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Fiction. Mystery. HTML: It begins as a romance between two teenagers searching for a deeper meaning in life in their small town. When the enigmatic Annaâ??who prefers to go by Anastasiaâ??shows up in the halls of Hamilton High, she changes the narrator's life, opening his mind to Baudelaire and Mozart and revealing a world of magic tricks, ghost stories, and affectionate mind games. Together the couple probe through enchanted woods, the Internet, and everything in betweenâ??until, one winter evening a week before Valentine's Day, Anastasia disappears, leaving only a dress on a frozen river. Suddenly alone, the narrator is hit with the weight of life's less playful mysteries, possible signs from the supernatural, and the mystery of what actually happened to his missing love. Determined to find Anna, he begins to retrace their past five months together and finds that the fragments of memory coalesce into haunting revelations. A mesmerizing labyrinth of art, magic, and cryptic codes that sparks the imagination and teases the intellect, As Simple as Snow is a mind-bending mystery, as well as a poignant and wise look at young love, loss, and fam… (more)
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Review: As Simple as Snow is extraordinarily similar in plot to John Green's Paper Towns, and yet they were worlds apart in how much I enjoyed them. And, for the life of me, I can't quite put my finger on why I loved Paper Towns but could barely finish As Simple as Snow.
My first instinct was that the difference was in the leading lady - that I found Anna so obnoxious that it ruined the book for me. It's not a bad guess - the narrator and the author find Anna's quirkiness charming, and the narrative pull of the book seems to rely on the reader finding her charming too... which I didn't (to say the least.) But then I remembered that I found Margo, the leading lady of Paper Towns, pretty obnoxious as well, although it was somewhat mediated by the fact that she wasn't around for as long. So it has to be something else.
The main character? I think that's got some explanatory power; Quentin from Paper Towns is likeable enough to carry the story in his own right, even when the girl in question is in absentia, while the unnamed narrator of As Simple as Snow is kind of a cipher, with no real personality to recommend him. Also, this was clearly meant as a coming of age novel, but since the narrator only rebuilds his identity under the impetus and direction of another person, it was less than convincing on that front.
Maybe it was the tone of the book? I don't think As Simple as Snow made me laugh once, whereas Paper Towns had me rolling on the floor in between making its serious points. Maybe the difference in the resolutions? As Simple as Snow leaves a *lot* - read: almost all - of questions unanswered, and while I realize that in real life not all threads wrap up neatly, it was still a little frustrating to listen to hour after hour of story where every little detail was treated as a Highly Significant and Meaningful Clue and then have nothing pan out. Or maybe it did pan out, but I was too annoyed by Anna during the Actually Important Clues to be paying full attention. Either way, I was disappointed. 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: I should have liked this book. I liked Stargirl; I loved Paper Towns. It seems like most people who liked one liked the others; I just didn't. But, at the same time, I can't entirely figure out why not, so if you liked the others, it might be worth your while to give As Simple as Snow a try.
It is the story of Anna and the narrator (who's name we are never told). They fall in love and I don't want to say much more. It is not a love story, I want to make that clear. It is just a wonderful
One February night she disappears. All that is found is her dress and a hole in the river. Did she drown? Was it suicide or murder? Where had she gone? Her body is never recovered and our main character is left to try and put the pieces together. At this point the book descended into an valley of teen angst and I basically lost interest.
A disappointing ending to a book that started with so much promise. Lots of literary and musical references but the writing turned stilted and clumsy, and the characters were just too one dimensional and lacked depth. Unfortunately As Simple As Snow never really developed into the interesting story I had hoped for.
I was also very disapointed that the book didn't have a solution to the reason Anna left. It ends with