Good, good book. And it did not turn into a horror story which I appreciated.

There’s so much in this story that’s deliberately evasive. Is it magic or is the girl real? Does she have powers or are childhood stories starting to go to their heads? You never know and that’s half the fun! The author actually bases the story off a Russian fable, Snegurochka, which makes an appearance in the book too and the couple struggle with trying to care for the girl while suspicious of her possible fairytale origins. With this retelling aspect, it’s a cozy, wintery tale but with a darker tone in combining it with a tale about early homesteaders in Alaska, trying to survive cold, cold winters.

I don’t have a real point of contention with this one. The one thing I found odd was a lot of description about the couple being old, struggling with tasks around the house, bones creaking, etc etc. But they’re only in their 50s! Maybe a lot of 50-year-olds think of themselves that way but these two sounded like they were at least 20 years older.