Wow. This is a beautiful, heartbreaking story. It gripped me from the start and propelled me to the end and I would have finished it the same day I started if only it were not 1 am and I truly needed to go to bed. I finished the next morning when I woke. I really do not want to say too much because of the nature of the book...hints or spoilers would simply ruin everything. The twists and turns keep the reader on their toes, drop breadcrumbs that are not too hard to follow, yet it is all told so beautifully...the style of Graham's writing makes it not matter. The mind plucking at the details to form a whole or solve the mystery float away, lost in the world and realm that the characters find themselves within. It will stick with me awhile. A truly beautiful love story.

‘’Once I had a dream and in the dream I went to bed and fell asleep and was dreaming. And I knew I was dreaming inside a dream. Do you think it’s like that? Do you?’’

I’ve always thought that the winter landscape mirrored purity, tranquility, beauty. The white of the snow, the complete silence, the moon casting its beams creating a scenery that is otherworldly, almost unnaturally beautiful and mystifying. I feel more at peace with our universe when I find myself in the ‘’white’’ nature up in the mountains, where the coziness of the lodge competes with the primal beauty outside. The feelings that this unique novel by Graham Joyce created in me will be my company there from now on…

Zoe and Jake find themselves trapped when an avalanche comes their way in the French Pyrenees. When they return to the resort, they find it devoid of any human presence. All the objects are there but the hotel and the village seem to have frozen in time. Uninhabited and hostile...The candles don’t burn out, the food remains fresh even though it’s exposed, unprotected in the kitchen. Each time the couple attempts to leave, they find themselves back where they started. And the spiral of event and unexplained phenomena has merely started…

This is one of the most difficult books to review, because even the most innocent commentary may be enough to spoil the end. It is marvelously written, extremely well-composed and consistent from beginning to end. It may be placed under the paranormal genre but it would be wrong to look upon it under this light exclusively. This novel is an exploration of love, togetherness, companionship. The kind of love that is deep,mature and independent. It is also an exploration of the need and instinct to survive, to doubt and fight against what seems invincible, incomprehensible and terminate. All wrapped in a language that is poetic, strong, even razor sharp. Haunting, cold and above all, realistic.

Jake and Zoe are the only characters in this journey and my God, what a company they are! Extremely sympathetic, engaging and realistic. I could connect with them immediately and in their development lies the success and effect of the novel. I could feel their fear, their agony, the deep love for each other, their struggle to hold onto the moment. They were the driving force and in them I found two very memorable characters.

I shall have to leave you here, because I’m getting too close to the slope of spoilers. All I can say is that when you have a fairly unsentimental reader-that is, me:)- and after tons and tons of books, a novel manages to make this reader feel the warmth and the freezing of hearts in equal proportions, then you know that the writer did something right...A definite highlight of my reading year.

‘’But what was a moment? Spindrift on the back of a sunlit wave? A fox’s tail as it disappears through the hedgerow? A meteorite as it flares in the August night sky? Everything is ending or becoming. Zoe didn’t believe you could freeze a moment, or hold on to one.’’

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If we don't spend the seminar talking about why this book is an example of really bad writing I am going to be monumentally disappointed.

This book had such a creepy atmosphere that was studded with moments of true sweetness. It was pretty easy to figure out what was going on and there were perhaps more sexual descriptions than I like, but I'll certainly try another novel by Joyce.

I'm giving this book four stars (even though I really think it's more like 3.5) because the first two thirds of the book were so incredibly engaging that I just could not put it down. Overall, even though I didn't care about the characters and felt like the efforts to develop them came too late to actually be useful, the storyline was compelling enough that I felt pretty thoroughly satisfied with this book. This is the kind of speculative fiction I love!