Frozen Fire

I was in Borders the other day hopelessly searching for the right book. I needed something to get lost in. And Frozen Fire was exactly what I needed. It was captivating, addicting, haunting, mysterious. Truly amazing. Now, a lot of people were complaining about the ending. How no loose ends were tired or how it made no sense at all. Being a creative writer myself, I find that books like these-ones with such immense emotional mystery-need no secure ending. You want the reader to kind of step back a bit and think, "Wait...what just happened?" it gives the reader a space to fill; to think about. I found the part before the ending the most helpful in realizing how this book really makes sense (I'm not gonna spoil it on here for anyone willing to read it), but Bowler uses so many symbols in this novel that you can't exactly study the whole, "making sense" part from just the end. You'll have to deeply think about what the author was trying to convey. I mean, it may just be me, but I feel like these are the kind of books that change something in you. Just, move you. Even just a little bit. That eerie, ghostly boy sorta digs his way into your mind; your heart. The way he existed touched me. I really don't know why or how. Maybe it was the way Bowler made the boy's words sound or speak or something ghastly about his presence was so beautifully gripping. There's really no way I can explain it. I hope, you, who ever's gotten this far into my review, picks up a copy of Frozen Fire. It's going to make you think, it's going to make you flip the pages, it's going to haunt you (or maybe that's just 'cause I'm scared easily..)-either way, this book is really something you should delve into.

Tim Bowler Philomel Books (2008) ISBN 9780399250538 Reviewed by Neha Kashmiri (age 14) for Reader Views (9/08) "I'm dying" When Dusty picks up the phone to hear an unfamiliar voice saying those words her life changes forever. On the other end is a boy who has taken an overdose. When he continues to speak, he says things that he couldn't possibly know. That's when Dusty knows that the boy knew, or knows, Josh. Josh is Dusty's brother who disappeared a year ago. He tore apart his family, leaving his mother to have a nervous breakdown and disappear as well. Dusty finds herself sucked into the foreign world of the strange boy who knew her unlisted number and her cell phone number. She meant to keep but the boy a secret but finds that he can't be kept hidden. He shows up everywhere in town and everyone spots him. Stories start to circulate. The boy is completely the color of snow. He can knock down people without touching them. It seems all people are obsessed with him, even Dusty, herself. Soon strange men come to town claiming that the boy committed an evil crime. The police find out about Dusty's connection to the boy. Dusty is accused of hiding the boy and her life becomes dangerous. All through this Dusty hunts for the boy to find his connection to Josh. Who is the strange boy? Is he an angel? Or is he a demon? From the two words on the first page the book becomes like a drug. It's addicting, it's haunting; it's what you've always wanted from a paranormal mystery. Tim Bowler is a genius with suspense and leaving you satisfied, but hanging at the end. "Frozen Fire" is one of those books that haunt you long after you've read the last page.

Dusty's brother disappeared over a year ago without a trace. The family thinks that he is probably dead, and Dusty is still mourning his loss. Then she gets a phone call from a strange boy who says, "I'm dying." Dusty is ready to hang up on him when he says some things that make her think he knows something about her brother. It sounds like he may really be dying from an overdose, and then she loses voice contact with him. How did he get her cell phone number? Who is he? She sets off into the winter night to try to find him since she is pretty sure that he is close, and in trouble. Then things get really frightening when a man, two boys, and some wicked-looking dogs join the search and then chase and corner Dusty, demanding to know where the boy is. After the boy contacts Dusty again, she discovers that other people have also had contact with this mystery boy who seems to be part human, part spirit. He has an affinity with Dusty but insists that he won't let himself be found because he is too dangerous. There are many people who agree and who want to see this boy dead . . . and who will hurt anyone who stands in their way. Carnegie Medal winner Tim Bowler is a genius at plotting and characterization, and this story stands alone as a paranormal mystery/thriller about a boy that may not be of this world and a girl who is driven to protect him at all costs. FROZEN FIRE kept me reading most of the night, with suspense that just kept building to an unexpected ending. The elusive boy and Dusty are characters that you won't soon forget, in a story that will keep you wondering. Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

Anyone who has been in the middle of a heavy snowfall can attest to the otherworldly quality it brings. When sound is muffled, when the sky and the earth are the same shade of white, when everything familiar vanishes, who knows what is possible? That feeling of dreamlike isolation and mystery is central to Tim Bowler's "Frozen Fire," a thriller that Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan would love; it is not about what happens, but about what the happening invokes. It's billed for teens, but adults would enjoy it too, though it is not for anyone who requires a tidy, convenient ending. Indeed, there may not be an ending at all; merely a transition, a mood. This is a gripping, powerful book. It begins with a nighttime phone call to a girl named Dusty. She lives, we gather, in a rural town in the British Isles, although the outside world is referred to so rarely that it might as well be a dream. Dusty and her father live alone; she is scrappy and defiant, he is quiet and wounded, unable to let go of his absent wife. They have suffered, are still suffering. And now this phone call, from a boy who informs Dusty that he has overdosed and plans to die. He calls himself Josh -- the same name as her brother, who disappeared some years ago. Indeed, the boy seems to know things he should not, like Josh's final words to her. Fearful and hopeful, she goes out looking for him, only to find that she is not the only one looking. There are footprints in the snow, but they fade away. Having established an aura of tension, mystery, and dread, Bowler plays with our expectations. We figure that Dusty will have to convince people that this mystery boy exists, but that's not it at all. Others have seen him, spoken to him. Some have been hurt by him. The whole area is suddenly a place of fear, the town huddled close, the surrounding moor full of hiding places. Armed vigilantes arrive and lurk at the corners. The boy has been seen all over the country and, it is said, is guilty of hideous crimes. They say that his skin and hair are white, that he is both male and female, that he escaped from a locked prison cell. In the middle of the mounting tension, the boy calls Dusty again, and then again. He seems to see something unique in her, something warm to reach out to. He claims not to know who or what he is. Dusty, in turn, throws caution to the wind and searches for him, because maybe, just maybe, he knows where Josh is. Or he is Josh in some new form, angel or ghost or elemental. Or he is Death, come to end her pain. Or..... There are many explanations, all possible, none satisfactory. This is not, thank goodness, one of those labored thrillers where all is explained in the last act via a series of Shocking Revelations and Long-Buried Secrets. Yes, there are secrets, and certain characters (the new girl at school, a boy Dusty hates, her estranged mother) are set up to be potential villains/victims/holders of forbidden knowledge. But, again, this is not a conventional

As a writer myself, I know how difficult it is to create a fantasy which is both vivid and frightening, emotionally engaging and yet mysterious. Tim Bowler succeeds admirably in this novel, which is so compelling that I could hardly stop to breathe as I read. The line between what is real and what is not can be very thin indeed - you only have to look into the latest developments in physics to discover this - and it takes a writer of exceptional talent to be able to steer us along it. To portray gritty reality with a sense of magic, to offer hope and resolution without an easy Disney ending is something very few writers can manage, and manage well. I recommend this book highly, not only for teens, but for adults who enjoy savouring lyrical prose, grappling with the unanswered (and likely unanswerable) questions in our lives, and being swept away by an altogether terrific story.