitary, stoic, and somewhat misanthropic, and she envisions herself as an ice queen. Even after she is struck by lightning. As her damaged narrator reluctantly joins a lightning-strike-survivor support group, Hoffman dramatizes the bizarre effects experienced by real-life lightning strike survivors, and orchestrates a highly erotic and risky romance between the ice queen and a fellow survivor known as Lazarus, whose breath ignites paper. As Hoffman's spellbinding and wonderfully insightful tale unfurls, she pays charming tribute to librarians, revels in metaphors of hot and cold, and poetically explores the meaning of trust, the chemistry of healing, and the reach of love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)