Review: Secrets, Lies & A Hint of the Supernatural!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2012
Secrets, lies and a hint of the supernatural had me unable to put down The Color of Snow until it had revealed the depths of its mysteries. The constant change in both time and PoV made for great pacing and kept me eager for more!Told from two different PoVs, from both Sophie and her father Luke, gave The Color of Snow the opportunity to flesh out a truly all-encompasing history surrounding Sophie's kidnapping and subsequent sequestering. Luke's PoV was written from when he was a teenager dealing with the death of his father and the guilt of being blamed with causing the fatal fire which took his life. It was captivating to be leaked details at a slow and steady pace and his chapters always ended just short of revealing even more - which, of course, caused me to read further! I really sympathized with Luke, up until he kidnapped Sophie. I didn't fully understand why he didn't just exercise his right as the father in order to gain custody.As for Sophie, she is probably the most innocent protagonist I have ever read about. A life spent without consistent human interaction has made her naive and slightly fearful of the world past her front yard. I was confused at first, over why she wasn't more sullen or withdrawn, but I quickly realized that while her father may have kidnapped her and kept her from society, he did love her and that was never something she doubted. His belief that he was merely protecting her from causing others harm did take it's toil on Sophie though - she's a delicate protagonist and a lifetime of beliefs was not something she was able to overcome easily. Her growth, however, is exponential in the grand scheme of things even if it seems minuscule compared to most YA heroines.I absolutely loved Stephanie's analogy of the colour of snow, and how well it tied in to the title of the novel. It also went full-circle, come the end of The Color of Snow with Sophie's final discoveries and I really appreciated Stanley's forethought with this imagery.There were a few things that bothered me in The Color of Snow though. For example, even though the time was clearly identified at the beginning of each PoV switch, I had a hard time picturing The Color of Snow as being set during the late 90s and into the late 2000s. I'm not sure if it was the multitude of religious propaganda and references to small town Mormonism or Sophie's slightly outdated manner of speaking, but I was caught off guard every time something current - like Facebook or a cell phone - was mentioned. I didn't believe in Sophie's love for Damien, as other then the time they spent together as children, I didn't get to see them interact much. She also didn't seem overly concerned about his health after being shot, or about seeing him now that she had the freedom to do it. I also had a hard time believing Sophie's fears of being cursed - like Stephanie points out, if she were truly worried about being cursed, about causing harm to those who love her, she wouldn't let her new-found family (or anyone, for that matter) get close to her for fear of hurting them. Actually, the whole curse theme in general lacked credibility when every example as to how Sophie was cursed was able to be explained away by logic. There was also a LOT going on. Besides Sophie's personal issues, there are references to mental illness, questions of faith, molestation and pedophilia.Those few issues aside however, I really enjoyed The Color of Snow. The constant shroud of mystery made for great pacing, as there was always something else to uncover. I didn't necessarily relate to Sophie, but I enjoyed following her on her journey of self-discovery.