Customer Reviews

Iceman

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

 

 

Why is this kid so messed up? This book was about a kid who played ice hockey, and he was a big goon. People all around the country knew who he was, and hated him for his style of play. Through the book it talked about his team and how he played in the different tournaments, and it was pretty good explination in the hockey perspective. This book was a fast read, but it didnt keep my attention. I just couldn't get into the book. I think that people should read this book if they are into hockey, or if they want a dramatic book that involves family problems, or if they would like to read a good book. I would recommend that you give this book a try, and who know's, you might even like it.

Kody Nolt
Block 3

This book was great it caught my attention in the beginning of the book by saying Eric the main character slammed a hockey goalie into the net and scored a goal. Eric used his brute force to win games in hockey. The people who are at the game usually boo at Eric and call him names because of what he does at the games. Eric's dad loves when Eric beats up on people in the hockey rink. Eric's brother Duane was a sports player until he had a vision that made him give up sports and play guitar. Eric's mother was a former nun and she thinks of Duane as a devil like figure. Eric has only one friend which is a water dragon named Mary. Eric has some strange obsession with dead things. He can't stop going to the cemetery. Eric is a very strange person who lives a very strange and interesting life.

Iceman By, Chris Lynch

Iceman is about a hockey player named Eric. He is the best player on his team. He is always getting in fights and hurting people badly. Nobody on the team likes him, they think that he is too violent for hockey. Eric doesn't really enjoy playing hockey. He starts to get sick of it because his teammates, his opponents and the fans all hate him.
Eric's only friend is the undertaker at Gromley's funeral home. His name is McLaughlin. Eric often skips school to help McLaughlin prepare the bodies for the funerals. He enjoys this work because he feels that he can relate well to McLaughlin. McLaughlin is like Eric because he doesn't get along well with other people.
Eric has an older brother named Duane. Eric idolizes him. Duane used to be a star in all sports. His hockey number is retired and he was a star in Lacrosse and football. One day Duane decides that he doesn't want to play sports any more. He said that he saw a vision when he was trying out for football, so he sells all his equipment and buys a new guitar. Eric's dad loved to see Duane play sports and he is saddened that he will never get to see him play again.
Eric's dad loves to go to his games. He practically lives for it. He goes crazy when Eric makes a hit or does any thing good. His dad loves to be hated. At a tournament in Quebec he gets soda poured all over his head and he doesn't ever flinch. Erics dad works as a Public Relations man. He is always bringing clients to the house. One day he brings home a former hockey player and Eric and Duane really connect with him.
Eric's mom was a former nun. She reads the bible all the time and tries to get Eric to go to church. She is worried about him because he is so violent. He once broke his stick over a teammates head. Eric said he didn't even feel angry. Eric goes to church once and he hates it. He only goes to church that one time.
I think this is a really good book. I like is because it has a lot of action and it makes you want to keep reading. I also like how the whole book isn't about him playing hockey. There is a lot of other part of the book. Like Eric's relationship with McLaughlin and how he cant make friends. I also like the book because Duane is funny. He is always saying things to his parents that get them mad. I liked how you can see the change in Eric from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. There is a really big change in his attitude and how he plays hockey. I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a good read.

Eric, the protagonist in Iceman, struggles through a difficult adolescence that can even be what some may label sociopath. His infatuation with death, his enjoyment of hurting people, and his lack of any connection to another person causes the reader to wonder if he has any emotion.
Spending time at the local mortuary instead of attending school seems well beyond the average teenagers fascination with death. Even his brother's girlfriend, a high school dropout, finds his behavior peculiar. He makes mention of this obsession one day at church after killing a mouse."?I just smiled, weaved in and out of light sleep, occasionally pulling the dead mouse back out with my foot so I could look at him. When something's dead, I can?t help looking at it."(Lynch. P99)
It seems when reading more carefully though the book, Eric's infatuation may be connected with his desire to retreat from the world he lives in. Sitting in a coffin is Eric's way of pretending he is dead and with death comes solitude, something that a controlling father and mother, constantly trying to save him, do not allow him to have. "Hope they thought I was a dead person and ran. I just wanted my peace anyway."(Lynch. 53)
Eric's anger when he play?s hockey is apparent in the way his focus lies on "wrecking" the other players rather than winning the game. Even his teammates loathe him and refer to him as 'the animal' because he seems out of control. "I was the kind of guy who could sever another guy's head without feeling a thing. I was after all, the Iceman."(Lynch. 166)
Is Eric really interested in causing pain? After all he's only playing hockey because his father is making him. The anger he exhibits during hockey seems to be displaced because he often states he isn?t even aware of his rage until he is sitting in the penalty box. "I broke a new Christian Brothers hockey stick. I broke it on somebody's head. He was a teammate of mine. The funny part is I don?t really remember being that angry."(Lynch. 69)
Eric's desire to be close with his dad is apparent in the way he is constantly looking for another connection beyond hockey. Eric doesn't want to disappoint his father by telling him that hockey isn't as important anymore but he fears that that will take away the only channel their relationship is based upon. "I'm thinking?maybe we don?t have to talk about hockey right now. I'm thinking we may talk about something else. Like your job dad. I'm thinking about public relations. Can you tell me more about it? Do you like it? Is it interesting? How did you wind up in it? Is it something you always wanted?"(Lynch. 67)
Overall Eric seems like a lost adolescent growing up in a dysfunctional family. He is being pushed into something that he does not like nor want to do. If he follows in his brother's footsteps and finds something else that is more appealing to him, he may end up all right after all.

This book was mainly about a 14 year old boy named Eric and his everyday life. Eric has a very strange life.
Eric has this weird knack of being around dead people. Eric says that he can stop looking at dead people. Eric plays hockey. But when he is on the ice someone usually gets hurt because of Eric.Eric has an older brother named Duane. Duane used to play sports until, he said that he had a vision while trying out for football. Now Duane plays a guitar. Eric's mom was a nun and she thinks of Duane as a Lucifer. Eric's dad is a sports freak. He hated it when Duane quit sports. Eric's dad loves it when Eric pummels other player when playing a hockey game. Eric has a pet its a water dragon named Mary. Mary is also Erics only friend.
Overall, this is a great book to read. I enjoyed reading this book more than other I have read in a while.

Doesn't the writer get any choice over the cover of their book? Not only is this one really hideous, it isn't good for the story except in a really obvious way. Put me off buying the book.

In The Iceman a boy named Eric plays on a hockey team, which he doesn’t like very well and everyone on it is very mean to him calling him the iceman because he is a heartless play who is cold as ice. Eric’s father brings home people for dinner for business. He always brings home someone different and one night he brought home Mick Mackey. Mackey was an all-time hockey player who was that star of the Big Bad Bruins. The Bruins were the team who were the Stanley Cup Champions of seventy and seventy-two. Mackey comes home with him because he needs Eric’s fathers businesses to help him out with him children camps. Eric’s dad brags about him and how he wins the game on his own. The thing his dad doesn’t know is that Eric doesn’t want to play hockey anymore and that he hates it. His decides he wants to quit and tells his dad face to face. His dad just laughs and shakes it off. The next day was Eric’s last game of hockey.



Eric’s friend McLaughlin works at a mortuary and Eric decides he wants to be like him and work where he does and do all that stuff he does. Eric one day decides to show his brother, Duane, what the mortuary and what it’s like. He takes him there before school and it found McLaughlin, his mortuary friend, next to, whom he called, Evangeline. McLaughlin, his partner, his buddy was dead right in front of him. To find out what happens next read the rest of this intense book, The Iceman.

One of the best sports novels ever! Fourteen year old Eric is a hockey player, though he is not sure he wants to be one. Caught in the dynamics of an EXTREMELY dysfunctional family, Eric struggles to find himself.

Compelling characters. Lynch is a master of the relationships between brothers, and Duane is one of the best older-brother figures I have encountered in young adult fiction.