A novel to fall in love with - for anyone who loved the escapism of "The Time Traveller's Wife" and "The Memory Keeper's Daughter". A mysterious metamorphosis has taken hold of Ida MacLaird - she is slowly turning into glass. Fragile and determined to find a cure, she returns to the strange, enchanted island where she believes the transformation began, in search of reclusive Henry Fuwa, the one man who might just be able to help...Instead she meets Midas Crook, and another transformation begins: as Midas helps Ida come to terms with her condition, they fall in love. What they need most is time - and time is slipping away fast.
The Girl with Glass Feet
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The cold northern islands of St. Hauda's Land are home to strange creatures and intertwining human secrets in Shaw's earnest, magic-tinged debut. Ida Maclaird returns to the archipelago to find a cure for the condition her last visit brought her—she is slowly turning into glass. The landscape is at once beautiful and ominous, and its residents mistrustful, but she grows close to Midas Crook, a young man who, despite his intention to spend his life alone, falls in love with Ida and becomes desperate to save her. Their quest leads them to Henry Fuwa, a hermit biologist devoted to preserving the moth-winged bull, a species of insect-sized winged bovines; to Carl Mausen, a friend of Ida's family whose devotion to her mother makes him both ally and enemy; and finally to Emiliana Stallows, who claims to have once cured a girl with Ida's affliction. Each of these characters' histories intertwine, though their motivations surrounding Ida are muddled by their loyalties. Both love story and dirge, Shaw's novel flows gracefully and is wonderfully dreamlike, with the danger of the islands matched by the characters' dark pasts. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'Magical' Guardian 'Ali Shaw has written a rare orchid of a book, beautiful and eccentric and exquisitely sad' Patrick Ness 'Shaw has worked the great tradition of European fairy tales and come up with an ingenious story... A magical fable of fate and resignation.' Guardian 'Virtually weightless in execution... Gorgeously written, its unsentimental confrontation with mortality belies its whimsical surfaces.' Metro 'A haunting and magical tale... Ali Shaw pulls it off in dazzling style, spinning an unforgettable story so vividly described that the reader is only too willing to suspend disbelief in order to be transported into his sad and lovely world.' Aberdeen Press and Journal 'The Girl with Glass Feet is not just special - it's remarkable... [This] debut novel conjures up the extraordinary and fantastic, yet places it firmly in our digital world... It's a very visual novel - readers who enjoy using their imagination will adore it.' Oxford Times"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Girl with Glass Feet,
By
This review is from: The Girl with Glass Feet: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Plot Summary:St. Hauda's is a cold island way up north where narwhal fishing used to be the trade of choice. Once that was banned, most of the population left and the island is now dull, quiet and secluded. This is perfectly fine with Midas Crook, who doesn't like being around too many people and certainly doesn't like touching them. He prefers, instead, to view the world through his camera and make sense of it that way. Ida MacLaird comes to St. Hauda's Land hoping for a cure to her strange illness. Her feet have turned to glass and the illness seems to be spreading up her body. She comes to St. Hauda's looking for Henry Fuwe, a man she met on her last trip there who told her about tiny flying cows, an animal that turns everything it looks at to white, and glass people sunk into bogs. She meets Midas instead, and the two become friends, deepening into something more. The two embark on a mission to save Ida, aided in part by Carl Maulson, who used to be in love with Ida's mother and work with Midas' father. But even as they try to find a cure, the glass in Ida's body keeps creeping up... My Thoughts: This was a beautifully written book. There were so many interlocking stories, all about relationships and love lost and found. Ida and Midas are in the center (I wonder if their names are similar for a reason). Ida wants desperately to connect with someone before her illness leaves her cold, literally. Midas is drawn to Ida, but he must overcome his innate dislike of touching or even really interacting with other people. Their relationship is central to the plot, but there are so many others similar to it that reach different conclusions. Each relationship presented in the story represents and symbolizes a different version of love, and it's fascinating to see how Shaw weaves the illness of bodies turning to glass into all of it. I really enjoyed both Ida and Midas as characters. Ida was so strong and faced her problems head-on. Even though she has a seemingly incurable illness, she goes after what she wants and refuses to cater to anyone else. Midas, too, grows so much during the novel, from a shy, socially awkward person always frightened that he will turn out like his father, into a man who stands up for himself and takes risks even when they terrify him. This book reminded me, atmosphere-wise, of A Winter's Tale. Everything is black and white and cold. It had the same fantastical elements present- they are alluded to, but never really explained. I would have preferred a bit more closure around the more minor plot points, but I can see why Shaw left them out. I wish he had also left out just a few instances of characters saying the word, "Um," but I will forgive him that :-) The Girl with Glass Feet is a slow, sad novel that meanders around an isolated island. I think you have to be in the right mood for it- I read it curled up inside on a miserable rainy day, and that was the perfect setting. Shaw has a gift for descriptive passages, and he's an author I will follow.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good,
By
This review is from: The Girl with Glass Feet: A Novel (Hardcover)
Intense, introverted and grotesque. Small-scale, intense characterization, and at times problematic in the way it shows relationships developing. Still, on the whole I was interested, and some of the sheer metaphysical strangeness (moth-cows, and the titular turning of the main character's feet and then entire body) will probably stay with me.It works in many ways as a horror account with some unconventional framing. There's a lot of effort to almost downplay the main fantastical happenings, for instance. The awareness of the unfolding transformation isn't really the dramatic focus of the book, rather it's how the change provokes an extended process of acceptance, and how it factors into the main relationships of the main character. That description makes it sound like a sentimental work which it really isn't--the tone is a lot harsher in assessing the characters and the obsession they sometimes have for each other. The larger representation of humanity probably counts as a bleak one, yet the story tone is light enough and there are enough beautiful passages to make for more than a pessimistic representation. I'm extremely ambivalent on this one, not at the end very clear what the Shaw was aiming for or how effectively he executed it. I can't exactly count it as a good work because of how vague I feel at the end about the larger story, how I can fit different themes equally into interpreting the point behind the story. Including, most troubling, the possibility of a rather sexist authorial viewpoint given the terms by which women consistently appear. It can also be seen as empowering to an extent, and it manages a sustained first person viewpoint of a complex woman with a lot more sympathy than a lot of (male) authors provide. In the end I'm considerably more favorable for this than Cloud and Ashes, as while I'm unsure as to some of the underlying major points the basic story was comprehensible, and rather compelling, and the high quality of the writing felt like an asset rather than something that undermined the narrative. In the end I am glad I read this work, as it provides a very different feel than most fantasy. I may even reread it at some point, as I think it would benefit from more careful consideration. Worse than: King Rat by China Mieville Better than: Cloud and Ashes by Greer Gilman
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Magically, numbed my 'Grey Matter' into glass,
This review is from: The Girl with Glass Feet: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Ali Shaw has created a unique, if not confusing, dark fairy tale, that is atmospheric, magical, deeply psychological, and utterly unbelievable. But then, it IS a 'fairy tale.'Shaw's debut novel is somewhat of a rambling, convoluted fable. The, boy-meets-girl concept, is complicated by the fact that Ida Maclaird is mysteriously turning into glass. Midas Crook, the introverted town local, who prefers to view life from behind his camera, becomes enamoured with Ida---his first experience with emotional and physical intimacy. As love blooms, the two of them set out on an adventurous quest to find a cure for Ida's malady. They encounter a host of complicated characters, all toting dark bags of secrets, that will eventually become intertwined. Along the way they have to watch out for moth-winged, flying bovines, other magical creatures, and a bog cemetery, that all seem somewhat misplaced and never adequately explained. For the most part---they're just there, without enough back-story, to allow the reader to enjoy them, or embrace the fantasy world. The strong point of this tale is Crook's character development. As we begin to see the free-spirited, kind and loving, Ida, increasingly locked-in by her solidifying infirmity, we see Midas grow, unlock, and open to new possibilities, while finding some closure with unresolved issues of childhood angst. There is tremendous loss and pain, but much is gained, as destiny is fulfilled. I applaud Shaw for his creativity, finding him a lyrical, word-master, and one to watch for future contributions. However there was too much going on within this tale. The 'magic' and its creatures didn't enhance the love story, but rather seemed to operate parallel, to it, in St. Hauda's Land. I began to feel as though, I had a bad seat at a ten ring circus, leaving me unable to develop a connection with characters, that were never fully fleshed out. I also never fully realized the free-child enjoyment of the magic, which should be communicated with any fairy-tale. After all, young, or old, 'fairy tales' are supposed to take us away to a never, never-land, we will never forget. This one did not quite accomplish this for me. All said, I still regard, 'The Girl with Glass Feet,' as a stellar accomplishment for a first time novelist.
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