Customer Reviews

Deep Freeze

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I picked this up because it sounded interesting, and because I'm a big fan of disaster novels. Imagine my surprise when, 2 pages in, I realize that I've read this before! In the mid 70s (I believe) Racina wrote 'The Great Los Angeles Blizzard'-'Deep Freeze' is a reprint with some revisions to update it and a silly Manson cult subplot tacked on. The book was ok the first time (I really love cheesy disaster novels), and ok this time, but I was a little ticked that the publisher made no mention anywhere that this was a reprint.

Even reviewing this bomb seems somewhat pointless! However, it was so bad that I just felt it my duty, as a avid reader, to warn people off from this atrocity. Deep Freeze held my attention (barely) for maybe twenty pages before I knew it was going to be a collosal groaner. The writing is...well...surprising for a multi-book published author. To call it plodding would be generous in the extreme. The characters are paper thin and BORING! The author seems to realize this and gives almost no effort to developing the absymal cast. Sometimes a great story can save bad characters but not in this case. Let's put it this way, if you are stuck on a desert island with the options of counting sand or reading this book...count the sand!

One other thing...I noticed that Amazon's # 1 reviewer gave this book a 5 star rating. Hmmmmm?

I just finished reading Deep Freeze and what a disappointment. It was 366 pages of...well, nothing I guess. After reading about 50 pages of people describing the snow coming down I felt like saying, "enough already, get on with the story!" And that was the problem, the story never really progressed beyond that point.
The only character I even remotely cheered for was the "bad" son. He was the only one who had even a little bit of depth to him. The other characters were flat and dull.
Finally, I still don't get the whole radical faction aspect of the novel. It didn't come into play to any great extent like you're led to believe on the back cover and basically was a minor distraction while reading at best.
Save your money and go purchase a novel by Rick Mofina if you want well developed characters, great story lines and suspense.

A very good paperback, once you start the story pulls you in. Maybe some negative reviewers were confused because there are several subplots and they wanted "a simple boring book". Racina writes many stories and interweaves them to tell a great story.

Veteran soap & thriller writer Racina combines the best of both his worlds wth this juicy read, perfect for vacation or a long plane trip. He imagines the City of Angels undergoing a "deep freeze" and all the disasterous consequences that would follow---of course, complicated by various sublots with an assortment of colorful characters.

He knows L.A. and he knows showbiz, so he is particularly good with his characterizations and dialogue. It also helps that he penned the famous "Ice Princess" storyline in GENERAL HOSPITAL's heyday, so he's more than familiar with what happens when a metropolis undergoes a meteorological snafu!

Lots of fun to add to your beach bag or summer cottage library collection!

This was my first experience reading Thom Racina. I picked it up at Sam's because it looked interesting. I read Deep Freeze within about 3 days, and was happy with it. With the recent weather problems around the world, the story is somewhat believeable. I enjoyed reading this book, and may check out his other books. I know some others give him bad reviews, but I do not judge a book by reviews or by it's "movie potential". For me, if it is a good story and written well enough that I do not notice any errors or screwups, then I am happy with it. I would reccomend this book to anyone as it is a good story with decent characters.

I don't know about the reviewers who were so upset by this book; I wasn't expecting Joan Didion. I got a solid thriller with a premise that seemed pretty ridiculous (well, that is intil this weekend when the lows in LA hit the low 30's). Is it slightly silly? Sure. But it's also a great big bon-bon of a book that I defy you to not consume in one sitting. Like one of the better disaster movies of the 70's, you may have a few minutes of "well that couldn't possibly happen!" moments afterward.

Then again if we were having precipitation in Los Angeles this weekend it would be snow....

In an area that is known for its warm climate and sunshine, Southern California is undergoing horrible weather including unseasonably cold temperatures and weeks of heavy rain. The worst is yet to come as leading meteorologists predict ice storms and snow with a good chance of a blizzard. The people of Southern California are woefully unprepared for this horrific weather. The Kings, the people who worship Jeffrey the way Charles Manson was once revered by his followers, are waiting for the blizzard to come.

The Kings know that the poor people in the valley who will feel the effects of the weather first will go to the hills and take over the homes of the rich people, killing the wealthy because the Kings will egg them on. The family of Robert Hanwell needs to get out their home and get their daughter to the hospital for an operation or she will die. Some other members of the Hanwell family reach out a helping hand while others react to the situation by drinking themselves into oblivion or looting, a microcosm of what is happening in all of Southern California.

Readers who like disaster books or movies (this novel would make a fantastic one) like Earthquake, Volcano and Typhoon will want to read DEEP FREEZE. A crisis of this magnitude brings out the best in some and the worse in others as brilliantly portrayed by two brothers who react in diametrically opposite ways. Mr. Racina is a master of suspense who creates deep characterizations and this tale demonstrates the wide range of his considerably unique talent.

Harriet Klausner