Review – The Ice Garden by Guy Jones (3.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Magical Realism
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Chicken House
Release Date: February 26, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1338285338
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
“Jess’s imagination has always been her best friend. She’s trained it to feel as real as it possibly can, especially in the stories she writes for Davie — the young boy in a coma who is her only friend. But nothing is as real as the world she’ll find.
One night, tired of peeking at the other children beyond her curtained house, she sneaks out to explore the empty playground she’s longed to visit. Beyond, she discovers a garden made entirely of ice. This is her place: a Narnia with flying elephant mice and ice apples with shining gold liquid inside.
But Jess soon discovers that she’s not alone. And her presence there could be destroying its very existence.”
I got this book through the Amazon Vine program to review. I was looking for a simple and magical middle grade read and this book fit that niche pretty well. I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. Some of the story was a bit too simplistic for me.
This is a fairly simple middle grade story about a girl with an allergy to sun who makes friends with a boy in a coma and finds a secret ice garden in a world connected to the playground near her house. The story has a very fairy tale type of feel to it.
The story deals a lot with friendship, over domineering parents, and finding one’s own way in the face of disability. It was a cute story that was decently written. This was a nice quick and simple read with some magic in it. I enjoyed it but it’s pretty straight-forward and easy to predict.
Overall this was a simple and magical middle grade read. I enjoyed it for what it was but wish it had been a bit more complex. This story is a very quick read, I think it took me a bit over an hour to finish it. Recommended to those who enjoy simple fairy tale like stories with some magical realism in them.
