The Color of Snow by Brenda Stanley
Can a troubled young girl reenter society after living in isolation?
When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora--a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed. Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.
To be honest, this book started out kind of slow for me. It flips back and forth from present day events and then the past events surrounding Sophie's disappearance. Here's the weird thing- after I finished the book I literally slapped myself in the head because all of the signs were there pointing to the ending. Had I thought a little longer about everything you're reading in the book- I would have figured it out. I went from sympathizing with Sophie's father because he never got a fair chance and he was doing what he felt was right by kidnapping Sophie. I mean, it's a little messed up but I can absolutely see how this could be logical. Then once you learn more about Sophie's paternal grandmother and what she did to Sophie, then you start thinking perhaps this entire situation is completely screwed up. And then.... THEN Sophie goes to the home she shared with her father and when she finds what she finds... oh boy. It's not that I didn't like Papa in the end, I just felt sorry for him.
Let me just say that in the end you'll probably feel incredibly sorry for Sophie and at the same time relieved that her story ends up as it does because to think of what could have happened? Kind of terrifying.
So when you read the book, don't get discouraged about the slowness of it in the beginning. Try to think through everything you're reading otherwise you'll find yourself re-reading some pages at the end because you'll be totally caught off guard with the ending. This was a really great book that I finished in just a few hours because I had to know what the hell Sophie's father was doing and why. It just didn't make sense until the end. Trust me.
Brenda has a web page, Facebook and Twitter you can check out as well. This book review is part of the Tribute Books Blog tour, and you can visit them on their webpage, Facebook and Twitter. Now... for the links you REALLY want to know about, buy links!
Happy reading!
3 comments:
Thank you so much for the review!!
Sara, thanks for the review!
Is it me or does the girl on the cover look like Victoria Beckham?
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