Girl in Snow

The novel, Girl in Snow, by Danya Kukafka, is an exquisite, lyrical telling of three different narratives: one by Cameron Whitley, a deeply sensitive and troubled young man, whose focus, desire, and love spirals into obsession; Jade Dixon-Burns, an angry and spiteful, young woman whose jealousy and self-pity compels her to darkness and brooding; and Russ Fletcher, an officer burdened with the task of solving the mystery of Lucinda Haye’s murder and the ramifications of his own past.

The book is both beautiful and terrifying, a haunting soliloquy to loneliness, heartbreak, and revenge. The characters are flawed and vivid, their weaknesses also their haunting strangeness, but are also able to invoke in readers, a quiet empathy and tenderness. This is especially impressive since the plot also involves the mysterious treachery of murder—a murder which could easily implicate several characters in the novel.

Yet, the skill in this novel, too, is its ability to build itself in waves of narrative that is not only introspective, but thoughtful; poetic, yet wrought with believable realism. The death of Lucinda Hayes, is an opportunity for the other characters to grow, if not slowly become reborn as one usually does in trauma and crisis.

And while the writing is lyrical, it is also easily readable, a page-turner if there was an epitome of one, a book I had only read and was engrossed in for a mere two days.

The irony here, is, while Lucinda Hayes’ death means her absolute absence as a character in the novel, the three narratives by the other characters are so overwhelmed with their focus on her death, that though she is absent, she is also ever-present in their thoughts, in their wonder, and in their grief.

But, it is not all poetry and flowers—the book does put in question how easily mob thinking can arise through the epidemic of gossip and crisis, how the act of appearing sad is as inevitable as grief itself, how judgement is as coarse as it is easily thrown about to any suspecting person, and how incrimination is just as harmful as guilt.
And there are a few surprises with the help of secondary characters: Éduoard “Zap” Arnaud; Ivan Santos; Inés Santos; Mr. Thornton; Howard Morrie; and Lee Whitley—all whom play an essential part in raising the plot to its climactic revelation.

What I love about this book, aside from its lyrical cadence, is its testimony to the internal life, how history has a way of unfurling itself from the honest, and sometimes dark desires we feel compelled to surrender to. How these desires can sometimes take us to not only dark places, but thrust us into acts we might not otherwise think to commit.

Danya Kukafka is a young writer with an obvious gift for her craft; her prose, mature, and her introspective characters: haunting, scarred, and beautiful. It’s a wonder that this is only her first novel and yet thrilling to anticipate what work, stories, and narrative she might later share with the literary world.

In that sense, Lucinda Hayes, then, did not die in reckless abandon or vain.
***
Characters: 5 stars
Plot: 4.5 stars
Language/Narrative: 4.5 stars
Dialogue: 4 stars
Pacing: 5 stars
Cover Design: 5 stars
***
Zara's Overall Rating: 5 stars

Lucinda Hayes was found one morning lying on the carousel in the elementary school playground in the snow. Cameron had watched her for a long time. He would sneak out of his house at night and watch her through her bedroom windows. He would draw portraits of her. Jade and Lucinda babysat for the same family. Jade worked for them first, but once they met Lucinda, they preferred to have her work for them. Russ is a police officer. He was friends with Lee, Cameron’s father, who was accused of beating a woman and left town after he was found not guilty. Russ’s brother-in-law is the janitor at the elementary school who found Lucinda’s body. Over the three days following her death, these people work to figure out what happened to her.

The story is told in chapters alternating between the perspectives of Cameron, Jade, and Russ. One of the first things I noticed about this book is how the three different narratives are so unique. Cameron’s narrative is told in third person. Cameron has some problems and keeps to himself a lot, so I can see why he wouldn’t tell his own story. Jade and Russ tell their stories in the first person perspective, but Russ’s parts don’t use quotation marks around the spoken words. This makes it seem more like it’s being filtered through his thoughts.

I enjoyed this story. It moved along at a steady pace. It was kind of emotional at times, because a lot of the characters had personal struggles. But overall it is a good story.