The Color of Snow
Author: Brenda Stanley
Publisher: Tribute Books
Published: June 1st, 2012
ISBN13: 9780983741893
eBook: 413 pages
Genre: YA General
FTC FYI: Review copy
Reviewed by Mindy
Goodreads summary: Can a troubled young girl reenter society after living in isolation?
When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora–a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed.
Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.
My Review
Sophie has just been “rescued” from living a life of isolation thrust on her by her father. As he is being taken away by the police, he tells her,
I love you Sophie. Please know that. I’ve always loved you. That is why this happening now.
It was the only time my father ever told me he loved me, and now he did it with such fervor it made my skin prickle. The words didn’t comfort, they left me feeling scared and abandoned. I nodded and sat on my bed. He took a last look at me, then put his hand to his mouth and left my doorway. I knew we were in trouble, but I didn’t know what would happen next.
Sophie’s life has not only been of isolation, but of fear. Not from her father necessarily, but of the curse that he said follows them. Papa tells her of ghosts in the fields, and how he needed to protect their secret. Now she is living with her grandparents, scared and confused. She befriends her step cousin Stephanie, and is home schooled by her Uncle Lonny. Her aunt Elise’s new husband.
There is so much more to this story, I don’t want to give many more details. Just know this, I loved how this story is told. It is told in past and present, with a couple POV changes. I was always kept in the story, and the author would brilliantly end the chapters with me wanting more. The story is told from Sophie’s point of view in the present and past, and her father’s in the past as well. We learn so much through his eyes, just as much as Sophie’s. Sophie’s fear is the curse, will she get over it for her to move with her life. You will enjoy reading for that answer.
Content
There are a few content issues I should warn you about. There is pre-maritial sex, but no details. An icky uncle. Smoking, and language. Nothing I was offended by.
4 out of 5 stars. This is the first book I have read from Brenda Stanley. I really enjoyed it. Brenda Stanley is the former news anchor at her NBC affiliate KPVI in Eastern Iadho. Her writing has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards, the Idaho Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists. She is a graduate of Dixie College in St. George, Utah, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Brenda lived for two years in Ballard, Utah, within the Fort Duchesne reservation where the novel is set. She and her husband live on a small ranch near the Snake River with their horses and dogs.
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