Review of The Ice Age by Kirsten Reed

** What it’s about **

She’s a strong teenage girl: smart, funny and hopeful.  She thinks she knows herself, knows what she wants and knows how to get it.

He’s an older man – old enough, in fact, to be her father.  But he’s not.

As the pair drive aimlessly across America, they form an unlikely relationship – one they both know can’t last forever.

Told in her unique and seductive voice, this is the story of their encounter.

** What I thought **

Having read the synopsis for this book, I had really high hopes for it.  It sounded refreshingly unique.  However, I’m sorry to say I was disappointed.  I’ve found it hard to describe my feelings about this book.  It’s a very personal book, told from the point of view of a 17/18 year old teenage girl – we never discover her name.  There aren’t any chapters, it just meanders through the journey of this young girl and Gunther (an older man) as they work their way across America.  As they do this, their relationship changes.

It isn’t that I hated it, it was ok but I never felt that strong connection pulling me in forcing me to keep turning the pages.  I struggled with, what I perceived as, a lack of a beginning, middle and end.  There isn’t much (if any) background information on these two characters – why are they on this road trip?? How did they come to the point in their lives where they could live like this? There isn’t a “Hollywood” style ending either, it just sort of drifts into the end like it drifted through the middle.

The voice of the narrator is unique and fresh, and Reed does write well.  The book has received a lot of praise from some however it just wasn't for me; I just couldn’t grasp the point of it!