Bibliofreakblog

Frozen Tears by Mary Ann MacAfee

The thing about self-published books is that they can be quite good…they just haven’t gone through the gentle prodding of an editor.  That’s definitely the the case for this one.  The story is good.  But the pacing is choppy in places.  The writing is good.  But it does get a bit too sentimental and rely on the “tell” rather than “show” at points.  

Were, then, a traditional publishing house to pick it up, I think it could do quite well.

And of course, sometimes, with self-published or small-press books, that is the case.  Just look at how well Pope Joan has done.  

The story centers around Kale, a twenty-something white woman researching water contamination in Midland, Alaska.  

She falls in love and marries an Ennuit (I’d thought it was Innuit, but I’ll go with MacAfee’s spelling).  But then, tragedy strikes, and Kale finds herself alone in the frozen Alaskan woods, miles from any other human.  

Thank God, for wolves.  WHAT?  They don’t eat her?  No, they don’t.  In fact, they quite like her.  And after that, Kale is never really the same.

BUT, then tragedy strikes again, prompting another change in Kale’s life.  She is determined to go against the Ennuit elders for the sake of her son.

The thing that’s really nice about Kale is that even after she basically communes with wolves, she never really buys into the Native American belief system.  She herself is very Christian (but not annoyingly so…she doesn’t see the Ennuits as heathens or anything).  You would think that it would get all sappy and New Agey, but it manages to steer clear of that, which is quite refreshing.

Learn more at Mary Ann MacAfee’s website

Buy Frozen Tears on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales
Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore
Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer
Alaska by James Michener
The Varieties Of Religious Experience: A Study In Human Nature by William James
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey by Sam Keith
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
 

Other works by Mary Anne MacAfee:

none

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