Title: Frost
Author: Nicole Luiken
First Copyright Date: 2007
Genre: Teen Fiction
General Subject Matter: Supernatural, mystery, and some romance
Price: $14.95 CDN, or borrow it from MW’s library!
Another Canadian-written novel, Frost is a mysterious book that makes you question the novel’s character’s intentions. It is evident that the author, Nicole Luiken, spent some time doing research which makes the book credible and realistic. There isn’t much about this book I didn’t like. The synopsis at the back of Frost didn’t do much justice to the book itself. I would say that it was much better.
Aspiring hockey player Johnny Van Der Zee is a crazy, life-of-the-party kind of guy –on the outside. On the inside, Johnny is plagued by conflict: Frost, a malevolent creature, keeps Johnny distanced from anyone he loves. If Johnny shows too much affection or too much trust in someone, Frost punishes him by hurting the people he loves. So Johnny can’t love, and he can’t trust, and to top it off; he can’t let anyone know about Frost. But now Frost is going too far. He’s making Johnny do something bad, and it could hurt the whole world. The only people who can save Johnny from Frost are his friends and brother, but they don’t know who they’re up against.
Before the story even began, Luiken wrote an Author’s Note, telling her readers the historical background of the book and what “historical” parts were made up by her for the purpose of the storyline, all in the space of two sentences. This was a good idea, so that readers understand which parts were fictionalized and not draw conclusions.
Frost is told in third-person style, although sometimes it feels like first-person because the characters are so developed. The reason why I categorized Frost as Teen Fiction rather than Teen Science Fiction is because it didn’t feel like sci-fi. For the most part, it seemed like a psychological sort of thing rather than a foreign presence. There is some romance in it – well actually not some but I would definitely not call this a romantic novel. Sure, there was a love-triangle thing going, then a love-square...but then Luiken doesn’t dwell on those things for long. Every point regarding some sort of romance strengthened the storyline and gave depth for the climax to come. Frost is set in Iqaluit, Nunavut. This is significant to the nature and character of Frost, for reasons I will not say!
What I liked about Frost is that it was well researched. The Inuktitut language was correct, the building of a snow house (not IGLOO!) was properly described, and airplanes and jets were accurately named. The characters were developed very well. Small histories and anecdotes were given for the characters, but not all at the same time. They were spread out so that each main character could be revealed at a specific time in the story. This way, I could understand what was going on and why this character did that and so on. There were also bits of funniness that lightened the book. Also, the beginning of each chapter had a temperature heading it, in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. I think that it symbolizes Frost the character. For example if it’s -40°C, you know Frost is mad.
What I didn’t like about Frost was the fact that you had no notion of the passing time. The time has to be assumed, gathered by conversation. Two characters would have just started dating and then BAM it’s one month later. The first chapter was kind of confusing because you couldn’t really understand what’s going on, but it got cleared up more or less in the following chapters. Also, the relationship with Johnny’s second girlfriend was more developed than his relationship with his first, so when he [SPOILER ALERT] dumps his second for his first, it makes you kind of sad. In the end, there are one or two strings left hanging, which is sad because they’re kind of important strings.
Overall I’d rate this book an 8 out of 10. Characters were wonderfully developed and there were well-researched descriptions, but the loose strings kept Frost from reaching a 9.
I’ll end this review with this: I am scared to go to Iqaluit after reading this book.
Nicole Luiken grew up in Alberta, Canada, and completed her first novel at the tender age of thirteen. With encouragement from her family, friends and teachers, Nicole began submitting her manuscripts to publishers. By the time she had graduated from high school she had published three young adult novels. She now writes full-time at home.
Find more about her here: Nicole Luiken
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