Ida is a beautiful girl, she used to dive deep into the ocean and sunbathe on beaches, she used to be a normal girl. Now, her feet are turning to glass. Slowly, slowly it starts, but the glass is spreading and Ida's only hope is to find the strange old man who once told her of people turning to glass on St Hauda's Island. Her adventure leads her to Midas, a man who is haunted by his father's death, by his mother's life and his own fears.
This story perfectly captures the fairy-tale essence without ever descending into the Disney world. Heartbreaking and breath-taking this novel draws the reader into the strangely intoxicating world of St Hauda's Island. It divulges slivers of information, character history as gifts you don't fully comprehend until it all slots into place.
The horror of turning into glass is told with a sincerity that made me ache with each chapter. The understanding that life has changed, now, forever and that we have so little control over it, that we know so little of life's possibilities. Turning to glass, a bird that with one look can turn you white, these seem likes dreams, nightmares and yet Shaw makes us believe in their reality. Questioning the importance of life, he draws us further into Ida and Midas' love affair and shows us that the only real meaning in life is to find love.
Read this book curled up on a sofa with a glass of wine or a mug of hot tea and be prepared for a heart wrenching journey that will sear through your defences and make you breathless.
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