I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The main character is flawed but that made her all the more interesting. An agoraphobic who's required to travel to a frozen, isolated research station to determine the origins of a found girl created quite the page turner for me.

This was a great, quick read. I loved the setting and the premise of the book. The author does a fantastic job at describing the surroundings and environment. The MC being a linguist was really interesting to me. From the very beginning, there was a sense of foreboding and became increasingly ominous. I wish there was more information on the brother's death. It was just mentioned often but not really explained.

Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her 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 is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.

When 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.

The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, 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.

Wow. This book was so much more than I thought it would be. I wanted to read it, because the idea of someone found in ice thawing out alive sounded intriguing. It definitely met my expectations there, but the book was about so much more than that. I’m not even sure where to start; this book had everything, and was everything.

Val is a linguist, specializing in ancient Nordic languages. One day, she gets an email from a scientist she knows, asking for her help. He claims to have found a young girl frozen in a glacier, and when they thawed her out, she woke up. She is now hysterical and the scientist, Wyatt, is begging Val to come to Greenland and decipher what this girl is saying.

I know what you’re thinking - that’s ridiculous and impossible…that’s what Val was thinking, too, but Wyatt insists that he’s not kidding, and sends her a tape of the girl talking. She’s been crying, obviously asking for something, and they can’t place the language. Val can’t either, but she hears the anguish in the girl’s voice, and really wants to help. This is what she does - dead languages are her passion, and she thinks in time, she could unlock the door to this girl’s mind.

Two problems:

1. She knows Wyatt because her twin brother, Andy, was also a scientist and he committed suicide at the base she’ll be going to. He was found outside in his underwear, curled up and frozen to death. Val’s father has always believed that Wyatt had something to do with Andy’s death, and he’s wary of Val being isolated with that man for weeks.

2. Val has panic disorder, and is terrified of flying. She doesn’t travel, only goes to a few places in town where she feels safe, and she knows she is going to need A LOT of medication if she’s going to be able to get on a military plane and live in an uninhabited part of the world. She bravely overcomes her fears though (not completely, but she makes it), and meets two other people who will also be doing some research in the Arctic.

Once she gets there, work begins with the girl. Her language is vaguely ancient West Greenlandic and Norse, but it’s not either of those. The cadence is different, the words are unknown to Val, and she’s completely stumped. This girl is terrified and trying to communicate something, but they are both getting frustrated with not understanding each other.

One thing that I thought would be a side-part I’d mostly gloss over was the part about languages. I didn’t realize how fascinating ancient languages are, and this book was great at explaining how linguists work - it’s very intricate, very difficult and very cool. There were many beautiful things in this book, but I’m surprised by how much I loved the parts about Norse languages. When I read that the Arctic way of saying “climate change” roughly translates to “my friend is hurting”, I thought it was so hauntingly beautiful. I’ll never forget that one.

This book does discuss climate change, as you’d assume when people are living on a polar shelf, and it also touches on mental illness. There are a few other characters, like the couple coming to do research, and their stories were all great. The little girl, who is eventually found out to be named Sigrid, steals the show. It was hard not to fall in love with her character; she’s one of my favorites this year (well, next year - the book is slated to come out in February).

The writing in this is stellar, and the author literally transports you to the Arctic with her vivid and beautiful imagery. It’s definitely a thriller, but it’s just a perfect story all around. There is no question that this is a five star book for me, and one I’ll keep thinking about for awhile.

(Thank you to Gallery Books, Erica Ferencik, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

I first discovered Erica Ferencik's books this past winter and instantly fell in love with In the Jungle. I was mesmerized by her storytelling. It was a book that stuck with me long after I was finished. When I saw Girl In Ice pop up at NetGalley, I was thrilled to see another book by her and even more thrilled when I was approved to read it.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I loved it even MORE than In the Jungle. The story follows Val, an expert in dead Norse languages, as she heads to Greenland to assist with the case of a young girl who is speaking a language no one can decipher. The craziest part - she was thawed from ice alive. Not only is Val heading to a remote part of the world, but it's also the same station where her climate scientist twin brother died.

Girl In Ice had me enthralled from the first chapter. I couldn't put it down. I felt like I was transported to the unforgiving polar atmosphere. Not only that, I felt like I learned quite a bit about a culture I don't know anything about.

Ferencik's writing is truly incredible and has certainly become one of my favorite's out there.

4.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Scout Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Val Chesterfield has spent her life building a successful career as a linguist learning dead languages. But she lives a very quiet and sheltered life. She has spent her life living in her twin brother Andy's shadow. But when she finds out that Andy is gone from suicide she doesn't believe he would have killed himself.
While still grieving for the lost of her brother Val receives a phone call from her brothers mentor Wyatt. He has made an amazing discovery and needs her expertise as a linguist. You see Wyatt has found a young girl frozen in the ice and by some miracle she is alive!

I really liked the relationship between Val and the little girl! Here Val thinks she is teaching the girl to speak but really the girl was teaching Val that it's ok to feel and express what you feel. The setting is a remote island off Greenland’s coast and just adds the creepy feel. The desolation, the freezing temperatures and the sound of the howling wind. The stories pace does seem drawn out in some places but not unnecessarily! A lot of the elements that make up the story are very different but I enjoyed the differences! Overall a very enjoyable read! Definitely one you'll want to curl up with a blanket and snuggle down for a nice freezing read!

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t get into it. The story seemed a bit rushed, but overall it had a good plot.

I also enjoyed the authors descriptive writing and felt like like they described Greenland perfectly.

This novel had an intriguing premise, vivid descriptions of a unique setting, and interesting information about the evolution of language, however overall fell flat for me. I found the characters unlikable (except for the girl) and lacking in development. The plot was drawn out for the first 3/4 of the book and the ending felt rushed.

I wanted to love this book because I enjoy the author's previous works and her way of always transporting the reader to an exotic exciting vacation.

The good:
Beautifully atmospheric, the chills felt tangible.
Very interesting premise of what if people could freeze to death and thaw out alive?
Climate horror!!

The bad:
The plot is all over the place without really any resolution.
Characters felt one dimensional and things that mattered intensely at one moment in the book were shrugged aside like nothing pages later, which was confusing.

Trigger Warnings:
Dead kids, dead babies, suicide, toxic masculinity, claustrophobic

Read this is you're able to suspend belief in a huge way and don't want anything too science-y but you want a global warming horror with a hint of mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Girl in Ice.

I was glad my request was approved since the premise was intriguing. This is the first book I've read by the author so I had decent expectations.

Val is a linguist grieving from the loss of her twin brother, Andy, at a remote climate change station in the Arctic Circle not long ago.

When Andy's mentor, Wyatt, makes a stunning discovery in ice, he calls upon Val with her talents in linguistics to decipher the language spoken by a girl thawed from the ice.

As Val struggles with leaving the safety and comfort of her sheltered life, self medicating, ruminating over her brother's strange death (she has never believed Andy would ever take his life), she finds herself bonding with this strange but incredible girl, Sigrid.

When their bond deepens, Val comes to the realization that Sigrid's life is in danger and she may be the child's only hope.

The author does a great job describing the stark and beautiful isolation of the landscape; the brutal cold, the harshness and brutality of nature; not surprisingly, climate change is the prevailing theme running through the narrative.

Val is a decent character; I wouldn't call her likable but I wished I liked her better. I still wasn't entirely clear on why she was self medicating and anxious. Did this happen after Andy's death or was she always like this?

I wished I understood her better, because sometimes I felt Val was a pushover, her weak personality overshadowing her intelligence though she does man up at the end.

Perhaps it's because she's not the fun twin and has always been disregarded in favor of her brother, who was the handsome, charismatic one. When your own father belittles your intelligence, you're going to have serious Freudian daddy issues.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the only other two female characters, Jeanne and Nora, are both suffering the loss of their children, making them especially vulnerable in their current state. I wished these women were not typical tropes; frail and sensitive and easily influenced by the man in charge.

Wyatt is an odd bug; the author purposely highlights sexual tension between him and Val, as if reminding readers Val's attempt to please the older men in her life, since she's always trying to get her own dad to respect her. This is creepy, but I guess that's the point.

I really enjoyed Val's explanations of how ancient cultures spoke; their words encompassed feelings; how certain words in other cultures better explained a moment of joy or sorrow. I love learning about things I didn't know anything about before.

I felt the pacing of the narrative was slow; there was a lack of urgency even though Wyatt mentions regularly that Val has a limited amount of time to communicate with Sigrid.

I did like the ending and the themes of climate change, the wonder of ancient cultures and the beauty of the natural world.

This book was a wild ride for me, and I suppose it is due in part to our main character being so unique and fun. Val is a quiet, introverted person who studies dead languages. She's considered the 'boring' one compared to her twin, who dies via suicide off the coast of Greenland. However, Val suspects there is more to the story and after receiving an offer to continue research that her brother was working on, she heads north to serve as a translator for a girl found in the ice who speaks an unknown language. This plot was so unique that it grabbed my interest right away and I was pulled into the descriptive world-building. However, the main plot really seemed to stand on its own with the subplots being weaker and predictable to me, which left me wanting more depth from the story. It does end with some great plot twists that are fun for the reader and our main character gets more than just the answers she was searching for. I've never read anything by this author but am now going to find another book she's written because I enjoy her writing style. If you like languages or unusual plotlines, this book is for you!

Maybe 3.5 stars if I suspend disbelief a little further than is comfortable. I wanted to love this book because I am a language nerd who is fascinated by the Arctic. However, the book had too many shortcomings.
Great premise, fascinating main character. Val is a linguist who has a challenging assignment in Greenland. She also has a boatload of psych problems, which seemed to vanish without explanation somewhere in the middle of the book. Someone apparently stole her meds, and she frantically looks for them, never finds them, but suffers no withdrawal and manages to continue on her merry way.
The mystery of the girl who was apparently thawed out from the ice was never satisfactorily resolved. Val has an official story to tell other people, but no one really knows where she came from. By the end of the book, the reader does not know either. This was very disappointing. One of the reasons Val took this assignment was to find out what happened to her brother, who apparently (I've used that word a lot in this review) committed suicide by going outside the dome into the freezing weather. Did he really do this intentionally or did someone lock him out? I think he was thrown out as part of a sinister experiment. Not sure though.
In the second half of the book, the situation at the station turns into a complete meltdown, pun intended. Two people drown trying to recover a trap full of eels. Then there is a huge fight and other people are killed. Val and the girl survive. In my opinion, this was poorly presented. The actions lacked motivation and resolution. The secret to remaining viable after 700 years of being frozen seems to be based on some chemical found in those eels. I guess. It seemed ridiculous or, at the very least, inadequately justified.
This is a somewhat fun read, especially toward the beginning before I knew I was going to be left hanging. The author left too many loose ends and too many events happened for no compelling reason.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Weird but fun book- who knew about some of the more obscure linguistic quirks of both current and 'dead' languages? While the story didn't totally hang together for me, it was really interesting and a novel perspective.
The cold, the isolation, the unexplained death of her brother make the heroine struggle to understand not only what happened when her brother died, but how they 'saved' the little girl they found in the ice. Then trying to communicate with her and figure out her story is quite interesting.

Not your typical mystery thriller but new enough and different enough to keep me reading all the way through.
Nice change of pace.

Val, an accomplished linguist is in the midst of a mid-life crisis, with a recent divorce, and still reeling from the mysterious death of her twin brother, when she gets an intriguing email from the last man who saw her brother alive. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she ventures to the end of the earth to help solve a scientific mystery.

Perfect combination of nerdy science with a little bit of jumpy thrills. It was a page turner that kept me locked in! This was a pretty good Net Galley read!

CW/TW: animal violence

Valerie (Val) Chesterfield is the polar opposite of her twin, Andy. Always their father’s favorite, Andy is adventurous, charismatic, funny, and brave. Val, however, has extreme anxiety; organizing her life to keep herself in a sheltered, familiar, risk-free, and comfortable habitat. Val seems settled as a linguist specializing in dead, Nordic languages. Unlike her brother—who has embarked on an expedition to explore the Arctic Circle—Val prefers to make discoveries in the library translating books. When Val receives news that Andy is dead, she has to decide if she is capable of leaving her comfort zone, and enter an unknown environment not only to find out about her brother, but also to aid the remaining crew with their unbelievable discovery.

The titular girl in the ice is Sigrid: an eight-year-old who has been thawed alive from a block of glacial ice by Wyatt (Andy’s mentor and co-research scientist) and Jeanne (mechanic). According to Wyatt, the core samples from the glacial ice is dated to be from one-thousand years ago. They look forward to Val’s knowledge in Nordic languages to help them communicate with Sigrid and find out what she knows and where she comes from. Specifically, Wyatt wants to know what she may have eaten that has allowed her to thaw out alive. With the clock ticking down, Val doesn’t know if she can trust the motives
behind Wyatt’s true interest in Sigrid; she also suspects he has some involvement in her brother’s death.
Val is also a girl in ice; she freezes out those who try to get close to her. It is ironic that it is Sigrid who is the one to thaw out Val. The budding relationship between the two—one where both of them have to learn to trust—is key to the plot.
Climate warming is a major theme. We learn that people are being killed around the world by Pitaraqs: Arctic winds characterized by instantaneous temperature jumps and drops. While at the Arctic, they experience unseasonable warm temperatures. Much of the Arctic landscape is also disappearing.

Val makes many bad decisions. This could be confounding to the average reader until you remind yourself that this is within her character to do so. She doesn’t have the interpersonal experience and trust to reach out to others. Her relationship with Wyatt—one where she vacilates between attraction and repulsion—influences how she interacts with Sigrid and others. You rarely think she knows why she is there, and what she should be accomplishing.

I found this to be a refreshingly different type of book with elements found in thrillers, science-fiction, and science genres.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Loved this book - mystery, suspense, thrills, adventure and a happy ending - all in the unlikely setting of an arctic expedition. The descriptions of the unimaginable - narwhals coming when called for instance, come to life as do the characters in a wide and fascinating range of interests. The land and it's peoples - old and new, the climate, the animals find a fresh and invigorating voice in Ferencik's Girl in Ice. 10 stars!

What a spooky thriller. I really enjoyed this one. Girl In Ice had the same adrenaline trip as the author’s previous works, and I think that’s what makes them so good.

Ferencik’s writing is beautiful, the setting is perfectly drawn – eerie and otherworldly and magnificent in all the right places – and the characters are compelling. This book starts with an amazing premise, and I liked the build-up of suspense throughout, however, the ending feels quite rushed. The setting, character arcs, and Val’s anxiety built a great sense of suspense throughout the book, but the loose ends – all the questions, tension, and, especially, the issues which arise in the last fifty pages or so – are tied up far too cleanly by the end of the book. This left me feeling quite disappointed; the book and characters deserve more than this shoddy wrap-up. It’s beyond unbelievable that the mysterious deaths of four out of five crew members would be glossed over like they were in this book, and the same goes for an unaccounted-for child appearing out of the Arctic. Don’t even get me started on the break from reality regarding a scientific discovery being accepted and studied by the scientific community immediately. The author really needs to work out a longer, slower denouement for this book to achieve its true potential. Also, the main character’s relationship with her father needs revision. In the beginning of the book, she seems aware of his preference for her twin, but not significantly emotionally affected by it. However, she goes to the Arctic due to her father’s insistence, and is emotionally wrecked by this relationship by the middle-to-end of the book. I think readers will need more concrete examples of how this relationship (and the father’s preference for Andy) affected Val at other points in her life before they can be expected to be emotionally invested in the scenes between Val and her father.

This review will be posted on February 23, 2022 to: https://instagram.com/amandas.bookshelf

Ingenious plot: a young girl is found frozen in ice by climate scientists at a remote research station in Greenland. When the ice thaws, the girl is somehow alive and speaking an unknown language. How is this possible? Val, still grieving the unexpected suicide of her twin brother at the same research station, is called in to work with the girl and learn how to communicate with her. I thought the exploration of climate science, the effects of climate change, and investigative methods into the unknown language was fascinating. Where the novel missed the mark for me was its lack of tension. Other than Val telling us about the urgency of time running out, I didn't feel or observe any increasing tension from the limited time she had to spend on the island and solve the mystery of the thawed girl. #GirInIce Rating: 😐 / meh, it was ok
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This book is scheduled for publication on March 1, 2022. Thank you @scoutpressbooks for providing me this digital ARC via @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first book by Erica Ferencik I have read. I enjoyed it so much that I am going to read her others. The story is about a linguist that goes to the Artic Circle to communicate with a young girl that has been taken from the ice and thawed out alive. The girl is speaking in an unknown tongue. Val, the linguist that goes to the Artic to help communicate with the girl has such bad anxiety that she has to take meds for it. Val is also struggling with the death of her twin brother that recently died at the very same research post where the girl is living. So, this is a big undertaking for Val. The scientist that has asked Val to come to the Artic is also her brothers mentor and the last person to see her brother before he was found froze to death. Val is suspicious of Wyatt, the scientist/mentor might have had something to do with her brothers death. The story keeps the reader flipping pages and guessing until the very satisfying end. I highly recommend this one!

I really loved the linguistic aspect of this book. Learning about the root and meaning of phrases and words that Val mentioned fascinated me.

This story was slow paced and it didn’t hold my interest too well, but I did stay curious wondering where the story was going. The pace picked up at the end; that’s where all the action was and when things got interesting.