Cover Image: The Boy Made of Snow

The Boy Made of Snow

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Member Reviews

This is the sad story of Daniel and his mother who lives in a small village in England during World War 11. Daniel's mother suffered from post-natal depression and seemed to relapse once her husband went to war. Daniel is left to look after himself. They both strike up a friendship with a German POW who is on work duty at a local farm, which has tragic consequences for all three of them. I felt sorry for Daniel. The only time he gets affection from his mother is when she reads him fairytales. Daniel's mother is distant and wrapped up in her own world and thoughts. The author created a feeling of this distance, by having her only refer to Daniel as the boy and never using his name.
The book is well written, which is what I really like in a book. Each chapter has a snippet of a fairytale which hints at what will happen in the chapter.

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I adore this book, which was a big surprise for me since I’m not a fan of WWII fiction. But Mayer’s writing is stunning. I found myself slowing my reading pace and rereading paragraphs just so I could savor it. She managed to balance the World War elements, with the fairy tale threads perfectly and both where used in a way to explore the relationship between Annabel and Daniel. The world and the characters feel very real and have been beautifully crafted. The narrative tore at my heart. It was heartbreaking is a stunningly subtle way.

This story is told in alternating perspective and the way Mayer has chosen to do this is stunning. Annabel’s sections are written in third person, which feels like an extension of the distance she feels towards her son. While it’s never stated my best guess is that she is suffering from untreated postnatal depression. In contrast, Daniel’s sections are written in first person. We are with him as he imagination runs wild turning sticks into swords and fences into gallant steeds. Because each perspective is highly tailored and personalised to the character they feel like real people. We spend the whole narrative with them explore all the complexities of life during the war, dealing with a difficult family situation and feel the exhaustion of having to keep up pretenses.

The fairy tales are a huge part of this story. Annabel reads to Daniel every night before bed even though he’s nine and should be too old. It’s through these tales that Annabel can feel some kind of connection to her son and in turn that Daniel feels like his mother wants him. One of my favourite things about having the fairy tales woven in both perspectives is that we see how the different themes and character in these classics tales resonates within the pair differently. Daniel relates with the hero of the story. He is obsessed with trying to save his mother so that in turn she will love him. While Annabel is reflecting on how naïve she was when she was young and finds herself relating to the evil step-mother characters. I definitely want to go read the traditional fairytales and come back to this book and see what little clues I’ve missed.

The Boy Made of Snow is a beautifully crafted novel that takes the dangers of living during WWII, twists them with the whimsy of fairytales and lets you deep inside a broken family who are trying to hard to be ‘normal’. This is a story that I’ll be hard-pressed to forget. I highly recommend.

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https://readingbythefireblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/the-boy-made-of-snow-chloe-mayer/

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