RITA Reader Challenge Review

Followed by Frost by Charlie N. Holmberg

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Ninja Penguin. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the YA Romance category.

The summary:

Seventeen-year-old Smitha’s wealth, status, and beauty make her the envy of her town—until she rejects a strange man’s marriage proposal and disastrous consequences follow. Smitha becomes cursed, and frost begins to encompass everything she touches. Banished to the hills, hunted by villagers, and chilled to the very core of her soul, she finds companionship with Death, who longs to coax her into his isolated world. But Smitha’s desire for life proves stronger than despair, and a newfound purpose gives her hope. Will regrets over the past and an unexpected desire for a man she cannot touch be enough to warm Smitha’s heart, or will Death forever still it?

Here is Ninja Penguin's review:

Smitha is seventeen and seems to have it all: she’s one of the smartest, prettiest, richest girls in town. Sure, she can be a little bit vain and lazy and rude, but what does that matter? Then she makes the mistake of turning down the wrong guy, who curses her to be “as cold as her heart.” Now winter forever follows her, anyone who touches her skin freezes to death, and she can never, ever get warm. Exiled from normal human existence by her curse, her only source of companionship is the capricious death god Sadriel who keeps trying to lure her over to his realm. She finally finds hope when the prince of a drought-stricken land asks her to use her powers to help them. But can a girl with a frozen heart dare to fall in love?

So I will admit that by the end of this book I was in full “Bitch Eating Crackers” mode. The writing style has several tics that annoyed me, like frequent use of clumsy foreshadowing and some really weird word choices. I was frustrated at the heroine’s passive approach to being cursed (she never tries to experiment with the limits or uses of her powers, never tries to research how to remove the curse, and makes only one brief, futile attempt to find a wizard to consult). And the world building? Well, Smitha starts off in Ye Olde Fantasy Lande of Only White Peoples and eventually moves to Exotic Stereotypical Middle Eastern Land (they worship Alha, not Allah; IT’S TOTALLY DIFFERENT, GUYS!), everyone eats chocolate and curry and “snow cream,” and women are pretty much only allowed to sew, cook, teach, write, and have babies.

My biggest problem, though, is the heroine. Or, at least, the story’s presentation of the heroine. Smitha seems like a fairly typical teenager: she tries to get out of doing chores, is annoyed by her little sister, gossips with her friends, and thinks (but does not say) some mean things about her mom’s appearance. Oh and she leads boys on. And that seems to be the real sin, since that’s the one that leads to her curse. She tells a guy yes when he asks her to meet him so he can propose, and then doesn’t show up. Okay, yes, she does insult him when he confronts her about ghosting him, but one has to remember that she has spent the last several months avoiding, ignoring and rejecting him in every way short of saying “no”. Oh, and did I mention that he’s TWENTY-FIVE and has been stalking her for months?

So she ends up afflicted with terrible pain, exiled from her home, causing death to those who get too near her, hunted by people who fear her curse, and living on the run for YEARS. And then what does she do? Why, decide that the wizard was right—she is a terrible, selfish person who was super mean to him, and that he must have had it tough growing up in the perpetually warring wizard country, so she forgives him for cursing her.

Now, for a real life person, if they feel that they want/need to forgive their attacker? I support them. However, this is a fictional character in a novel where a woman forgives a man for assaulting her because he had a rough childhood, and she provoked him, and at least he didn’t kill or maim her… well, it’s not the best message. I kept hoping that somewhere after the forgiveness scene we would get some reiteration from Smitha that she knew it wasn’t her fault and she didn’t deserve the curse, but instead we just get her agonizing over all her petty sins that made her a cold-hearted person (she ate her sister’s brownie once, guys, it was terrible), being emotionally and physically abused by Death—who also is trying to force her into a relationship with him, and who she also forgives, and writing a letter to her attacker to let him know that he has made her a better person. It all adds up to feel very uncomfortably excusing of assault and victim-blamey to me.

SPOILERS FOR END OF BOOK

Show Spoiler

Smitha does finally end up breaking the curse and living happily ever after with her true love, Lo, captain of the prince’s guard. (Lo seems nice, even if we don’t know much about him other than the fact that he likes discussing literature and isn’t scared of the curse.)

According to Death, who I guess knows these things, it took “the warmth of the truly selfless” to break it. This means: giving up her beauty (by cutting her hair), letting her true love go (by not suggesting he break off his arranged marriage), and then risking her life by taking an arrow when she attempted to tackle the prince out of the way of an assassin. Apparently, helping a country recover from drought doesn’t count as a selfless act.

In what I thought was the best part of the book, she then finds out that Lo returns her feelings and had gone home during all the excitement, not to get married, but to break off his engagement. However now Smitha worries that if she accepts his love her selfless act will be cancelled, and the curse will return. This is actually a really compelling decision, and I wish this part had been expanded. Would you be willing to give up warmth and relief and a normal life after years of cold and pain and exile? Even if the alternative is to give up the one you love? It’s a tough question, and I certainly couldn’t blame her if she had decided that she’d rather be alone than chance going through that again for the rest of her life. But this is a romance, so of course the curse doesn’t come back, and they end the book married and traveling back to Smitha’s hometown so she can finally see her family again.

I like the idea of a terrible person having to come to terms with their past cruel actions and become a better person. I also am incredibly glad that I do not live in a world that punishes smug, slightly bratty teenagers with years-long painful curses that only go away when you’re willing to give up your life for someone else. Mostly, I am just sad that the heroine kept being attacked by men trying to force her into a relationship, while assuring us that it was okay because it made her a better person.

And the epilogue is written in first person present tense. Man, I hate that!

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Followed by Frost by Charlie Holmberg

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  1. Kareni says:

    Thanks for sharing your review, Ninja Penguin. I’d read and enjoyed the author’s Paper Magician series so was curious to learn about this book.

  2. Megan M. says:

    I read her previous trilogy (starting with “The Paper Magician”) and enjoyed it a lot, but when I read the synopsis for “Followed by Frost” I wasn’t enthused. Sounds like a good decision for me – I would’ve been annoyed by the same things as this reviewer.

  3. Nikki P. says:

    Ack. Thank you so much for this review, because this is the kind of book I’d totally get sucked into reading, and those are exactly the kinds of problems that would make me chuck it against the wall.

  4. VERAY CARTER says:

    I think that you missed the point of this story. It is a fairy tale story and so can’t be looked at in the same way we do real stories. It’s about a very spoiled, bratty young lady that goes through a difficult and awful experience that teaches her to see others and forget about herself, which in turn makes her a better person. It’s a moral to the story kind of thing. I thought it was a wonderful story and made me go looking for more of her books.

  5. Mutemuse says:

    I read this book and the whole paper magician series. I find the author’s ideas very compelling and enjoy the books. They bring interesting elements. Followed By Frost isn’t just another version of something I have heard before. That said, I do find a theme of the female leads simpering after a man. All consuming, blinding love and adoration. Very strong in the paper magician series. While not word for word, Followed By Frost adds the feeling that a man fixed all her problems. I did really enjoy the book though. I will read it again.

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