Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik

“We found a body in the ice out on Glacier 35A. A young girl. We were able to cut through the ice and bring her back to the compound. Val, she thawed out alive. Don’t ask me to explain it, I can’t.”

Thus begins Val Chesterfield’s unbelievable, but oh-so-thrilling experience in Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik. Val receives a call from Wyatt, scientific researcher in the Arctic and friend/mentor/co-researcher of Val’s twin brother, Andy. Andy passed recently after going outside in fifty degrees below zero weather and Val is suspicious that it wasn’t suicide as was being reported. When Wyatt calls Val, asking for her linguistic expertise in communicating with the thawed girl speaking an unknown language, she decides to make the trip to the Arctic. She is fascinated by the story of this girl and wants the opportunity to look into her brother’s death.

Before Val even arrived in the Arctic, I could feel the claustrophobia and tension in this story. It is even more intense in the frozen and fierce environment in which most of the story occurs. As Val meets the girl and begins the slow process of learning to communicate with her, the short days get even shorter and Val’s window of escaping before winter grows smaller. The girl is getting weaker and trying to communicate, but Val is struggling to understand what she is trying to say.

Suspend belief and buckle up for a wild, dark and oppressive ride. The descriptions of the Arctic in this book are atmospheric perfection. It should go without saying the main plot point, the girl thawing and living, is unreal, so don’t expect complete plausibility. However, the climate change elements were all-too real and made this tense read even more adrenaline-pumping.

This was my first book by Erica Ferencik, but it won’t be my last!

Check out Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik at the Library (https://catalog.lclibs.org/polaris/search/title.aspx…).