This was just okay for me. A lot of suspended disbelief for not a lot of payoff. The characters can be so frustrating at times.

This one will make a really adventuresome movie. It is not the type of mystery I normally read. The first part of the story is a riveting drama, but I kept wondering if the promised mystery was just a scientific one. But then, things heated up. Drama and mystery kept me riveted!

An intense, chilling, atmospheric adventure in the desolate, frigid land north of the arctic circle. A young girl found frozen in ice is thawed out alive. No one can understand her language and a linguist, with psychological issues of her own, is brought in to try to communicate with her. Vivid depictions of the snow, ice, and freezing conditions and a compelling mystery and thoughtful human story, too. A quick read—I couldn’t put it down!

Excellent story with lots of drama. The Arctic is a cold dangerous place. When her twin, Andy dies, frozen in the snow and a girl is found frozen in the ice, Val is summoned to help when the girl is thawed- alive. Wanting to find out what happened to her brother and a skilled linguist, Val is sent to try and help. Her fears and grief are overwhelming obstacles to overcome in a frozen place. Well written.

This book was a real surprise for me. Based on a difficult notion that a girl frozen in the Arctic was somehow able to be restored to life some 700 years later, I still found myself lured into the story and central characters. The setting was forbidding and added to the nuance of this novel. Great action and a book to immerse yourself into if you enjoy outdoor settings and good action, page after page.

This book has a lot to offer. It’s a mystery, a thriller, a bit of science fiction, slightly dystopian, and a story about resilience, family, overcoming anxiety, and finding a place in the world. But most of all, it is an absolutely beautiful depiction of the frozen ice-world of the Arctic. Reading it, I was constantly caught between wanting to race ahead to find out what happens and wanting to slow down and focus on the evocative language about the snow-strewn landscape, the ice, and the water world under the ice.

The main character, Val Chesterfield, is the socially anxious twin sister of a polar researcher, Andy. She is heartbroken when she hears that he committed suicide at a remote Arctic research station, and then torn when a request comes from that station to join the team. A young girl has been found buried in the ice, and has somehow thawed out alive. No one can communicate with her, but the head researcher knows that with Val’s background as a linguist specializing in ancient Nordic languages, she will have the best chance. Torn between her anxiety about leaving her comfort zone and her desire to find out what happened to Andy at that station, Val decides to take the plunge and head to the Arctic. The story of the child’s situation is intertwined with Val’s transformation under great physical and psychological stress, the social dynamics of the research station team, and what happened to Andy.

Ferencik depicts the life-threatening cold and distances of the setting very well, transporting the reader. One of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever read occurs when Val is diving under the ice, capturing both Val’s fear and her awe as she conveys the intensity of the experience. Val’s character is complex and written with understanding for the challenges of her life that made her so anxious as well as the inner strength that allows her to overcome her fear as she struggles with the necessity of being alive (a concept conveyed to her by the young girl). The remaining characters are given enough depth that they rise above caricature, but this is really Val’s story and she shines as its focus.

I had some questions which did not get answered during the story, but in the end this did not really matter. The resolution is plausible, though not at all expected, and it ties the various plot lines together tightly. Perhaps most importantly, it offers hope for Val, the girl, and even humanity. Ferencik has placed her novels in very diverse settings: Maine, the Amazon, and now the Arctic. In all three books, the remoteness of the setting matters and a woman finding her own strength is key. The beauty of the imagery created by Ferencik has not varied, and I cannot wait for her next book to be immersed in whatever transformative world she next creates.

This book had some great buzz by some of my favorite podcasters. I read it, loved the fast-paced setting and creativity of the story, and will be pressing it into other readers' hands.

Thank you to NetGalley, Erica Ferencik and Gallery/Scout Press for the opportunity to read this compelling story. It was a refreshing and interesting read.

Val Chesterfield is the main character in this futuristic novel that features the impacts of climate change, a bizarre ice wind – piteraq wind -- that comes out of nowhere and freezes people to death midsentence (does this really happen?), and an improbable but fascinating storyline that features an 8-year-old girl who was frozen in a glacier for centuries and has been thawed out alive.

Val is an accomplished linguist with a focus on early Nordic languages. She is pressed into service by her late twin brother's mentor, Wyatt, a climate scientist who is working on a remote Greenland island. He is the one who found the girl. To complicate the plot, Val is agoraphobic and riddled with anxiety at the thought of doing anything other go between than the 3-4 places in which she is comfortable. The thought of going to Greenland is paralyzing but she is determined to find out how her brother died – as in maybe it wasn’t suicide? She pulls herself together armed with a suitcase full of anxiety medication and heads out on this insurmountable trek.

The story is dark and made me anxious as a reader with the remote and isolated setting, the frightening weather, bitter cold, potential for no return transportation, and of the depictions of ice diving. Who even does this?

Val becomes obsessed with Sigrid – the young girl. She is at first perplexed by what she is saying and keeps repeating, and then it all starts to come together as she keeps listening and trying to understand her drawings. Val also tries to understand what happened to her and her family. When found she was in a block of ice 10 feet down into a crevice wearing the clothing of the indigenous people of the area. Bit by bit she dissects and translates her words while growing extremely attached to her. All the while, Sigrid’s health is waning and they don’t know why.

Wyatt is a strange character. He clearly has something up his sleeve that Val cannot figure out, and she is wary of his intentions. He pestered Val mercilessly about what Sigrid is saying and what she has learned from her. He wants to learn the secret of how she is surviving in hopes of creating notoriety for himself hides his intentions from the rest of the crew. What else might Wyatt be hiding? His assistant, Jeanne, who is attached to Wyatt, does whatever he asks. Nora and Raj – there to study undersea creatures via ice diving – are the only normal people (as if one who dives down 20-40 feet into dark frozen water could even be considered normal, lol). The team’s research needs to be finalized within several weeks as Polar night – engulfing the area in complete darkness – looms large. They have to leave prior to that or there will be no transportation.

As the weeks ensue, Val is sure that things are not as they seemed, that her brother’s situation was not as she was told; and Wyatt and Jeanne’s motives are suspect and she may be at risk.

I'm not sure why, but this isn't reading like I was expecting? The main character feels very flat, in a situation where I would expect to get a lot more depth from her. This just isn't working for me, DNF 14%

Girl in Ice
by Erica Ferencik
Pub Date 01 Mar 2022
Gallery Books, Gallery/Scout Press
General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers


I am reviewing a copy of Girl in Ice through Gallery Books and Netgalley:




Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic language. Despite having a successful career she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother, Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val does not believe her brother was murdered though, she suspects he became a victim of foul play.





After Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility­—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North to meet this girl, and try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.




From the moment Val steps the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. She faces a fierce landscape and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.



I give Girl in Ice five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Sherlock Holmes, “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier,” The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

The grieving linguist and university professor Val Chesterfield knows one thing for sure: Her twin brother Andy did NOT commit suicide. And she knows another thing: Andy’s college professor at the Arctic Circle claims that he’s thawed out a young girl frozen in the ice who is, remarkably, alive and speaking some unknown language. Cue Chesterfield, an agoraphobe, to force herself to travel to the scene of the crime, so to speak.

Author Erica Ferencik has packed this page-turner with so much suspense and so many twists that I devoured it in a single day. Highly, highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press in exchange for an honest review.

Book: Girl in Ice
Author: Erica Ferencik
Format: Kindle
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Nature/Outdoors
Places Featured: Greenland 🇬🇱
Book Club/Reading Challenge: #gltreadingchallenge2022 (Book Set in Country Unlikely to Visit--Greenland)
Review Score: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Review: I didn't know much about this book before I started reading (I usually like it this way), so this one threw me off a little bit. Between the "thriller" description and the cover, I assumed it was about a dead body found in the ice...far from it. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I'll say this is more of a scientific thriller than a crime thriller (though there is a little bit of that, too)--so I found it interesting, through-provoking, and well-written...even though I'm not a fan of science fiction (though I'm not sure this would really qualify as that either). I really appreciated the descriptions of the Arctic scenery and life in the isolated freezing tundra

My Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐/ 5 stars

Val is a linguist specializing in dead languages such as West Greenlandic. She has always remained in Boston, having a fear of leaving what is familiar and routine to her. Her twin brother Andy, a climate scientist, died under suspicious circumstances while working in the Arctic circle in Greenland. After Andy’s colleague discovers a young girl in the ice that thaws out alive and only able to speak in an unfamiliar language, she realizes that is the best opportunity to come out of her shell, communicate with this girl, and possibly find the truth of what really happened with her brother.

I loved the setting in the Arctic circle and the different mentions of dead language references. I found that to be extremely fascinating. However, after the intriguing first few chapters of finding the girl, Sigrid, in the ice, the excitement dies down and it is a slow burn to the end. The reveal of her brother’s death is lackluster, and the end felt a bit rushed.

Thanks to Gallery books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Erica Ferencik seems to specialize in getting people away from their place in the world and dropping them into nature that is decidedly not warm and cozy. This book is especially frigid with its setting in Greenland. Add in some death and a child of mysterious origins, and it makes a great story.

Girl In Ice is my first Erica Ferenicik read, so I was not sure what to expect.

A linguist is sent to Greenland to help translate a girl that was thawed from a block of ice, the same place that her twin brother dead under interesting circumstances.

It was a great idea and I could not stop reading, but the plot was slow and the story line of why the brother died was just brushed aside and the reasoning behind the girl coming back to life after being frozen was so implausible.

Thanks, NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity.

While I might recommend saving this one for when the weather is bad, I recommend running to get Girl in Ice. This is one of the best page turners I've read in a really really long time. The twists felt plausible and I was captivated by the story.

I love an isolated location in books and this one set in icy Greenland where a young girl was thawed out alive that was found in ice did not disappoint. Throw in a mystery surrounding a twin's mysterious death, I am in. This book started as a slow-burn mystery with a super intriguing storyline. This is a departure from my typical thriller reads. I love stories that have an element of anthropology or archaeology involving science. I liked this book a lot but found the more I read the more I liked it. The bond that developed between Val and Sigrid was heartwarming as Val became a protector and a maternal figure navigating how to communicate with each other. Discovering Sigrid's backstory was cleverly written. There were plot twists that did not play out how I thought they would. The ending was super intense and suspenseful. The icy wintry locale added to the suspense and you could just feel the isolation as it became a fight for survival.

Thank you @NetGalley and @Gallery Scout Press for a digital Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Girl in Ice is one of those books that I think is a good one to sit and read in one sitting. Thinking about it too much in-between reading found me getting too caught up on some of the aspects of the more sci-fi pieces that seemed a bit stretched and so, to give a fair review, I started over from the beginning and read it through.

Once I had the chance to just sit and read until I finished it and get lost in the world of the novel, I found myself enjoying it. I love the mystery that lingers in many ways, and I was pleased when I discovered I had figured out part of the mystery. I also really enjoyed the way Val interacts with the girl and builds a relationship with her. There were some parts that didn't resonate with me as well as others, and there were a few characters I wasn't too fond of, but overall it's an enjoyable novel that deals with grief, loss, mental health, and climate change.

*Content warning for mentions of death (both human and animal)*

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This story is set in the Arctic Circle and is extremely atmospheric and creepy. Any reader who enjoys anthropology and the study of ancient rites and languages will love this one. The characters are all flawed and the action is deadly. It is compelling and exciting - leave the lights on while reading this one.

Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik was unputdownable! I had to stay up late to finish the book. The story full of mystery and personal conflict.

Val is a Lindquist specializing in dead languages. She is aware of the scientific research that her twin brother did on climate change in the Arctic Circle. Her brother died while he was doing his research. Val was told he killed himself, but she didn’t believe that. When she was called about a girl they found frozen in the ice, thawed her out, and needed her help to communicate with her, it was the perfect time for her to investigate her brother’s death. I don’t want to give too much of it away.
It made me shiver to read about the cold, ice, winds, and below freezing temperatures.

It is a must read!!
Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Girl In Ice by Erica Ferencik.