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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
spellbinding from the first page., 8 Nov 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Frozen Summer (Paperback)
This is a story about changing friendships, growing up, the choices we make which turn us into the people we are, and the patterns in our lives that are repeated time and time again. It is about the secrets that exist within marriage, about sexual desire, and coming to terms with pain. The plot gradually unfolds with all the mystery of a detective story, except that corpse is still alive and locked in a world she doesn't understand, desperately seeking the unknown, yet half afraid of what she might find. The style is easy, highly readable, spellbinding from the first page. As the mess that appears to be the past life of Kirsten Villiers becomes untangled in her mind, the suspense grows like a tower of building blocks that partially tumble from time to time. The novel is compact, compulsive and moving, maintaining its tension until the last page. It explores in hauntingly beautiful prose, the unfolding of Kirsten';s missing years and the way the experience cleanses her and allows her to restart her life with at least a hint that she will be able to come to terms with the person she has become. I was totally mesmerised by the world of Kirsten, Clyde, and Janey - on the one hand dying to get to the end to find out the answers to all the questions about Kirsten's past and yet on the other unwilling to have to finally put it down for the last time.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intense psychological drama balanced by lightness of touch., 10 April 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Frozen Summer (Paperback)
Frozen Summer is a novel of extraordinary potency. It captivated me on page one and refused to let me go until I had finished the last line: even now, it lingers on, teasing my mind with thoughts of 'what if?' Kirsty, or Kirsten, or . . ., has lost all memory of the last nine years of her life. She has a husband, a daughter and a whole group of friends: but they are all strangers to the twenty year old student that she feels herself still to be. Worse yet, she can't understand how that twenty year old could ever have evolved into the woman she is supposed to be: what happened to change her values so much? What aberration caused her to marry this man? What happened to her old friends? What really happened at the river that day when she fell and bumped her head? Crysse Morrison takes you on Kirsty's journey of rediscovery with a lightness of touch which eerily balances the intensity of the psychological drama that unfolds. It is a journey fraught with fear and suspicion, beset by false hopes and, ultimately, heartrending truths. A frighteningly believable and powerful first novel.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still un-put-downable, 2nd time round, 16 July 2006
This review is from: Frozen Summer (Paperback)
I first read this beautifully written novel when it came out in paperback 6 years ago and I was hooked from the start by the mystery of the narrator's frightening situation. I'd started reading at about 8.00 pm and I couldn't stop till I'd reached the end in the small hours of the morning. I'd then intended to go through it all again, slowly, but life took over and I've only just got round to doing so. In spite of `knowing what happens' I found the storyline itself just as compelling, and this time I was able to pay more attention to all its resonances and other qualities. It's structured in a highly original way, weaving back and forth between the narrator's present and her past, with the nine intervening years a total blank. This allows Morrison to explore, as an integral part of the plot, the timeless issues of identity and what it is that makes us the people we become.
The characters are all beautifully drawn, especially the narrator, Kirsty/Kirsten, as she gradually discovers less likeable aspects of her previous behaviour. Even apparently unattractive characters engage our sympathy as they reveal hidden depths and vulnerabilities.
It's a frightening, harrowing, humorous, tender and wise novel - the kind of book that sneaks its deeper insights into your brain while your conscious mind is held in the grip of a thrilling read. Be warned - this book will stay with you!
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