I loved the authors two previous books. adored them. this book is compketely different and threw me for a loop. It was very science/environment oriented (taking place in remote Greenland) it almost bordering on sci-fi. While I gave it a chance to grow on me, unfortunately it did not. While not the writers fault, this subject matter is not really my favorite genre.

I appreciate NetGalley for the ARC. I will continue to read Erica Ferencik.

Girl in Ice is a science mystery/thriller. Scientists find an 8 year old girl frozen in the arctic. When she is thawed out and alive, she is speaking a language that no one understands. This is where Val (Valerie) Chesterfield, a linguist, comes in. Val is struggling her own mental and emotional well being and facing the death/possible suicide of her twin brother at the same outpost where the discovery was made. Now she is called to the arctic to meet this young girl, to figure out who she is and where and when she came from. Although this is not my typical read, this book grabbed me from the first chapter. The science and linguistic elements are very accessible to the average reader. The characters have depth and Ferencik developed them to a point that I truly cared about what happened to them. Ferencik does a nice job of building the suspense and throws in a few twists that I didn’t see coming. I can see where there could be a sequel to this story and more adventure for Val.

Yet another review where I am torn. So again, I will give you what I did like and did not like and you can decide for yourself.

I loved the Arctic setting and think the author did a great job putting you there in your mind
The idea that a girl was thawed out from so long ago is a great plot idea
The main idea of trying to learn her language is a unique twist that i loved
The writing was excellent and I would see this making a great movie

As for what I didn't like - everything was about the plot, not the actual writing.
For instance, the man who runs this place in the Arctic is crazy. And we have someone who one minute is afraid of him, and the next, she thinks she is falling for him Really? Why didn't anyone address the fact that he was apparently mentally ill?
Another issue was why everyone agreed to keep this whole thing secret - I mean this is HUGE news - wouldn't anyone want to share this news?

All that being said, I am still thinking about the book a week later. I read so many books that I often forget them by the next day. So this was obviously thought provoking and interesting. Its just that some things just really annoyed me.

I do want to thank the author, the publisher and #netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC. This didn't impact my review.

This is 3.5 stars - I am rounding up because I am still thinking about this book a week later.

Talk about unusual locales in a book......"Girl In Ice" definitely takes the cake for me....and I loved it!

The plot of "Girl In Ice" wasn't especially complex but when the geographic setting was taken into account everything meshed nicely.

I found the characters not to be very complex and, at times, found Val's substance abuse thinking/actions to be annoying.

While the ending was no surprise, I did enjoy the book.

An entertaining read!

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik is an interesting slow-burn thriller about a linguist who moves to the Arctic after a girl is thawed from the ice who only speaks an ancient language. The story revolves around Val Chesterfield, who is drawn to the mystery of the girl who has been trapped in the ice for many years. She goes to the Arctic in order to use her linguistic skills to communicate with the girl. First of all, this is not a fantasy book, but if you cannot suspend your disbelief about the girl having been trapped in the ice for years, then you should not read this book. This book is realistic for the most part, but you must at least believe the initial premise. In addition, Val has an ulterior motive for going to the Arctic. Her twin brother Andy committed suicide there, and since she doesn't believe he would do that, she wants to find out the truth of what happened.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1:

"I’m a linguist. I can get by in German and most Romance tongues, and I’ve got a soft spot for dead languages: Latin, Sanskrit, ancient Greek. But it’s the extinct tongues—Old Norse and Old Danish—that enrapture me.
Languages reveal what it is to be human... Sanskrit has ninety-six words for love, from the particular love of a new mother for her baby to one for unrequited romantic love, but it has twice as many for grief. My favorite is sokaparayana, which means “wholly given up to sorrow.” A strange balm of a word, gentle coming off my tongue.
Though words came easily for me, I tended to miss the patterns that were staring me in the face. The fact that my ex genuinely wanted out didn’t hit me until divorce papers were served. The fact of my father passing from just old to genuinely ill with lung cancer and not-here-for-much-longer didn’t hit me until I was packing up the family home and found myself on my knees in tears, taken down by dolor repentino, a fit of sudden pain. The stark realization that my twin brother, Andy—the closest person in the world to me—had been pulling away for months came to me only after his death and at the very worst times: lecturing in an auditorium packed with students, conversing with the dean in the hallway. When it happened, these vicious, sudden, psychic stabs, I’d briefly close my eyes or turn away to cough, repeating to myself: sokaparayana, sokaparayana, until I could speak again."

As you can see from the excerpt above, the author really loves languages, and I feel like you must love languages as well in order to enjoy reading this book. A lot of the book was spent on the process of Val getting to know the girl and learning how to communicate with her. I took off 1 star because the first half of the book could be pretty boring, and it doesn't turn into a thriller until the second half. Overall, Girl in Ice is an intense slow-burn thriller that will appeal to anyone with an interest in linguistics and who can suspend their disbelief about the initial premise of the book. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of thrillers in general, I recommend you check out this book when it comes out in March 2022!

This book was a unique experience, a bit of genre blender. A bit environmental thriller, a bit sci-fi.

A girl is thawed out, after being found in a glacier, alive. Val, a linguistic expert, is called to the research station in the Arctic Circle to help decipher the unknown language she speaks to try to understand what happened. This research station also happens to be the same one her twin brother was found frozen to death out a few years earlier. Although she rarely ventures past her home and work safety zones, Val agrees to come, to hopefully learn the girl’s language and story, but also what happened to her brother on his last night.

I love/d:
+ books set in the arctic -> this did not disappoint there.
+ the topic of linguistics -> the author did a good job using the topic to the story’s advantage- increasing the mystery, complexity, suspense, and tension, and explaining some of the intricacies of learning and teaching language
+ the ancient cultural information of the Inuit and the respectful awe of the people scattered throughout the book.

Reminds me of:
•Charlotte McCoughney’s Migrations
•Leave the World Behind

… Though the story was not nearly as poignant as the first nor as horrific as the second, but much more of a classic #thriller than both.

I didn’t love:
⁃the handling of mental health in this book
⁃abusive behavior by characters going unaddressed
⁃plot pacing was a little hectic, erratic -> extra words in some relatively simple plot events spread across pages, then events that seemed very relevant were a bit random and staccato, leaving me with a bit of whiplash when it was agains suddenly brought up at another time.
⁃ the legal inaccuracy of events and consequences (especially in science and academia)

… Rather than sucking me into the story, it made me think wait, the unbelievable parts I’m happy to suspend my belief for, but the realistically acceptable details of human life had me tripping, when typically, shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Overall:
The interesting topics and setting balanced out any plot issues to make this an enjoyable read!
3.5

Thank you @netgalley for this copy !!!!

Thank you NG, Gallery Books and Author for the opportunity to read Girl In Ice by Erica.

WoW! What a story this one was! It was beyond amazing and very interesting.
The characters were very well played and written. The main character I really loved following this story with her. It’s jammed packed full of action, twists, angles, lies!
This book kept me hooked from the first page, so much so I didn't want to put it down.
It’s just a really good story that will keep any reader riveted until the end.

Again thanks for the chance to read and review this outstanding novel!
I will post to my platforms closer to pub date!

Good story with interesting characters. The ending was somewhat a surprise. I would recommend this book.

Girl in Ice is a story that reminds me of Hollywood films. It has the location, the characters, the mystery and I couldn't help but compare it to movies I have seen that are similar; and I think this story holds up against them nicely. I would love to see this story in movie form.

I found this story to be engaging and interesting; the idea that a girl was thawed out of ice and needs help is a great one. I also really loved the main characters love of language, it really comes through. The atmosphere and the world in which this story takes place is also another plus for this story. I thing that coldness and isolation really builds the tension.

There were parts of the story that didn't live up to the rest. For me, this story was interesting and engaging but also felt like the two major plot likes were written by different writers making only parts of the story standout.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

An intriguing, locked-room sort of thriller set in the Arctic Circle that dabbles in communing with nature, the ethics of scientific research, and finding a common language (quite literally). The writing is solid, with rhetorical flourishes exhibited around the natural elements, with a well-balanced cast of characters whose competing desires are apparent right away (perhaps a little too apparent).

There are aspects of this book that really sung for me. The focus on linguistics and communication--as the protagonist is an expert in the field--add a dimension to the plot that I haven't yet encountered. Not only does it characterize the relationship between the protagonist and the titular "girl in ice," but the focus on language elevates the setting as well. That is, the author poses questions about how language shapes our perceptions of nature, how we interact with it, and the emotional nuances we lose when a language evolves or dies out.

However, the plotline around the dead brother is almost nonexistent, an initial motivator that gets no page time other than the protagonist occasionally getting mad and screaming at the head scientist, "what happened to my brother?!?!" with no provocation or tact. The plot, then, is entirely dependent on the thawed-out kid, an intriguing mystery that nonetheless becomes claustrophobic without other tensions to break it up. (And yes, things are claustrophobic in an isolated research lab, but that's a little too close to the imitative fallacy for my tastes.)

Without revealing spoilers, I have to take a star off for the ending, which felt both rushed and drawn out, as if Ferencik drafted out a few different options and randomly decided to go with this version of the choose-your-own-adventure.

Still, a fun read, with a wholly original plot, that I suggest mystery and thriller junkies to check out.

This book. THIS book. This BOOK.

THIS BOOK.

Through the magic of Netgalley (and the publisher, many thanks!) I was able to read my favorite book of 2022 in 2021. Everything, and I do mean ev-er-y-thing, about the plot of this book is in my wheelhouse. And then it's in my wheelhouse's wheelhouse. An introverted and somewhat agoraphobic main character who studies dead languages? BE STILL MY HEART.

And then you add in a setting of Greenland, high above the Arctic Circle, a mystery on top of a mystery, and other characters who are incredibly sus? The happy dance I did when I received notification that I had been approved for an ARC (again, thanks Netgalley and publisher, y'all the real MVPs!). I stayed up WAY past my bedtime, slept a couple hours, and then woke up early to finish this book. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet since I received the approval notification, this book is really THAT good.

While Val and the girl are the heart of the story, Greenland is its soul. I could feel the cold temperatures and hear the wind howl outside. The utter desolation and loneliness, despite being in the company of Wyatt, Jeanne, Nora, Raj, and, of course, the girl, felt immediate and eerie. On top of that, the death of Val's brother at the same research site a few months before hung over like a dark cloud. All these ingredients made for an electric, and down right frigid, atmosphere.

I've been to Iceland twice and flown over Greenland both times. The landscape is as stark and spare as you would think. And Erica's description matches what I saw at 30,000 feet.

Watching Val slowly try to unravel the mystery of both her brother's death and the little girl, especially the fails (and some wins) of communicating with the little girl was wonderfully paced and it didn't feel like any time was wasted in allowing the story to move along. The girl was stuck in literal ice whereas Val was stuck in ice of her own making. Val might have thought that she was teaching the girl how to speak but it was the girl who was teaching Val how to communicate how she felt. Seeing the emphasis of using a language that conveyed emotions over ideas or actions, coupled with the desolation and isolation of Greenland, showed Val just how much she had isolated herself from others and her own emotions.

As it turns out, I've read one of Erica's other books (Into the Jungle) and my notes on that went along the lines of "this book makes you realize that mankind is the worst predator of them all". Girl In Ice highlights this, once again. In our quest to dominate all that surrounds us, it is the land, the animals, the environment, and indigenous cultures that suffer. And it is the environment that suffers most of all.

The only thing I would have liked was an author's note. I'm sure that is coming once published, but I am super curious about Erica's methodology in writing this. I think I saw on Goodreads that she spent a month in Greenland and I want to know more! I also want to know how she researched the language (both the extinct and alive) aspect of things.

I will be recommending this book to everyone I and know and everyone I don't know.

Erica Ferencik cannot write books fast enough for me! This third book was absolutely amazing. I was drawn in by the book's description and it didn't let me down. From amazing characters, to a gorgeous setting, I literally could not put this book down,. Girl in Ice is one of the best books I have read this year. Cannot wait to recommend this one! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Val Chesterfield is certain her twin brother Andy has been murdered, even though the authorities believe his death was suicide. Living in a remote area of Greenland, Andy was a climatologist, while Val is a linguist specializing in dead languages. Could Andy’s death have something to do with the discovery of a girl, frozen in ice? When the ice melts, the girl is miraculously alive and she speaks a language no one recognizes. Val is asked to travel to Greenland to see if she can understand the girl. The savage conditions of the Arctic, the strange circumstances of the girl in ice and the death of her brother all combine to cripple Val with fear. An unusual, unique premise made this a standout read