What do you think?
Rate this book
The Ice Garden
In the sixties in a small town in North Carolina, young Claire McKenzie's new baby sister arrives. Her mother has always been fragile and unsteady, but her lack of interest in the infant signals a new emotional deterioration. While Claire struggles to keep every one safe, her father is too distracted by his beautiful wife to recognize the impending dangers. Claire is left largely on her own to save her family. Her outsized responsibility brings about mesmerizing, and shocking consequences---and trigger events that will shape Claire's life forever.
221 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2014
2 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
March 6, 2023
I've heard Moira Crone read from this book twice now, once in November (2014), a reading of a powerful chapter that prompted me to buy the book for a friend on that alone, and today, the day after I'd finished the book myself (August, 2015). Today, Moira had to read over the blare of street musicians playing in the French Quarter, a brassy sassy sound that carried through closed second-floor windows. The music had started a split second before Moira started, and I thought of it as a fanfare to her lyrical prose, prose that startles with truth and originality.
The first-person voice of the young Claire is organic to the plot. She is an observer, because she's had to become one, reading the nuances of her mother's behavior the way some people relied on the clouds and the moon, to try to decide what weather was coming. For Claire and, by extension, for her baby sister, observation is a matter of survival.
Crone's depiction of how a family is held hostage, tiptoeing, afraid to take a breath, by a mentally ill parent is a marvel. And even though I vividly remember it from November, the aforementioned chapter is so heady that as I read it for myself, I still felt tension and fear for these children of a narcissistic, cruel mother and an inattentive father, obsessed with his wife's beauty. While the ending might be catastrophic to the characters, its inevitability (though I was never sure what details were coming) is a cathartic one for the reader.
(August 8, 2015)
*
Reread
When Howard said he was going to nominate this book for the On the Southern Literary Trail reading group, I said I'd read it with them if it got voted in. It took three tries and it's seven years later, but it happened and I happily read it again. I remembered the ending -- it'd be hard to forget -- and read slowly, noticing nuances missed on any first read. In some ways, knowing the ending made it a harder read, or maybe it's more that time has given me experiences that add even more to the empathy I have for anyone in Claire's situation.
Crone signed my copy, writing in part, "Thanks for ... sharing my book with friends." She's referring to the aforementioned friend of my first paragraph, but it's nice to know that even more friends -- thanks to Howard -- have now read it.
(March 5, 2023)
The first-person voice of the young Claire is organic to the plot. She is an observer, because she's had to become one, reading the nuances of her mother's behavior the way some people relied on the clouds and the moon, to try to decide what weather was coming. For Claire and, by extension, for her baby sister, observation is a matter of survival.
Crone's depiction of how a family is held hostage, tiptoeing, afraid to take a breath, by a mentally ill parent is a marvel. And even though I vividly remember it from November, the aforementioned chapter is so heady that as I read it for myself, I still felt tension and fear for these children of a narcissistic, cruel mother and an inattentive father, obsessed with his wife's beauty. While the ending might be catastrophic to the characters, its inevitability (though I was never sure what details were coming) is a cathartic one for the reader.
(August 8, 2015)
*
Reread
When Howard said he was going to nominate this book for the On the Southern Literary Trail reading group, I said I'd read it with them if it got voted in. It took three tries and it's seven years later, but it happened and I happily read it again. I remembered the ending -- it'd be hard to forget -- and read slowly, noticing nuances missed on any first read. In some ways, knowing the ending made it a harder read, or maybe it's more that time has given me experiences that add even more to the empathy I have for anyone in Claire's situation.
Crone signed my copy, writing in part, "Thanks for ... sharing my book with friends." She's referring to the aforementioned friend of my first paragraph, but it's nice to know that even more friends -- thanks to Howard -- have now read it.
(March 5, 2023)
March 17, 2023
4+ stars
“Crone has the born fiction writer’s ability to lay out a tightly bounded world and create large moral dramas within it. Her frequent subject, the mythology around white southern womanhood, may have passed from history along with pastel shirtwaist dresses and magnolia blossoms, but the idea still matters because its extensions of meaning are still with us—and Crone doesn’t spare us the ominous implications of the strained, dreadful beauty of those women and the culture that bound itself to the task of keeping them protected.” From an article in 'Image' magazine.
The tightly bounded world in ‘The Ice Garden’ is a small town in 1960s North Carolina; the world of ten-year-old Claire, our protagonist. When we first meet her, she’s standing outside the window of the hospital where her baby sister has just been born. She’s not allowed to go in because of her age, and her companion, Sidney, the McKenzie housemaid, isn’t allowed to go in because she’s a black woman. Claire’s father holds the newborn up at the window, but there’s no sign of Claire’s mother.
When Claire’s mother arrives home five days after the birth, it’s obvious that she’s not bonding with her newborn. She wants to lay abed and the 4am bottle that the baby requires sets off a muffled detonation between her parents audible to Claire each night. When Sidney cannot be persuaded to stay overnight, Aunt C is called for, and a camp is set up for Aunt C close by the nursery on the opposite side of the house. What must it be like when you’re ten and have never seen a baby cared for before? Claire admits to herself that Aunt C knows just what to do for Sweetie (Claire’s name for her baby sister), even though she never had children of her own.
This is an intense and harrowing narrative. I was at all times concerned for Sweetie’s welfare and Claire’s psychological state as she suffers emotional damage. The deftness with which Moira Crone shows Claire’s interior war all while showing us the reality that creates the turbulence is a marvel. At times, Claire seems too precocious, but mostly, Crone puts me there, in Claire’s mind, so that I only see and hear her, feel her emotions.
Mrs. McKenzie is unstable, mercurial. Although there may be postpartum depression, which can be accompanied by psychosis in extreme cases, there seems to be an underlying mental illness. She is acting in the same ways she did before her pregnancy. Her husband is besotted with his wife, putting her on a pedestal, and further harms her and his daughters by being completely oblivious. I wanted to wring his neck. Any sympathy I felt for him was quickly washed away by his neglect of his daughters in the face of glaring problems. At the same time, I am reminded that living with an undiagnosed mentally ill person creates a tsunami of anxiety and makes the partner untrusting of reality. Denial is the most human of coping mechanisms.
Mrs McKenzie hails from Charleston and looks down her nose at her neighbors in the small town. Whether this is her personality or some paranoia related to mental illness, I could not ascertain. Claire is torn between loving and yearning for her beautiful, blonde mother, and just wanting her mother to behave. Mrs. McKenzie’s beauty is a consistent pivot point in the novel, as her husband and daughter circle her, enticed by the flame of her beauty, but also wary, for there is something “strained and dreadful” as well, something that may consume them.
Families are such precarious things right at the beginning. My work with couples as a nurse, teaching them about their new babies, and encouraging bonding predisposed me to be at the mercy of this story. I was highly involved from the first page. I loved the author’s prose and imagery, especially as the final movement leads to an ice storm and an unforgettable ending.
“Crone has the born fiction writer’s ability to lay out a tightly bounded world and create large moral dramas within it. Her frequent subject, the mythology around white southern womanhood, may have passed from history along with pastel shirtwaist dresses and magnolia blossoms, but the idea still matters because its extensions of meaning are still with us—and Crone doesn’t spare us the ominous implications of the strained, dreadful beauty of those women and the culture that bound itself to the task of keeping them protected.” From an article in 'Image' magazine.
The tightly bounded world in ‘The Ice Garden’ is a small town in 1960s North Carolina; the world of ten-year-old Claire, our protagonist. When we first meet her, she’s standing outside the window of the hospital where her baby sister has just been born. She’s not allowed to go in because of her age, and her companion, Sidney, the McKenzie housemaid, isn’t allowed to go in because she’s a black woman. Claire’s father holds the newborn up at the window, but there’s no sign of Claire’s mother.
When Claire’s mother arrives home five days after the birth, it’s obvious that she’s not bonding with her newborn. She wants to lay abed and the 4am bottle that the baby requires sets off a muffled detonation between her parents audible to Claire each night. When Sidney cannot be persuaded to stay overnight, Aunt C is called for, and a camp is set up for Aunt C close by the nursery on the opposite side of the house. What must it be like when you’re ten and have never seen a baby cared for before? Claire admits to herself that Aunt C knows just what to do for Sweetie (Claire’s name for her baby sister), even though she never had children of her own.
This is an intense and harrowing narrative. I was at all times concerned for Sweetie’s welfare and Claire’s psychological state as she suffers emotional damage. The deftness with which Moira Crone shows Claire’s interior war all while showing us the reality that creates the turbulence is a marvel. At times, Claire seems too precocious, but mostly, Crone puts me there, in Claire’s mind, so that I only see and hear her, feel her emotions.
Mrs. McKenzie is unstable, mercurial. Although there may be postpartum depression, which can be accompanied by psychosis in extreme cases, there seems to be an underlying mental illness. She is acting in the same ways she did before her pregnancy. Her husband is besotted with his wife, putting her on a pedestal, and further harms her and his daughters by being completely oblivious. I wanted to wring his neck. Any sympathy I felt for him was quickly washed away by his neglect of his daughters in the face of glaring problems. At the same time, I am reminded that living with an undiagnosed mentally ill person creates a tsunami of anxiety and makes the partner untrusting of reality. Denial is the most human of coping mechanisms.
Mrs McKenzie hails from Charleston and looks down her nose at her neighbors in the small town. Whether this is her personality or some paranoia related to mental illness, I could not ascertain. Claire is torn between loving and yearning for her beautiful, blonde mother, and just wanting her mother to behave. Mrs. McKenzie’s beauty is a consistent pivot point in the novel, as her husband and daughter circle her, enticed by the flame of her beauty, but also wary, for there is something “strained and dreadful” as well, something that may consume them.
Families are such precarious things right at the beginning. My work with couples as a nurse, teaching them about their new babies, and encouraging bonding predisposed me to be at the mercy of this story. I was highly involved from the first page. I loved the author’s prose and imagery, especially as the final movement leads to an ice storm and an unforgettable ending.
March 4, 2023
Moira Crone’s The Ice Garden has to be my best unexpected reading experience this year. I admit to knowing nothing of the author or the book until GR friend, Howard, brought it to my attention. This is such a surprising and satisfying read, and sadly very unknown at this point. My hope is that many more readers will find this book and discover it’s depth and beauty for themselves.
This is a coming of age story of 10 year old Claire McKenzie growing up in North Carolina in the 1960’s. Claire’s voice is poignant and telling as she narrates her story beginning with the birth of her baby sister whom she nicknames Sweetie. Sweetie becomes one that Claire must protect from her beautiful mother’s descent into madness. From the beginning, readers are aware that something is awry with Diana. She is consumed by anxiety and negativity that threaten the stability of her family. As Diana’s behavior increasingly becomes more volatile and unsettling, we watch with bated breath waiting for some inevitable event and catastrophe to occur.
I dared not form the words in my mind, for I thought my mother could hear things before I said them.
Diana’s troubling behaviors are witnessed by her daughter Claire who loves her mother but doesn’t understand her at all. She is rarely allowed into her mother’s realm and pushed away every time Claire tries to get close. Poor Claire has figured out that her mother’s only escape is through her classical piano playing. Claire learned how to recognize the onset of her mother’s disoriented changes when her playing became more forceful and less soothing.
This was one of those times when she didn’t feel pain at all, when she was so in her own mind she couldn’t even imagine the idea of pain, anybody’s, when she took the side of the demon that hated everybody, herself too. It was the one that shouted when she messed up on the piano, the one that made a fist and hit her own thigh sometimes. I knew to stay at a safe distance. I grabbed her hand, finally, but not before she pulled strands right out of her scalp. Two little clumps of beautiful blonde, there on the parlor’s Persian carpet.
Claire is caught between her mother and father and is forced to grow up and act the adult for her baby sister’s sake. She must apply her instincts in order to avoid her mother’s wrath knowing that her father won’t be any help. He is too captivated by his wife’s beauty to acknowledge that her behaviors are cruel and unjust. Claire’s fear and loneliness is only increased by his indifference and disregard.
Moira Crone knows how to write the family dynamics and to ratchet up the intensity and suspense. She perfectly captures the emotions of a 10 year old girl with palpable and lyrical prose.
She was like a captive, someone hobbled, wounded. It was hard to bear, to see how much her life hurt—at that time I only saw her torn dresses, the mosquito bites. I did not see what she was inside, not then. I saw her as a wild thing, coming in and stomping on the pleasure of the afternoon, destroying it. She didn’t want to be with us, I knew it even then, but I was too young to bear the idea that my mother didn’t love me.
The awful thing is, I think she did love me. Living just lacked almost all savor for her, except when she was in one of her rages, or humming and pounding Chopin, or when she first saw something beautiful. She especially liked things so extreme in their beauty you might call them spectacular or ugly. Beauty like that. Nothing else. Nothing in between.
This is a coming of age story of 10 year old Claire McKenzie growing up in North Carolina in the 1960’s. Claire’s voice is poignant and telling as she narrates her story beginning with the birth of her baby sister whom she nicknames Sweetie. Sweetie becomes one that Claire must protect from her beautiful mother’s descent into madness. From the beginning, readers are aware that something is awry with Diana. She is consumed by anxiety and negativity that threaten the stability of her family. As Diana’s behavior increasingly becomes more volatile and unsettling, we watch with bated breath waiting for some inevitable event and catastrophe to occur.
I dared not form the words in my mind, for I thought my mother could hear things before I said them.
Diana’s troubling behaviors are witnessed by her daughter Claire who loves her mother but doesn’t understand her at all. She is rarely allowed into her mother’s realm and pushed away every time Claire tries to get close. Poor Claire has figured out that her mother’s only escape is through her classical piano playing. Claire learned how to recognize the onset of her mother’s disoriented changes when her playing became more forceful and less soothing.
This was one of those times when she didn’t feel pain at all, when she was so in her own mind she couldn’t even imagine the idea of pain, anybody’s, when she took the side of the demon that hated everybody, herself too. It was the one that shouted when she messed up on the piano, the one that made a fist and hit her own thigh sometimes. I knew to stay at a safe distance. I grabbed her hand, finally, but not before she pulled strands right out of her scalp. Two little clumps of beautiful blonde, there on the parlor’s Persian carpet.
Claire is caught between her mother and father and is forced to grow up and act the adult for her baby sister’s sake. She must apply her instincts in order to avoid her mother’s wrath knowing that her father won’t be any help. He is too captivated by his wife’s beauty to acknowledge that her behaviors are cruel and unjust. Claire’s fear and loneliness is only increased by his indifference and disregard.
Moira Crone knows how to write the family dynamics and to ratchet up the intensity and suspense. She perfectly captures the emotions of a 10 year old girl with palpable and lyrical prose.
She was like a captive, someone hobbled, wounded. It was hard to bear, to see how much her life hurt—at that time I only saw her torn dresses, the mosquito bites. I did not see what she was inside, not then. I saw her as a wild thing, coming in and stomping on the pleasure of the afternoon, destroying it. She didn’t want to be with us, I knew it even then, but I was too young to bear the idea that my mother didn’t love me.
The awful thing is, I think she did love me. Living just lacked almost all savor for her, except when she was in one of her rages, or humming and pounding Chopin, or when she first saw something beautiful. She especially liked things so extreme in their beauty you might call them spectacular or ugly. Beauty like that. Nothing else. Nothing in between.
March 25, 2023
I am a bit of a sucker for books told through the eyes of a child, when it is done well. It is done very well here. I fell in love with darling Claire and felt all her angst and confusion as she attempts to reconcile the love and fear her mother incites.
Oh, I hated her when she was like this. This was, the-world-is-against-me-and-you-have-to-pick-sides. This was, if-you-love-me-you-can’t-love-anybody-else.
This book begins with the MacKenzie family welcoming its latest member, a baby given the atrocious name of Odile and subsequently dubbed, Sweetie, by her older sister, Claire. It is immediately evident that Diana, the mother, has some serious mothering issues. As the story progresses, we glimpse how deep rooted they are, that they are not the only issues she has, and how seriously her mental status is going to affect the future of these two children.
The awful thing is, I think she did love me. Living just lacked almost all savor for her, except when she was in one of her rages, or humming and pounding Chopin, or when she first saw something beautiful. She especially liked things so extreme in their beauty you might call them spectacular or ugly. Beauty like that. Nothing else. Nothing in between.
Written with a tension that grows from page to page, we witness the breakdown of a family, an individual, and a mind. Something terrible is going to happen, of that we are sure. What is another question altogether. We can only watch as this young girl tries to be loyal and responsible in an environment where even the adults don’t know what to do.
It had gone and happened, and now it was done. The fact stunned me. I wondered if I were ever going to be around where my life was happening again. I didn’t think so. I had been numb so long I didn’t remember feeling.
This is my first experience of Moira Crone. I found her to be an extraordinarily skilled writer who crafted a story that swept you up and held you tight. Her characters were complex, moving you from disgust to pity and everywhere in between. Not one was anything but human, flawed and uncertain, struggling. Her descriptions of life in a small Southern town were perfect. Having lived in the 1960s, she transported me back in time and got all the nuances right. I will read her again.
My thanks to The Southern Literary Trail for another introduction to a great writer.
Oh, I hated her when she was like this. This was, the-world-is-against-me-and-you-have-to-pick-sides. This was, if-you-love-me-you-can’t-love-anybody-else.
This book begins with the MacKenzie family welcoming its latest member, a baby given the atrocious name of Odile and subsequently dubbed, Sweetie, by her older sister, Claire. It is immediately evident that Diana, the mother, has some serious mothering issues. As the story progresses, we glimpse how deep rooted they are, that they are not the only issues she has, and how seriously her mental status is going to affect the future of these two children.
The awful thing is, I think she did love me. Living just lacked almost all savor for her, except when she was in one of her rages, or humming and pounding Chopin, or when she first saw something beautiful. She especially liked things so extreme in their beauty you might call them spectacular or ugly. Beauty like that. Nothing else. Nothing in between.
Written with a tension that grows from page to page, we witness the breakdown of a family, an individual, and a mind. Something terrible is going to happen, of that we are sure. What is another question altogether. We can only watch as this young girl tries to be loyal and responsible in an environment where even the adults don’t know what to do.
It had gone and happened, and now it was done. The fact stunned me. I wondered if I were ever going to be around where my life was happening again. I didn’t think so. I had been numb so long I didn’t remember feeling.
This is my first experience of Moira Crone. I found her to be an extraordinarily skilled writer who crafted a story that swept you up and held you tight. Her characters were complex, moving you from disgust to pity and everywhere in between. Not one was anything but human, flawed and uncertain, struggling. Her descriptions of life in a small Southern town were perfect. Having lived in the 1960s, she transported me back in time and got all the nuances right. I will read her again.
My thanks to The Southern Literary Trail for another introduction to a great writer.
February 26, 2023
Moira Crone's lyrical prose will sweep you away into a 1960s small rural Southern town. The book opens with ten-year-old Claire observing the arrival of her parents and new baby sister from the hospital:
"I was staring at my mother at that moment, not the baby. Her body and looks were things I observed the way some people relied on the clouds and the moon to try to decide what weather was coming. She was beautiful all the time. Everyone said so."
The mother, Diana, suffers from a mental illness that has her family walking on eggshells. Her husband is in denial, blinded by Diana's beauty. Claire is thrust into the role of protector of her beloved baby sister, burdened with too much responsibility for someone so young. Claire is fascinated by her mother and her love of beauty - music, art, lovely clothes - but she doesn't trust her.
"It wasn't hard not to tell. I knew if I told, it would be real. I couldn't bear for it to be real - many things, I could bear, but not this."
The secondary characters are also interesting. There's Aunt C who makes life an adventure. The housekeeper, Sidney, is warm and capable, but is also dealing with her own family issues. There is some racial tension in pre-Civil Rights Movement North Carolina in the background.
The author has a deep understanding of the emotions of both children and adults, and the pressures of having a mentally ill parent. Claire and her sister, Sweetie, were so real to me that I was ready to take them home! Her descriptions of the rural town, an ice storm, the neighborhood women, and the small-town gossip are all well-written. Thanks to Howard and the Southern Literary Trail for putting the talented Moira Crone on my reading radar.
"I was staring at my mother at that moment, not the baby. Her body and looks were things I observed the way some people relied on the clouds and the moon to try to decide what weather was coming. She was beautiful all the time. Everyone said so."
The mother, Diana, suffers from a mental illness that has her family walking on eggshells. Her husband is in denial, blinded by Diana's beauty. Claire is thrust into the role of protector of her beloved baby sister, burdened with too much responsibility for someone so young. Claire is fascinated by her mother and her love of beauty - music, art, lovely clothes - but she doesn't trust her.
"It wasn't hard not to tell. I knew if I told, it would be real. I couldn't bear for it to be real - many things, I could bear, but not this."
The secondary characters are also interesting. There's Aunt C who makes life an adventure. The housekeeper, Sidney, is warm and capable, but is also dealing with her own family issues. There is some racial tension in pre-Civil Rights Movement North Carolina in the background.
The author has a deep understanding of the emotions of both children and adults, and the pressures of having a mentally ill parent. Claire and her sister, Sweetie, were so real to me that I was ready to take them home! Her descriptions of the rural town, an ice storm, the neighborhood women, and the small-town gossip are all well-written. Thanks to Howard and the Southern Literary Trail for putting the talented Moira Crone on my reading radar.
March 3, 2023
I finished rereading The Ice Garden on March 1, 2023 and I stand by my review. I have nothing to add.
******
Wow! Don't just take my word for it, read Teresa's review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 27, 2023
I don't know that I can add much more to the excellent reviews already written about this novel, though sadly, there are not many of them. Certainly a book this good deserves to be read by more people.
It's the story of 10 year old Claire, growing up in a small NC town in the early sixties. Her mother struggles with mental illness, but that didn't make me forgive her for being narcissistic, cruel and uncaring. Her father sees no one but her mother, so struck by her beauty that he can't see the havoc she causes. That leaves Claire to be loved and mostly raised by their black housekeeper, Sidney. Then her sister Sweetie is born, and Aunt C comes to stay with them for a while. Things change for the better, til her mother decides that Aunt C is turning her family against her.
This is a family story, not a suspense story, but at different times I felt so much fear for all these characters. It's not easy growing up with a monster, even a beautiful one. Walking around on eggshells is stressful for everyone involved. The father only makes excuses for her behavior, so he's part of the problem too.
The author gets everything right about the time and place. She grew up in Goldsboro, NC, a small town in the Piedmont much like the town of Fayton in this novel, so she knows her area. She also knows her people, and how small towns work. She hasn't forgotten what being a kid feels like, and how much work it is to figure out what the heck adults are doing.
I loved this novel and these characters, except for the mother. I wanted to smack some sense into the father. I love this author and need to find more of her books, and once again am mystified at how something this good, prose this lovely, can get lost in the shuffle.
Thank you Teresa for writing a review so powerful it got Howard to not only read it, but to nominate it 3 times for On the Southern Literary Trail. Thank you Howard for your persistence.
Third time was the charm. Thank you Trail readers for taking up the cause. The Goodreads community strikes again!
It's the story of 10 year old Claire, growing up in a small NC town in the early sixties. Her mother struggles with mental illness, but that didn't make me forgive her for being narcissistic, cruel and uncaring. Her father sees no one but her mother, so struck by her beauty that he can't see the havoc she causes. That leaves Claire to be loved and mostly raised by their black housekeeper, Sidney. Then her sister Sweetie is born, and Aunt C comes to stay with them for a while. Things change for the better, til her mother decides that Aunt C is turning her family against her.
This is a family story, not a suspense story, but at different times I felt so much fear for all these characters. It's not easy growing up with a monster, even a beautiful one. Walking around on eggshells is stressful for everyone involved. The father only makes excuses for her behavior, so he's part of the problem too.
The author gets everything right about the time and place. She grew up in Goldsboro, NC, a small town in the Piedmont much like the town of Fayton in this novel, so she knows her area. She also knows her people, and how small towns work. She hasn't forgotten what being a kid feels like, and how much work it is to figure out what the heck adults are doing.
I loved this novel and these characters, except for the mother. I wanted to smack some sense into the father. I love this author and need to find more of her books, and once again am mystified at how something this good, prose this lovely, can get lost in the shuffle.
Thank you Teresa for writing a review so powerful it got Howard to not only read it, but to nominate it 3 times for On the Southern Literary Trail. Thank you Howard for your persistence.
Third time was the charm. Thank you Trail readers for taking up the cause. The Goodreads community strikes again!
February 27, 2023
4✚
A gem of a story. Compact in its delivery, stellar prose, gritty suspense, fully realized characters.
The big mystery here is why only 97 ratings & 35 reviews?
Sometimes books slip through the cracks. Readers are missing out letting this one languish.
A gem of a story. Compact in its delivery, stellar prose, gritty suspense, fully realized characters.
The big mystery here is why only 97 ratings & 35 reviews?
Sometimes books slip through the cracks. Readers are missing out letting this one languish.
March 8, 2023
An engaging story told through the eyes of ten year-old Claire as she tries to make sense of a mother who fails to live up to the name; a mother who struggles with mental health issues and a general sense of disappointment with her life which spills out onto others in her path. It would be easy to dislike her for the hurtful ways she impacts others, although I couldn't help but see a woman who was held just as captive by her moods and unhappiness as those around her, softening my dislike.
Nonetheless, my empathy for Claire increased as she grew more and more impacted by her mother's behavior, having to take on responsibilities beyond her years in caring for her younger sister, and carrying the burden of what she saw rather than shifting it to her father, where it belonged. I was grateful for the secondary cast of characters who seemed more aware, offering her comfort and validation in this family vacuum (a housekeeper and an aunt).
This was a realistic portrait of a family controlled by the temperament and challenges of one individual, a scenario that repeats in countless variations across our world, leaving scars and whittled edges on those living it. The voice of this young girl and the scalpel-like prose carve a compelling read. I'm guessing anyone who has lived with a temperamental relative will recognize the familiar patterns and the challenges it creates.
Nonetheless, my empathy for Claire increased as she grew more and more impacted by her mother's behavior, having to take on responsibilities beyond her years in caring for her younger sister, and carrying the burden of what she saw rather than shifting it to her father, where it belonged. I was grateful for the secondary cast of characters who seemed more aware, offering her comfort and validation in this family vacuum (a housekeeper and an aunt).
This was a realistic portrait of a family controlled by the temperament and challenges of one individual, a scenario that repeats in countless variations across our world, leaving scars and whittled edges on those living it. The voice of this young girl and the scalpel-like prose carve a compelling read. I'm guessing anyone who has lived with a temperamental relative will recognize the familiar patterns and the challenges it creates.
November 12, 2014
It’s hard to imagine a novelist creating a character as young and sensitive as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, but Moira Crone has done just that in her new novel. Claire McKenzie is a remarkably prescient observer—of everything in her small-southern-town world, but especially of her parents, so in tune with the slightest nuances of their voices and movements that we wonder if she can almost read their minds. She is seemingly helpless in the wake of her irrationally cruel mother and feckless father, yet like a heroine in the Age of Naturalism, when tested to the utmost, she chooses survival. The Ice Garden is an emotionally gripping piece of Southern literature.
Merged review:
It’s hard to imagine a novelist creating a character as young and sensitive as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, but Moira Crone has done just that in her new novel. Claire McKenzie is a remarkably prescient observer—of everything in her small-southern-town world, but especially of her parents, so in tune with the slightest nuances of their voices and movements that we wonder if she can almost read their minds. She is seemingly helpless in the wake of her irrationally cruel mother and feckless father, yet like a heroine in the Age of Naturalism, when tested to the utmost, she chooses survival. The Ice Garden is an emotionally gripping piece of Southern literature.
Merged review:
It’s hard to imagine a novelist creating a character as young and sensitive as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, but Moira Crone has done just that in her new novel. Claire McKenzie is a remarkably prescient observer—of everything in her small-southern-town world, but especially of her parents, so in tune with the slightest nuances of their voices and movements that we wonder if she can almost read their minds. She is seemingly helpless in the wake of her irrationally cruel mother and feckless father, yet like a heroine in the Age of Naturalism, when tested to the utmost, she chooses survival. The Ice Garden is an emotionally gripping piece of Southern literature.
December 4, 2014
The Ice Garden is a haunting, heartbreaking story of a young girl trying to hold her world together as her family unravels.
Claire, only 10 when the book opens, is enchanted by her baby sister, whom she nicknames Sweetie. But Claire's troubled mother doesn't bond with the baby, and Mamma's behavior deteriorates in ways that Claire's father finds difficult to handle.
Claire's main allies are her beloved Aunt C -- whose visit ends badly -- and the family's maid, Sidney. But it's the early 1960s in small-town North Carolina, and an African-American maid must tread carefully where the mistress of the house is concerned.
Crone does a wonderful job capturing the stifling expectations of race, class and culture in the era. She's also masterful at ratcheting up the tension throughout the novel. Much like young Claire, the reader is on edge, knowing that catastrophe lurks and powerless to stop it.
Highly recommended for fans of young Southern protagonists such as Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. The Ice Garden is also a valuable antidote to Southern nostalgia. It's important to remember the high human cost of maintaining that genteel facade.
Claire, only 10 when the book opens, is enchanted by her baby sister, whom she nicknames Sweetie. But Claire's troubled mother doesn't bond with the baby, and Mamma's behavior deteriorates in ways that Claire's father finds difficult to handle.
Claire's main allies are her beloved Aunt C -- whose visit ends badly -- and the family's maid, Sidney. But it's the early 1960s in small-town North Carolina, and an African-American maid must tread carefully where the mistress of the house is concerned.
Crone does a wonderful job capturing the stifling expectations of race, class and culture in the era. She's also masterful at ratcheting up the tension throughout the novel. Much like young Claire, the reader is on edge, knowing that catastrophe lurks and powerless to stop it.
Highly recommended for fans of young Southern protagonists such as Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. The Ice Garden is also a valuable antidote to Southern nostalgia. It's important to remember the high human cost of maintaining that genteel facade.
March 5, 2023
Claire is a ten year old girl who lives in a small southern town in the 1960’s and is trying to save herself and her baby sister Sweetie from her dangerously mentally ill mother and her clueless father. Luckily there is Sidney the hired household help who basically does all of the heavy lifting and child rearing that is done here.
This is a beautifully written book which my Southern Bookclub is enjoying. It’s a short book with a “Shuggie Bain “ vibe which left me personally feeling a little “ plunked down “ in the middle of the story and wanting more information about how this family got to be in such dire straights.
Having been a child in the 1960’s, I tried to cut the father here a little slack as it was an era in which fathers tended to be less involved with the day to day activities of the children. However I’m in agreement with reviewers who wanted to give him a swift wake up slap.
“ When your life is not a primrose path, you still have to walk your road.”
I’m looking forward to my groups discussion of this one !!
4 stars- March selection -On The Southern Literary Trail
This is a beautifully written book which my Southern Bookclub is enjoying. It’s a short book with a “Shuggie Bain “ vibe which left me personally feeling a little “ plunked down “ in the middle of the story and wanting more information about how this family got to be in such dire straights.
Having been a child in the 1960’s, I tried to cut the father here a little slack as it was an era in which fathers tended to be less involved with the day to day activities of the children. However I’m in agreement with reviewers who wanted to give him a swift wake up slap.
“ When your life is not a primrose path, you still have to walk your road.”
I’m looking forward to my groups discussion of this one !!
4 stars- March selection -On The Southern Literary Trail
August 30, 2016
This book had the feel of Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding. There is a confused kid (Claire) who is basically having to raise herself. Her mother is beautiful, but she craves another life. Certainly not the one that includes a new baby and all these small town stumbling blocks. Claire's dad is obsessed with Diana's (the mother) skin-deep beauty. And when Sweetie (Claire's nickname for her baby sister) is born, Diana's festering mental instability stumbles right over the line that separates a beautiful southern eccentric from a dangerous parent.
Claire's aunt, Aunt C., and the family's housekeeper, Sidney, are there at first to put the brakes on the tragic ending we can smell sulking just out of sight. But Diana dismisses them both leaving 10-year-old Claire responsible for holding her family together and keeping everyone safe.
I don't think I'm revealing any spoilers by saying she can't do this for very long. Tragedy is coming one way or another.
Go. buy. this. book. This is an author you need to discover and LOVE.
Claire's aunt, Aunt C., and the family's housekeeper, Sidney, are there at first to put the brakes on the tragic ending we can smell sulking just out of sight. But Diana dismisses them both leaving 10-year-old Claire responsible for holding her family together and keeping everyone safe.
I don't think I'm revealing any spoilers by saying she can't do this for very long. Tragedy is coming one way or another.
Go. buy. this. book. This is an author you need to discover and LOVE.
December 10, 2014
Ideal for Book Club
The psychological tension and complex characters in Moira Crone’s The Ice Garden gave our book club fuel for a two-hour discussion, and we could have happily continued for another two.
The mother and daughter who hold the center of the novel may bring to mind other iconic Southern female characters: Tennessee Williams’ Blanche Dubois and Amanda Wingfield, Harper Lee’s Scout Finch, and (not Southern, but applicable) the wife in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” But, rest assured that Diana and ten-year-old Claire are unique, complex, and compelling. The supporting cast--Aunt C, Sidney, and Cheryl Ann--are equally individualized and engaging. Nary a cliché in the lot!
The suspenseful plot had just enough foreshadowing and ambiguity to propel me on to the end, while dreading the seemingly inevitable “wreck” ahead, but unable to avert my eyes. In the end, the novel culminates with what I now realize is the only satisfying conclusion.
At 221 pages, this book is a fast read. But, you’ll want to read it again to savor the language! The evocative imagery--especially the icy landscape that is the novel’s symbolic thread--seems to have been painted with an artist’s gift for observation and imagination. Here is a short sample from page 164:
“We’d sailed the Arctic in the night. Every window had icicles. You had to look through them to see out, like bars in a crystal jail. Things were dazzling diamond white—the ice coating all the fallen trees and the ground, which was beaming in the unbearable bright reflected sun. The sky was a deep and vivid blue, a sea upside down above us. Being alive was a very different thing in such a situation, as far as I was concerned. Survival required all your attention—I liked that.”
A special word of appreciation is due to Moira Crone for joining our book club meeting via Facetime. Because of her generosity, new insights were discovered and new questions still reverberate.
The psychological tension and complex characters in Moira Crone’s The Ice Garden gave our book club fuel for a two-hour discussion, and we could have happily continued for another two.
The mother and daughter who hold the center of the novel may bring to mind other iconic Southern female characters: Tennessee Williams’ Blanche Dubois and Amanda Wingfield, Harper Lee’s Scout Finch, and (not Southern, but applicable) the wife in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” But, rest assured that Diana and ten-year-old Claire are unique, complex, and compelling. The supporting cast--Aunt C, Sidney, and Cheryl Ann--are equally individualized and engaging. Nary a cliché in the lot!
The suspenseful plot had just enough foreshadowing and ambiguity to propel me on to the end, while dreading the seemingly inevitable “wreck” ahead, but unable to avert my eyes. In the end, the novel culminates with what I now realize is the only satisfying conclusion.
At 221 pages, this book is a fast read. But, you’ll want to read it again to savor the language! The evocative imagery--especially the icy landscape that is the novel’s symbolic thread--seems to have been painted with an artist’s gift for observation and imagination. Here is a short sample from page 164:
“We’d sailed the Arctic in the night. Every window had icicles. You had to look through them to see out, like bars in a crystal jail. Things were dazzling diamond white—the ice coating all the fallen trees and the ground, which was beaming in the unbearable bright reflected sun. The sky was a deep and vivid blue, a sea upside down above us. Being alive was a very different thing in such a situation, as far as I was concerned. Survival required all your attention—I liked that.”
A special word of appreciation is due to Moira Crone for joining our book club meeting via Facetime. Because of her generosity, new insights were discovered and new questions still reverberate.
December 1, 2014
This novel is as startling, and poetic, as the ice garden in its title. It has a kind of stark, precise beauty, with each line, each image perfectly attenuated. Crone’s 1960’s in the South go past the clichés,to show us the way the well-mannered society, with its coded racial divide, could oppress--and the way individual people overcame those limitations. The precocious narrator, Claire, is perfectly believable, without a shred of winsomeness or sentimentality. Crone's job with a child’s point-of-view is one of the best I’ve seen. Ultimately, THE ICE GARDEN is about memory itself: how we think about, preserve, and overcome the pain of our pasts. A beautiful book.
September 6, 2015
I picked this book up because of Lee Smith's blurb on the front cover: "Just may be the most haunting and memorable novel you will ever read." Since I read THE ICE GARDEN two months ago and the story has stayed with me, I have to agree. This is a beautifully written, heartbreaking novel about a young girl trying to make sense of her mother's mental illness in an era devoid of understanding. It is so damn good, you will want to read it more than once. Unforgettable southern fiction.
March 14, 2023
A sad but compelling story. I practically read with one eye closed expecting the mother to do harm to her youngest daughter as it was clear she did not love the child. It read so much like a true story that I wondered if either of the sisters would become mentally ill like their mother and her mother as they grew. However, it ends as the sisters are 15 and 5, so I will just have to concoct my own happy thought that they grow and escape that ugliness.
April 27, 2015
As a child of the Southern 50's and 60's myself, I can be quite a harsh judge of books that dare to revisit this territory. But Crone is note perfect in this novel, which is almost a psychological thriller. There's a growing sense of unreality and an unrelenting threat of disaster as the wonderful narrator Claire shows us more and more about her mother's neuroses and narcissism. None of the characters falls into any kind of easy cliche, not even Sydney, the African American maid. And for those who thought THE HELP was a a fair depiction of the relations between Black maids and white employers during these times, Crone is here to set the record straight. We see so clearly the way the children and Sydney are all victims of the mother's mental illness, and her outright cruelty. Even violence.
Crone is an unusual writer, in that she manages the southern tones with absolute unselfconsciousness. THEre's no sense of the writer being seduced by the charm of her subjects or setting. Her vision is absolutely clear, unrelenting. And I found myself holding my breath more than once, waiting to be sure this wonderful narrator would survive. Even flourish.
Crone is an unusual writer, in that she manages the southern tones with absolute unselfconsciousness. THEre's no sense of the writer being seduced by the charm of her subjects or setting. Her vision is absolutely clear, unrelenting. And I found myself holding my breath more than once, waiting to be sure this wonderful narrator would survive. Even flourish.
January 3, 2015
Beautifully written on what it is like to grow up with a mentally ill parent.
Very impressed.
Thank you Teresa :-)
Very impressed.
Thank you Teresa :-)
Read
May 21, 2015From "Essential Reading: Mother's Day" by Literary Mama staff:
Senior Columns Editor Alissa McElreath shares, "I finished reading Moira Crone's The Ice Garden on a recent Sunday night, when I was so sleepy I could barely stay focused on the page—but I knew I needed to finish, because I needed to lay the story to rest, and to be assured that the ending I thought was coming wasn't. The Ice Garden is one of those rare books that combines psychological drama with lyrical prose and begs for a second read—to be truly able to savor Crone's craft. At first glance, this novel is an improbable pick for an Essential Reading choice centered around the theme 'Mother's Day.' It is a chilling and dark coming-of-age story set in the South of the 1960s and is narrated by ten-year-old Claire McKenzie. Claire grows up almost as an orphan, in a house with a mother who is battling mental illness—and whose recent pregnancy and delivery unleashes it in devastating ways—and a weak and emotionally blind father who is so obsessed with his wife's physical beauty that he is unable to see the decay underneath.
"Diana McKenzie is cold and cruel towards the new baby, nicknamed Sweetie by Claire, and her actions are dangerous and border on the criminal: giving the baby a scalding drink to sip, keeping her in a room so cold her lips turn blue, or putting her alone into a bathtub and leaving the water running. Claire is extremely devoted to and protective of her baby sister. Projecting her own feelings of neglect and rejection onto Sweetie, she hopes she can give her the love that her mother is unable to provide; indeed, one of the great tragedies in the novel is that she proves time and again to be a better mother to Sweetie than Diana. Yet despite how terrified we feel for Sweetie and Claire, it is hard not to feel compassion and empathy for Diana, who is trapped in her own, private hell—caught between living up to her husband's idolization of her superficial beauty, and the restrictive Southern expectations of how she must behave as a wife and mother."
Literary Mama's full Essential Reading post can be found here: http://www.literarymama.com/litreflec...
Senior Columns Editor Alissa McElreath shares, "I finished reading Moira Crone's The Ice Garden on a recent Sunday night, when I was so sleepy I could barely stay focused on the page—but I knew I needed to finish, because I needed to lay the story to rest, and to be assured that the ending I thought was coming wasn't. The Ice Garden is one of those rare books that combines psychological drama with lyrical prose and begs for a second read—to be truly able to savor Crone's craft. At first glance, this novel is an improbable pick for an Essential Reading choice centered around the theme 'Mother's Day.' It is a chilling and dark coming-of-age story set in the South of the 1960s and is narrated by ten-year-old Claire McKenzie. Claire grows up almost as an orphan, in a house with a mother who is battling mental illness—and whose recent pregnancy and delivery unleashes it in devastating ways—and a weak and emotionally blind father who is so obsessed with his wife's physical beauty that he is unable to see the decay underneath.
"Diana McKenzie is cold and cruel towards the new baby, nicknamed Sweetie by Claire, and her actions are dangerous and border on the criminal: giving the baby a scalding drink to sip, keeping her in a room so cold her lips turn blue, or putting her alone into a bathtub and leaving the water running. Claire is extremely devoted to and protective of her baby sister. Projecting her own feelings of neglect and rejection onto Sweetie, she hopes she can give her the love that her mother is unable to provide; indeed, one of the great tragedies in the novel is that she proves time and again to be a better mother to Sweetie than Diana. Yet despite how terrified we feel for Sweetie and Claire, it is hard not to feel compassion and empathy for Diana, who is trapped in her own, private hell—caught between living up to her husband's idolization of her superficial beauty, and the restrictive Southern expectations of how she must behave as a wife and mother."
Literary Mama's full Essential Reading post can be found here: http://www.literarymama.com/litreflec...
February 6, 2017
Wow!!! This book sucked me in from the first line. Moira Crone's writing is not only poetic but she accomplishes something few authors can do-- she masterfully tells her story from the perspective of a young narrator, Claire. "Ice Garden" tells the story of Claire's observations of the world in which she lives, particularly centered on the tumultuous nature of her parents relationship. Her mentally ill mother and the impact she has on her family is at the heart of this story, forcing young Claire to mature way too quickly. She becomes the primary caretaker of her sister, "Sweetie," and she lives in fear of the potential danger her mother's erratic behavior will have on her.
However, Claire does not allow the reader to feel sorry for her; instead, she is determined to survive despite her situation.
"Ice Garden" is written with so many twists that keep the reader on the edge until the very end. At every turn, there is that sinking feeling that tragedy looms and Crone does not disappoint. I highly recommend this beautiful novel and will most likely reread this book many times.
However, Claire does not allow the reader to feel sorry for her; instead, she is determined to survive despite her situation.
"Ice Garden" is written with so many twists that keep the reader on the edge until the very end. At every turn, there is that sinking feeling that tragedy looms and Crone does not disappoint. I highly recommend this beautiful novel and will most likely reread this book many times.
July 3, 2015
Ten-year-old Claire has a beautiful mother who suffers from a severe and long lasting depression, a father who is unrealistic about his wife's limitations, and a brand-new baby sister, who she is determined to protect from her mother's indifference. Claire matures way before she should have to. Her mother can't guide or teach her to problem solve. She is emotionally unavailable. Moira Crone's eloquent novel, The Ice Garden is a lyrical cry for help from the South as it was in 1962.
Claire's mother, Diana, loves music more than her daughters. When her music becomes forceful and intense, Claire knows another onset of strange behavior is likely to follow. Connor, her father, refuses to see that his wife has severe problems. Claire loves him and does all that she can to care for the new baby, Sweetie. Sydney, who is the sane and stabilizing force in the household, is also the maid. She is a black woman living in North Carolina in 1962. She loves Claire and Sweetie and she wants to help them but she has a life outside that house, a man interested in marrying her, and a life of her own.
Diana attacks Aunt C, who's come to help with the new baby. Aunt C. leaves with a broken shoulder, and the family doctor now has a reason to commits Diana to a mental hospital. After she returns her depression is seasoned with a large portion of paranoia.
She has to satisfy the doctor. She has to prove herself. Her fears about being locked up keep her self-centered. Though she lives in a successful upper class family, Claire feels like an orphan.
Living with a mentally ill parent deprives a child of security and consistency. Mental illness has the ability to alter lives and perceptions. Its destruction can be deadly. This story brings back a bygone era. So much dysfunction and denial was not yet identified. No wonder some people lost their minds.
Moira Crone shares the family's uncomfortable truths with intensity, fervor, and authenticity. This psychological family drama is exquisitely detailed and rendered with emotional depth. She creates a powerful world in which we empathize with Claire, her plight, and the destruction that mental illness can cause. Crone is a talented writer. Her thoughts and images stayed with me after I finished the book.
by B. Lynn Goodwin
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Claire's mother, Diana, loves music more than her daughters. When her music becomes forceful and intense, Claire knows another onset of strange behavior is likely to follow. Connor, her father, refuses to see that his wife has severe problems. Claire loves him and does all that she can to care for the new baby, Sweetie. Sydney, who is the sane and stabilizing force in the household, is also the maid. She is a black woman living in North Carolina in 1962. She loves Claire and Sweetie and she wants to help them but she has a life outside that house, a man interested in marrying her, and a life of her own.
Diana attacks Aunt C, who's come to help with the new baby. Aunt C. leaves with a broken shoulder, and the family doctor now has a reason to commits Diana to a mental hospital. After she returns her depression is seasoned with a large portion of paranoia.
She has to satisfy the doctor. She has to prove herself. Her fears about being locked up keep her self-centered. Though she lives in a successful upper class family, Claire feels like an orphan.
Living with a mentally ill parent deprives a child of security and consistency. Mental illness has the ability to alter lives and perceptions. Its destruction can be deadly. This story brings back a bygone era. So much dysfunction and denial was not yet identified. No wonder some people lost their minds.
Moira Crone shares the family's uncomfortable truths with intensity, fervor, and authenticity. This psychological family drama is exquisitely detailed and rendered with emotional depth. She creates a powerful world in which we empathize with Claire, her plight, and the destruction that mental illness can cause. Crone is a talented writer. Her thoughts and images stayed with me after I finished the book.
by B. Lynn Goodwin
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
October 15, 2015
There are a couple of other serious contenders--Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man and The Complete Lockpick Pornography, but this might very well be the best book I've read this year.
I had a similar experience years ago when I read Period of Confinement, but I think this book succeeded even more so with transporting me to an uncomfortable place, one I would stumble through with almost as many conflicting emotions as the characters. I'm strangely drawn to a novel that pulls me in every direction, begging me to summon sympathy for characters, with mixed results.
I read the last 60 pages or so while sitting in the middle of a crowded mall, loud conversations all around me. I felt almost like Diana, selfishly resenting the other shoppers' disregard for this wonderful book I was clutching, like it mattered to them in the least.
This novel is so engrossing that you feel completely removed from your own life while you're reading it, yet you feel uneasy when it's over, as you're wondering about its implications for real life.
I had a similar experience years ago when I read Period of Confinement, but I think this book succeeded even more so with transporting me to an uncomfortable place, one I would stumble through with almost as many conflicting emotions as the characters. I'm strangely drawn to a novel that pulls me in every direction, begging me to summon sympathy for characters, with mixed results.
I read the last 60 pages or so while sitting in the middle of a crowded mall, loud conversations all around me. I felt almost like Diana, selfishly resenting the other shoppers' disregard for this wonderful book I was clutching, like it mattered to them in the least.
This novel is so engrossing that you feel completely removed from your own life while you're reading it, yet you feel uneasy when it's over, as you're wondering about its implications for real life.
December 8, 2014
What an evocative tale - loved every page, every paragraph. I'm continuously in awe of Moira Crone's writing - she turns on a universe of memories, emotions, visuals, sensations from a single sentence, a short phrase, a single word. Claire - a eternally memorable and relatable character. I cried for her, but then realized I was probably also crying for myself, my daughter.
A hugely powerful story. This will be a classic. Book reviews cannot come close to describing this incredible work. A must read. More, please!!
A hugely powerful story. This will be a classic. Book reviews cannot come close to describing this incredible work. A must read. More, please!!
Read
December 9, 2014"As the seamlessly constructed plot of this book unfolds, that broken and twisted Diana manifests herself and rules over Claire’s world with psychological abuse. The young girl has protectors: her father; the black housekeeper, Sidney; her beloved Aunt C who comes to care for the baby when Diana can’t or won’t manage. They are not enough."
Read more here.
Read more here.
December 8, 2014
Our book club selected Moira Crone's "The Ice Garden" and will be discussing the book tomorrow. Every member with whom I have chatted has loved the book and has not been able to put it down! It is an excellent read on so many levels.
November 10, 2014
Outstanding, unforgettable, gripping book - you won't want to put it down! The characters come to life and live on after the last page, the suspense at the end leads to a satisfying ending.
December 19, 2014
Luscious writing and a plot with an almost unbearable tension—this is a novel worth reading more than once.
September 2, 2023
4.5 Stars Rounded Up
This is the story of how a Southern mom in a small North Carolina town in the 1960s falls into an even deeper unsound mental state after the birth of her second child, all told through the eyes of her oldest child, 10-year-old Claire.
Child narrators are a difficult writing concept to master, in my opinion, and can make or break a novel for me. Their voices need to be authentic to their age and the time and place in which they live. Moira Crone nailed the voice of young Claire. So much so, it seemed almost autobiographical. Some authors write fiction so well that it seems true. This is one of those stories.
This novel gives a powerful look into mental health issues during a time when they were often overlooked and treated with harmful procedures, especially for women.
I realize as I am about to choose my next book to read that I will miss the voice of Claire.
This is the story of how a Southern mom in a small North Carolina town in the 1960s falls into an even deeper unsound mental state after the birth of her second child, all told through the eyes of her oldest child, 10-year-old Claire.
Child narrators are a difficult writing concept to master, in my opinion, and can make or break a novel for me. Their voices need to be authentic to their age and the time and place in which they live. Moira Crone nailed the voice of young Claire. So much so, it seemed almost autobiographical. Some authors write fiction so well that it seems true. This is one of those stories.
This novel gives a powerful look into mental health issues during a time when they were often overlooked and treated with harmful procedures, especially for women.
I realize as I am about to choose my next book to read that I will miss the voice of Claire.
March 14, 2023
Five star rating Reason #1 -- The accuracy of the tense, unexpectedly changing emotional dynamics experienced by a young girl in an abusive household. Descriptions of the verbal abuse. Backstory of the abuser, who had been abused, repeating the cycle.
Reason #2 -- The prose. For instance, Claire's description of her baby sister here:
"Her wrists had creases like bracelets. Her hands had doubled in size, and her caramel skin filled in. Her eyes had morphed into great marbles. She was so soft she was shocking."
Reason #3 -- Mothers are not often thought of as abusers, but they have as much violent potential as Fathers. Like Diana, there are mothers who have held their whole households captive. The result -- children like Claire grow into adults requiring therapy for issues like PTSD.
https://www.thehotline.org/identify-a...
Reason #2 -- The prose. For instance, Claire's description of her baby sister here:
"Her wrists had creases like bracelets. Her hands had doubled in size, and her caramel skin filled in. Her eyes had morphed into great marbles. She was so soft she was shocking."
Reason #3 -- Mothers are not often thought of as abusers, but they have as much violent potential as Fathers. Like Diana, there are mothers who have held their whole households captive. The result -- children like Claire grow into adults requiring therapy for issues like PTSD.
https://www.thehotline.org/identify-a...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews