Customer Reviews

Freezing

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

 

 

Having read The Last Girl, I couldn't wait to read another Penelope Evans book. She has a unique style of writing and her quirky and creepy characters send chills down your spine. This book is even more compelling and strange than The Last Girl!

In Freezing, Stuart Park is a 28-year-old photographer at a London morgue. When he's not working, he spends his days in front of his computer playing a heroic character in a game. He also makes sure that his nosy and eccentric father doesn't go near his bedroom. His "life," however, changes the moment he sets eyes on one of the corpses at the morgue -- a beautiful and unidentified drowning victim. There are many strange twists and turns in the story as he tries to find out who she was and why she died.

This haunting psychological thriller is not for the faint at heart. But if you love a well-written, quirky and clever thriller, then I strongly suggest that you read it.

Freezing is original, compelling, interesting, quirky, humorous, intriguing but not morbid or dark. The writing is sensational, description an absolute triumph, not too wordy, using suggestion rather than statement. A great manipulation of the potentially disasterous subject - the best book I have ever read.

This book scores well for its originality in its plot and character. Stewart Park, the unconventional type of central character in this book, has all his best intentions hidden behind a physically unattractive front. Just one thought, would he have chosen a different approach to conclude his own story if he had not been so obsessed with Rachel's?

I loved everything that was written about the main character's life, especially his attempts at a social life and how other people reacted to him. Evans has a strong grasp on his utterly disfunctional family and everything that happened inside Steward's home felt very real -- and very awful. I can't recall a character that I've disliked as intensely as I disliked his father.

As for the mystery/thriller that the book revolves around... it was unfortunately pretty weak and not at all interesting. I wound up skimming the parts related to the boring, utterly stock "bad guys", eager to get back to Steward's life.

I am always looking for the interesting, offbeat and original. This novel qualifies on all counts!

Be warned! If you're going to read this book, there isn't one comforting, happy, or light moment throughout- it's a dark, dark world.

I'm not against creepy lit- but this book overdoes it: 2 child molesters, a verbal/physical abuser, horrid family relations, centers around a morgue, a creepy narrator, near death beating, beaten to death prostitute, abused dog, a ruined child, & a wretched ending- all of this in 280 pages.

I shut the book with an overwhelming 'yuck!'

Not recommended!

One of the best books I've read all year. Wonderful, non-stereotypical characters, engrossing situations and full of twisted and quirky surprizes. The Best!

You have read the concise court facts about a child abuse case, but in what social landscape can such terrible things flourish?

This book exposes the sinister and comic social lives of misfits. On the backdrop of misunderstangings and prejudice, secrets and confidentialities a tragic tail is spun. Immortal and biblical themes emerge in strange and distorted shape as the reader is drawn into the thoughts and deeds of the misanthropic cast. The dreadful truth behind the death of a beautiful young girl is slowly and confusingly revealed through the obsessive mind of one of the characters. The reader is drawn so insidiously into the lives of the characters, one lives their petty obsessions and secret guilt, that the reader too becomes implicated in the net of hatred and dependance that binds their lives.

Do read this book, but make sure the bath water is hot as you near the last page.

I have to admit that the story idea was an original, but it just didn't work for me. Firstly, the story was too creepy and too dark. I found it rather disturbing that a morgue attendant would become so obsessed with a dead woman. Secondly, Stewart, the main character, was so abnormal I had a terrible time maintaining interest in him. I know that he was not supposed to be the smartest man in the world, but some of the messes he got himself into were completely unbelievable. I can't imagine anyone actually acting on the plans that Stewart comes up with. I can't go into details about the ending without giving anything away but, believe me, it was terrible. Unless you have a great deal of time on your hands, I wouldn't recommend you read this book.

This book, like The Last Girl, is slow, boring, and not worth the effort to read it. Very little dialog or action. Sorry I bought it.