Erica Ferencik creates a world like few are able to do. I read (and loved) her Into the Jungle, and she went clear to the other extreme with Girl in Ice. Set in Greenland, this book does not hold back on making critical commentary (global warming!), describing the difficulties of life in a harsh climate, or painting the breathtaking beauty of harsh landscapes with clear admiration. I will forever stan Ferencik for writing plucky heroines who are imperfect -- normalize saving the world AND still needing to take medication to manage anxiety. Save this one for the cozy months.

Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik is a book that will tug at your heart strings by the end. The bond forged between Val and the young girl, Sigrid, is beautiful to watch. I will say, for me it took some time to connect to Val giving the book a slow start, but soon I was staying up past my bedtime and sneaking in a page here and there. I hope there is a second book as I'd love to follow Val's story further. Sometimes I feel like author's rush the ending, leaving me feeling a little let down. Not the case for Girl In Ice, I feel like this story and karma came full circle.

I really loved this book!! It had so many twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!! This was my first book by this Author, and it won’t be the last!! Quick read!! Highly recommended!! You won’t be disappointed!!

3.5 rounded to 4

Ericka Ferenick is an extremely skillful writer in so many ways, and there were many passages that were deliriously sublime, and also many concepts that will stick with me and that truly made me think – a rarity in genre fiction. The book is billed as a “literary thriller” which unfortunately sets up expectations for a story set in the “real world” with “real world rules” and I kept waiting for the inevitable “twist.” But the story is not a thriller, it is science fiction. Publishers just won’t stop mislabeling various books as thrillers, so what can you do…

I loved the concept here – an 8-year-old girl being found frozen solid in ice who is brought back to life and the “brilliant linguist,” Val, who must learn to communicate with her. But there were also a lot of issues with the story. The “brilliant linguist” may have been brilliant – indeed her musings on language are quite fascinating – but as a character she was lacking, and wasted no opportunity in scrounging around for alcohol and getting drunk in front of the girl she was supposed to be helping. The character is supposed to also be agoraphobic, as if the author couldn’t stop herself from planting the lead from Woman in the Window inside of her book about global warming and a mysterious ice-girl. Nor was it explained how an agoraphobic becomes fluent in so many languages – did she just watch YouTube videos or something?

Many threads were picked up, then trailed off into nothingness. Why was there no follow-up to trying to return the ice-girl to her village, where it was originally surmised she came from? What was up with the mammoth caribou who is frozen and kept in a storage area? Emotional inconsistencies – does Val think the base leader, Wyatt, killed her beloved twin brother, or is she attracted to him?

But I think the strangest thing – the thing that kept bothering me for the entire read – is that the heroine is supposed to be utterly devasted by the death of her twin brother, who apparently stumbled outside the base and froze to death. As Wyatt is able to bring frozen people and animals back from the dead – at least sometimes – why does Val never think about or ask him if he tried that with her brother? (At one point, Val mentions that she never saw her brother’s body – which I thought was setting up that Wyatt still had his body and was secretly trying to revive him, but this isn’t the case. I kept expecting the brother to lurch out of the freezer like Frankenstein’s cold monster cousin.)

I know many people will enjoy this book – it is unique, I will give it that; and as I say, the writer very often ascends into truly transcendent writing. But, unfortunately, I found myself confused one too many times.

AMAZING! Ferencik is truly one of my favorite writers of all time. Girl in Ice is yet another 5 star read.
This book centers around a slightly agoraphobic, nerdy and complicated woman who is an expert in dead languages. She is lured out of her house and to northern Greenland of all places, by the (top secret) news that a girl has been found in the ice and thawed out…….ALIVE. No one there can communicate with her so it’s up to our intrepid narrator.
The characters, the amazing setting, NARWHALS (!!!!!!), and mystery on top of mystery kept my fingers in a blur as I swiped furiously to get to the end. I don’t need to tell you this was a one sitting read for me, as all of Ferencik’s books have been. Seriously, I cannot thank you enough for the chance to read this early. I cannot wait to pick up my hard copy when this one comes out next year.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

The book was hard to put down.

It did start out a little slow and kind of went on too much about the protagonist's disorders. A small mention somewhere is good because her anxiety does explain why she behaves as she does. However, I think it'd be better if we were showed instead.

After the first couple of chapters, the book picks up and I couldn't put it down. For the most part, it's written well, the characterization is decent, the setting is amazing; actually. I suggest you read this book at the height of summer because the descriptions were nice and cold!

Val's brother had died in the Arctic, prior to the start of the story. She gets an email from Wyatt, who wants her to come out to where her brother died because they had found a girl who had been frozen in ice. When they thawed her out, she was alive. Wyatt wants some help in understanding her language. He included a recording for Val.

Val is a linguist with a gift for language. This would be a good opportunity for her to study the language as well as find out some information about her brother. Her father also encourages her to go.

I would have liked to know more about they girl from the ice. I would've liked to learn more of her story and life before she ended up there; just get to know her better. The story does give enough that we do learn about her somewhat, but it just didn't feel complete.

Overall, I thought that this was a good, solid story.

I really enjoyed this book. The story is told in first person from the point of view of Val who suffers from crippling anxiety but is willing to brave the great vastness of an arctic island off the coast of Greenland to find out the real story behind the supposed suicide of her more favored twin brother, an acclaimed climate scientist. Val, a linguist expert specializing in dead languages, has just received an offer from the lead scientist on the same project as her brother. Wyatt wants Val to communicate with a girl that he supposedly thawed from the ice who is speaking an unrecognizable language.

Val travels with a couple, Nora and Raj, a pair of Polar marine scientists studying the sea ice changes and its effect on aquatic life, to the island to join the research team, which currently consists of Wyatt and one other person, Jeanne. The environment for the camp is both vast and secluded, dangerous but cozy. I enjoyed the atmospheric, Arctic environment and wildlife descriptions. The vivid characters were each on their own journey through loss while dealing with this barren, isolated environment and their own individual research. I found both the linguistic struggle and subsequent relationship that developed between Val and the girl fascinating. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in language science, the Arctic and isolated mysteries.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books/Scout Press for the free copy provided for an honest review.

In Girl in Ice, Erica Ferencik delivers another fast-paced adventure set in an exotic locale. This time, readers are transported to the barren arctic tundra, a lonely research station where a mysterious death has occurred. The protagonist must find out what happened to her brother and try to understand the implications of the scientific discovery he had been pursuing. The language is evocative and vivid with heartfelt, poetic descriptions of the landscape and its native culture. Fans will be pleased to find Ferencik's edifying reverence for natural places fully intact here.

This one is less intense than Ferencik's previous releases, with fewer, less complex confrontations and more thoughtful analysis. The characters are as strong as ever, though, and some might find Girl in Ice to be the author's most moving effort yet. A tidy conclusion balances out the well-paced narrative, but the story has all the foundations of a longer, more robust work. If anything could improve this book, it might be the extra breathing room of an additional 50 pages or so, in which the multitude of intriguing ideas present could be more fully explored.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I really liked the description and was excited to give it a go. Climate science and linguistics? Add in a scientific mystery as well as a mysterious death? Sign me up.

Unfortunately, the book's description was better than the book itself. To start with, a linguist with extensive knowledge of the area in question repeatedly used a slur for the Indigenous people of the area. While it shouldn't have been used in the book at all, it especially should have not been used by a supposed expert character. The writing was repetitive. and dragged at times. The story line was unrealistic, and the science needed an actual scientist to look over it. Did I mention the repetition?

This is a hard pass for me.

Unable to put into words what best describes Girl in Ice, the story is somewhat like Nell meets Alexandra Rover, two characters played brilliantly by Jodi Foster.

Sigrid is a young girl found perfectly preserved, frozen in a glacier. Wyatt is the scientist who cut her out and brought her back to life. Val is a linguist Wyatt contacts to help them understand what Sigrid is saying. Andy is Val’s brother, also a scientist who worked with Wyatt in the Arctic Circle until Andy was found frozen, curled up outside the door in the snow. Andy was also one of Wyatt’s students, who always looked up to and admired his professor and mentor.

When Val is contacted by Wyatt to help communicate with a girl he cut out of the ice, she is intrigued. However, she is also skeptical. Her father very forcefully asks her to put aside her fear and her anxiety and go help Wyatt. Val’s father tells her that Wyatt killed Andy, and she needs to find out what really happened.

Ferencik offers and intriguing thriller with Girl in Ice. Val must go way beyond her comfort zone to help this young girl no one understands. She speaks a language even Val has never heard, but Val nonetheless works tirelessly to understand what Sigrid is trying to say through verbal communication and in pictures.

The reader becomes very invested in Val’s overcoming her fears and breaking the code of Sigrid’s language. The one thing Val knows is that her ability to communicate with Sigrid is a matter of life or death. She must be able to understand what Sigrid is saying as well as how to communicate back to her in order to help her. Val learns the truth about Andy in a very unexpected way, while fighting not only for Sigrid’s life but also for her own. They are each other’s only chance to survive the danger they face from extreme weather conditions as well as unexpected and surprising sources.

The story ends in a way far where I expected. Although there is some predictability, the plot twists make up for it in the end. I finished the book in a state of disbelief. This is the way a book should capture its reader’s attention and imagination. Readers should be transported into the environments in which the characters find themselves. Girl in Ice does this well. This is the first book I have read by Erica Ferencik, but I am sure it will not be the last.

“Girl in Ice” left a lasting impression as it keeps resurfacing into my mind days after I finished. Author, Erica Ferencik, created a unique space by transporting the reader to an intriguing artic setting, adding in the linguistic aspect (with enough detail to understand the concepts without losing or boring the reader), and was one I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

Reflecting back, I originally thought “Girl in Ice” had a bit of a slow start, however, I believe if two of the characters (Andy & Wyatt) had been expanded on, or more developed, it would have made a bigger impact from the start. For example, Val’s brother “Andy” - I did not feel a strong sibling connection here as was implied. For “Wyatt”, I wanted to have a better understanding (and more specifics), as to why he is the way he is, more on his relationship with Andy, and why the other characters kept accepting his erratic / extreme behavior. Overall an intriguing read, thought provoking, & one I would suggest others dig into!

A sincere thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books, and Gallery/Scout Press for providing me an advance copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this story and leave my review voluntarily.

Cool book on a hot weekend! While the A/C was broken this week, I stayed cool by reading this intriguing book about misadventures in the Arctic Circle. A young woman teacher, linguist and old languages lover, sets out to the Arctic Circle to study a young girl who was thawed out of an ice block, and also seeking answers to her twin brother’s death who also worked out there. Wildly divergent characters are stuck with each other while studying climate change and ancient peoples. Everything is unpredictable, including the questionable leader’s decisions and rage issues. The characters were clear and concise, with the exception of the young girl. Belief was suspended to read through this, and I wish the treatment of this fragile girl had been kinder. Also, the treatment of each other was very rough and disrespectful. Lots of empathy missing, and it saddened me that no one really connected with the mysterious girl, including the young teacher who became her caretaker. I can’t imagine living under Arctic conditions, and could well imagine the cold, the snow, sub-freezing temperatures, and constant danger to their lives. This was a fast read, and it was hard to put down. In between reading, the book stayed with my thoughts. Not perfect, but a good thriller. Would make a great movie. Recommended!
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion,

What a great book!! I was engaged from start to finish and devoured this book in a day. The concept was interesting and there was heart and emotion in the story as well.

The ending was just unbelievable, but good!

I was pleasantly surprised by Girl In Ice. It was my first novel by Erica Ferencik but I promise it will not be my last . I was a little weery to start this book as it seemed very similar to the books I have been choosing this summer . However, I was completely wrong .

This is a unique novel and I can’t quite classify it into one specific category . All I can say is that it is captivating and brilliant right from the start !!

So much for "the plot." The writing itself is a page turner, I am so glad I took a chance. You won't be disappointed

I recommend Girl In The Ice without hesitation.

Val has been invited to a remote arctic station in Greenland for an unusual scientific project. A young girl has been found, but no one knows what she is saying. Val is a world-class linguist and is intrigued by the words she hears on the email recording. But Val does not "go" anywhere. Home, work, her father's care home. Still, she is intrigued. The scientist who invited her had mentored her twin brother, who died at the station. And she desperately wants to know what happened to her brother. Even she can't believe it when she accepts.
She finds herself surrounded by the beauty of what she calls "the Enormity". Nothing is as it seems.
Great story. Slow twisty burn to an unbelievable ending.

This was a really good quick read! I read this in about 2 and half days and I loved every minute of it. It’s one of those books that leaves you thinking about it for the rest of the week. This book was different than what I normally read, and I was taken by surprise by how much I liked it! Highly recommend!

One of the best books I've read in a LONG time. Engaging and very unique premise coupled with superb character presentations. Also, if you like fascinating scientific information, like I do, this story nails it. If you don't read any other book this year, read this one. I can almost guarantee you'll love it, too.

WOW- I LOVED THIS BOOK!

What an interesting concept. This book kept me on my toes and I couldn't put it down.
I loved this story. I loved the girl in ice. The main characters were developed well.

Thank you for this ARC!

Excellent story mad Ben better by the details of the setting. The science involved obviously required research on the author’s part. All of it was joined together in a very entertaining plot.

This was a great, quick read! I absolutely loved the arctic setting of this book. The author does a fantastic job at describing the surroundings and putting you in the characters' environment. The linguistic aspect was really interesting to me, too. The transformation of the girl from the ice was fascinating to watch and I enjoyed the ending. I wish that the brother's death had played a bigger role in the book, but overall this was an awesome read!