The Girl with Glass Feet

The Girl with Glass Feet
By Ali Shaw
Henry Holt and Co., 2010. 287 pgs. Fiction.

St. Hauda’s Land is a cold northern island with menacing mountains and impenetrable swamps lands. This is the setting for a story full of strange creatures that can turn an animal pure white with one stare, and interwoven secrets from the past. Ida Maclaird has returned to St. Hauda’s to find a cure for a condition that is slowly turning her feet to glass. There, she meets Midas Crook, a young man who has difficultly making emotional connections since his father committed suicide several years before. Despite their difficulties, Ida and Midas soon fall in love which sends them on a desperate quest to stop the glass from killing Ida. Along this path they encounter people all interconnected to Ida and Midas whose motivations for helping her remain unclear.

I enjoyed the dreamlike quality of this debut novel. The characters were complicated and flawed, and yet still had the power to make changes in their lives. A melancholy novel that ended on a quiet note of hope.

AJ