Death pauses the living,
time restarts the clock,
except when it doesn’t.
Waking up to find that big sister is gone, no footprints in the swirling blizzard – how can Row think about going to school? Yet how can the high school freshman stay in this house of new grief laid over old sorrow? Oh, to be on the soccer field where she has a chance of controlling what happens!
Ariana slogs through the snow, carrying important things like her painting and uncertainty about the future and things that other seniors think about. But if the pain of losing Mom ever lessens, is there anything left inside her?
California to Colorado, a new house, a new stepmom…the Filipino-American sisters have chances to move on, to make friends – so much harder for Ariana.
Ariana says “I should know that there is no point in playing grief Olympics,” (p. 9) yet sees a kindred soul in musician Alex who lost her brother.
This novel in verse alternates between Row and Ariana who still feel as frozen in their loss as a turtle under the pond ice. Will their springtime ever come?
How do we respond when friends stay sad?
**kmm
Book info: Turtle Under Ice / Juleah del Rosario. Simon Pulse, 2020. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
