language | Ad Librum Aeternam

*I received a physical ARC in exchange for an honest review. No compensation has been given and I write this book review willingly. A big thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada and Scout Press Books!*

Introduction

I’ll be honest, when came the time to choose for physical galleys with Simon & Schuster Canada, I picked Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik thanks to its intriguing but striking cover and the blurb which mentioned two things I love (the Arctic and languages). But did I truly believe I would like it, even more love it? No.

What a mistake!

Thankfully, it proved me wrong. I still feel shame about this doubt, but damn, it’s one of the best suspense/mystery books I ever read, if not my favorite.

I guess you could say me and the book had a bad start, but fell in love hard?

Best Yep GIFs | Gfycat

Wish to go explore the reasons Girl in Ice is so surprising and unique?

I bet you do!

Come on, grab my hand, and let’s thaw the coldness of doubts and warm it into love!

Blurb

Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.

When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North and meet this girl, try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.

The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.

The Positive Sides

Honestly, I’m sorry but I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. So that’s a victory for it, the author, and even me who discovered such a great read!

It is so, so rare and unique for the setting to be in the Arctic, and the main character to be a linguist! And to BOTH be in the same story and so intricately intertwined. LOVE IT! As a polyglot, translator, and language teacher, I relate so much to her, I connect deeply with her thoughts and views of language and culture, and it warms my heart to see us being portrayed this faithfully (and for once!) in an amazing story. The linguist, Valerie, is a hero, too! As the author and her character Val demonstrate it cleverly in Girl in Ice :).

Furthermore, the writing and descriptions of Inuktitut words and meanings as well as their culture and perspectives are like poetry to my soul! This books is also a lot about climate change from the ice, glaciers, freezing winds, and science. A great environmental read for sure! But its strongest tie is love, truth, and language.

I love how the surroundings of the characters, their settings, aren’t static. Animals and nature are constantly in movement, the characters actually exist IN a place, not just in a spot with the environment fading in and out for the plot. It’s fun and involving.

As for the characters, Val is lovely, crippled with anxiety (believably too!), low self-esteem, the death of her brother…, yet she is brillant, stronger than she knows, kinder too, and much more compassionate than she deems herself to be. To me, she’s a heroine! A true one. I also love how she isn’t good around children, but ends up risking everything left in her life to save a little girl she came to love. 🙂 Amazing.

The villains are… irky. And I say this with much reverence and admiration. They are dangerous, changeable, both with motives that run deeper than they let on, they keep us shifting from foot to foot, wondering… and they irked me. I love it when it happens. Most “villains” in contemporary stories are… two-dimensional, if not only one-dimensional; but these are much life-like. Scarily so, too. I love to hate them, and despise when I can relate to them here and there. Wonderful job!

In terms of intrigues, the mysteries are so well-woven you catch glimpses of the answers, but never the whole image of the puzzle. And it is so rewarding at the end to see the full image solved. A real thrill to unfurl all of this alongside Val.

Lastly, the ending is beautiful, hopeful in its own way, poignant, raw; not cold at all! But quite warm, indeed. The very last sentence is so true to a linguist. Charming and evocative.

I kept reading through the climax and ending even though I had work to do. I just HAD TO KNOW how it ended. How all those mysteries, rendered believable in this intricate tale, unfolded and resolved. So, yeah, I guess that’s quite a proof it’s a book worth reading, don’t you think? It’s just that unique and great!

The Negative Sides

Sometimes the pace seems frozen (ha!), but this is more of a statement that it will happen than a real negative side. Why? Well, when this happens, the mysteries thicken subtly and the characters and their relationships unfurl even more. In the end, these slow passages are essential to this story. So, just keep wading through it like you would through snow, and you’ll soon find yourself enjoying the wild ride again.

In Conclusion

* stands up and applauds *

Such a unique, bold, and touching story! Finally, a story set in Arctic with language at its core for the plot. A lovable main character, a perfect representation of a linguist (which puts us in a hero’s shoes!!!), an amusing cast of characters, and real suspense. A thrill! Thus, I give Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik a rating of 5 out of 5.

Verohnsaht! Joy!

If you want to learn more about the author, you can visit her Web site, you can also follow her on Facebook author page, her Twitter account, her Instagram, and Goodreads. You can also add Girl in Ice to your bookshelves on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

My Certification Is on Its Way!

chit-chatting with Cat April 26, 2018 Leave a comment

Guess what, peeps?!

You know I am an ESL teacher for my local immigration center, right?

Well, as my upcoming graduation gift, I have received the money to enroll in Oxford Seminars’ TESL Certification course in Montreal this summer! It starts in July and I need to go spend three intensive weekends in a classroom for practicum and then I’ve got a big theory module with relevant books and an examination at the end.

I’m so excited!

This means that I’ll soon be a certified English second language teacher! How neat is that?!

It’ll help me greatly in finding a teaching job, but also being accepted into Concordia’s Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics. I’m currently gathering the required letters of recommendation from my professors and typing my letter of intent to be ready when November comes around for the application process. I still haven’t decided if I’ll specialize in psycholinguistics or sociolinguistics (both up to the PhD level) or teaching languages, but what is certain is I’ll have this Master’s!

So, great news indeed!

tenor

Important News: How Things Need to Change on My Blog

chit-chatting with Cat July 7, 2017 Leave a comment

Hello, everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed the last post on Android’s Writing Apps. Since then, I got an iPhone SE that I love with all my heart (no kidding) and I finally got my hands on the Scrivener iOS app. It’s a little gem at my fingertips! I should look up World Scribe, though… in case it’s on iOS, too.

Anyhow, I don’t remember telling you, but I am working on a comic book script. Oh, and by the way, I am now part of a newspaper! Huh huh! It’s quarterly and I have to format it, produce about 1 to 3 texts (both literary and informative), and proofread it. It’s charity work, too. However, it gives me a foot in the industry… which I hope to be part of as a writer later on (paid, of course).

So, I’ve decided things would change around here:

There will be a lot of different writing advice. I don’t know if I ever told you, but I dabble into many fields. So expect writing advice pertaining to TV writing, comic book writing, novel writing, short story writing, poetry writing, and maybe even movie writing. I agree it’s a lot; however, there is no way for me to keep away from all these opportunities. Don’t worry, my main focus will still be novel writing, but let’s say I’ll publically add more diverse projects and posts to my blog.

I rarely publish my thoughts about anything except for book reviews. This is going to change. Now, don’t get me wrong: I shan’t talk of the sunny afternoon on a writing blog, unless it has something to do with the actual process of writing. I feel it’s now time to express myself more on important topics.

As you know, I love to learn languages. I speak French, English, Italian, and Spanish. I am also currently learning Greek, Polish, and Japanese. I realized that not talking about those on my blog actually bothered me. So, here’s what I intend to do to mix your interests and mine: I will post definitions and special uses of English words (some rare, some difficult, and some ordinary) in order to content myself and help us all in the art of mastering the English language (and improving our writing, too!).

Don’t you find there are not enough updates on my own writing? Me too. I will now post an update once a week. I will get to finishing that novel of mine, fellow adventurers!

I love a good conversation and I seldom get them on my blog. Thus, I decided to create threads about important writing points or issues, such as heroines/heroes, protagonists, villains, etc. We could communicate and share helpful tips and questions!

I hope these changes don’t scare you too much, but I feel they are necessary for me to still enjoy coming on here and give you the best I can.

See you next post (I have two book reviews coming up) and keep writing, glorious fellow adventurers!

Image result for writing gif

It ‘ s Raining News… Hallelujah, It ‘ s Raining News!

chit-chatting with Cat April 16, 2017 Leave a comment

lfHello, everyone!

I have some good news for you all.

Do you remember when I told you I started learning Greek a few weeks ago? Well, my full Greek kit just came in last week! I'm simply delighted at spending nearly all of my time learning Greek. So far it's going quite well. I've tackled numbers and plurals, people and family, and some essential expressions (along with a bit of grammar). Today I'm onto the verb ''to be'' and the expressions ''there is/there are''. All I'm missing is a dictionary, then I'll be all set up.

Moreover, I told you I'd keep you updated about my short story for the contest so here I am. Yes, the one I got edited! I found the courage to work on it again today after two weeks spent avoiding it – wait for it – intentionally! Yes, intentionally. I was so afraid of not getting the sentences and words right, that I looked to every distraction. But I faced myself yesterday, telling myself that I would miss the deadline if I didn't put my pants on and go back to it! And so, I took a shower and forced – yes, forced! – myself to sit down at the computer and write what needed to be written according to the editing. God, am I glad I did it! My short story is now done! All that's left for me to do is format it and write a cover letter following the guidelines I found in ''Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript'' excerpt from the Writers' Digest Shop. I give myself one week to do all this, then I'm off to submit my work to the contest. I'm so excited! I'm so near the goal I gave myself this year: professionally participate in contests! One click on Friday and… hop! I reach my goal of participating professionally. It is a huge step for me. And one I'm glad I'm not letting go of like I was doing these past two weeks by avoiding reviewing my short story.

P.S.: Two reviews are coming your way in a few days. One for an awesome teen & YA fantasy book and the other for a sweet lesbian romance.

P.S.2: I'm currently juggling between three ideas for a novel. It's a tough choice! I'll let you in on my decision when I've finally made up my mind.

Thank you for reading and being with me on this journey!

It’s Raining News… Hallelujah, It’s Raining News!

chit-chatting with Cat, My project, Short Stories April 16, 2017 Leave a comment

lfHello, everyone!

I have some good news for you all. Do you remember when I told you I started learning Greek a few weeks ago? Well, my full Greek kit just came in last week! I’m simply delighted at spending nearly all of my time learning Greek. So far it’s going quite well. I’ve tackled numbers and plurals, people and family, and some essential expressions (along with a bit of grammar). Today I’m onto the verb ”to be” and the expressions ”there is/there are”. All I’m missing is a dictionary, then I’ll be all set up.

Moreover, I told you I’d keep you updated about my short story for the contest so here I am. Yes, the one I got edited! I found the courage to work on it again today after two weeks spent avoiding it – wait for it – intentionally! Yes, intentionally. I was so afraid of not getting the sentences and words right, that I looked to every distraction. But I faced myself yesterday, telling myself that I would miss the deadline if I didn’t put my pants on and go back to it! And so, I took a shower and forced – yes, forced! – myself to sit down at the computer and write what needed to be written according to the editing. God, am I glad I did it!

My short story is now done! All that’s left for me to do is format it and write a cover letter following the guidelines I found in ”Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript” excerpt from the Writers’ Digest Shop. I give myself one week to do all this, then I’m off to submit my work to the contest. I’m so excited! I’m so near the goal I gave myself this year: professionally participate in contests! One click on Friday and… hop! I reach my goal of participating professionally. It is a huge step for me. And one I’m glad I’m not letting go of like I was doing these past two weeks by avoiding reviewing my short story.

P.S.: Two reviews are coming your way in a few days. One for an awesome teen & YA fantasy book and the other for a sweet lesbian romance.

P.S.2: I’m currently juggling between three ideas for a novel. It’s a tough choice! I’ll let you in on my decision when I’ve finally made up my mind.

Thank you for reading and being with me on this journey!

A Pinch of Greek and Worldbuilding

chit-chatting with Cat, My project February 5, 2017 Leave a comment

Hello, folks!

I know it’s been a while but my life has been pretty rocky lately. But I’m here now, that’s all that matters. I wanted to let you know how hard I’m working on my novel Nightshade: The Death Stone. I am currently worldbuilding, yes! Not one world: four. And you want to know the best thing about it? It’s fun and going great!

Moreover, this has nothing to do with writing but I figured it’d be fun to share: I have started to learn Greek this week. It’s such a marvellous language! I printed free sheets about Greek and I’m practising. I’ll even order workbooks and CDs for it. I love learning languages: it’s thrilling! Just like an adventure. 🙂 Oh heck, it’s one! I already speak French, English (obviously), Italian, and Spanish.

So that was for my update ^.^

Thank you for staying with me! I love you, people!

P.S.: I am thinking of a poem I’ll soon write for you, guys. I’ll keep you updated about it too.