THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET.

THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET by ALI SHAW.

A mysterious and frightening metamorphosis has befallen Ida MacLaird - she is slowly turning into glass, from the feet up. She returns to St. Hauda's Land, where she believes the glass first took hold, in the vain hope of finding the one man who might just be able to cure her .....

Midas Crook is a young loner, who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defences. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart, and they begin to fall in love .....

What they need most is time - and time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass?

..... From the inner front cover.

FIRST SENTENCE: That winter there were reports in the newspaper of an iceberg the shape of a galleon floating in creaking majesty past St. Hauda's Land, of a snuffling hog leading lost hill-walkers out of the crags beneath Lomdendol Tor, of a dumbfounded ornithologist counting five albino crows in a flock of two hundred.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: But then, one day, I learnt that a single look can change everything.

A debut novel by Ali Shaw. I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed by a book. Having read such an lot about The Girl With Glass Feet on various blogs and other book sites, 97% of it good, perhaps I just expected too much.

Whilst full of good descriptions and, at times, emotionally charged, I felt the novel was let down by the story itself. Supposedly Ida's story, to me, more narrative time was given to Midas with an ending that, though it brought a tear to the eye, left far too many questions unanswered.

As I said, wonderfully descriptive, the passages in which Ida's transformation is mentioned being particularly poignant, there is just something missing from this first novel.

The Girl With Glass Feet was purchased from Amazon. The 7th book read for my TYPICALLY BRITISH BOOK CHALLENGE. (Click HERE for last book reviewed and links to other challenge books read.)