Frozen Fire

What a way to start a book. Hooked right from the beginning, I was.

About 20 minutes before midnight, Dusty’s phone rings. And it’s an unknown boy on the other line, about her age, who is trying to kill himself. All he wants is a friendly voice to listen to while he dies. At first, Dusty is a little frightened, but becomes so much more-so when he says the exact same words that were the last words her brother ever spoke to her. After the boy hangs up the phone on Dusty, she races out determined to find him, following his footprints in the snow through the nearby park, only to find the footprints and the boy have completely disappeared.

So starts Dusty’s journey to discover who exactly this boy is, why people are hunting him down (and show more her due to her association with him), and what exactly happened to her brother when he disappeared a few years ago.

Wow, I don’t do it justice at all.

This is a perfect “curling up in bed with a cup of tea on a January or February night with a book” kind of book. It has to be one of those months in order to get the feeling of the book right – the snow is such a big part of the book that it needs to be reflected in the outside world in order to appreciate it and get into it fully.

There are so many things that I want to say about this book. It started off being deliciously creepy, and ended off being beautifully heartbreaking. It was intense (oh so intense!) and yet didn’t leave me with a book hangover like I would have expected. It left unanswered questions, so I know I’m going to keep thinking about (and possibly coming back to) the book as I wonder what happens after it has ended – what happens to the boy? What happens to Dusty? What was going on with the light, and what about the heat radiating from the paper? So many unanswered questions, and yet the book didn’t feel unfinished. There was a sense of closure, even if there was so much more that I wanted to know.

I can’t help but wonder – are all of Bowler’s books like this? If so, I definitely want to read more of them! But I want to hear from other people about that first. I liked Frozen Fire so much that I’m afraid I might not like any others quite as much as I liked it. show less

Dusty answers the phone when she's home alone one night and suddenly her whole world is turned upside-down by an androgynous person who most people assume is male, and who carries with him stories of rape and disgrace, along with a simple white ocarina. With his arrival, Dusty's town is thrown into an uproar, and a chase on the verge of a witch-hunt begins. All the while Dusty is forever drawn to the boy (as the town calls him) by possible clues as to the whereabouts of her brother and childhood best friend, who disappeared years before.
While I was disappointed by an unclear ending, the lack of an explanation was made up for by a clearing up of different facts, one that puts Dusty at least partly at rest and which I won't reveal so as show more not to spoil the ending for anyone who has yet to read this intriguing novel. show less

With chilling suspense, this book grabbed me so hard I was stunned. But then I was completely ticked off when the source of all the suspense was left unexplained in a disapointing ending. So I would only recommend this if you can settle for a very vague conclusion. The author did do an amazing job with setting up the mystery though... a fascinating read if not satisfying.

Everything starts with one phone call and a voice on the other side of the line that says to Dusty "I am dying". Tim Bowler starts this Amazing story with a simple line in which the moment you have begun to read, you will want to do nothing else but continue this story. You will not stop until you have reached the very last page. 15 year old Dusty knows how to take care of herself. 2 years ago her older brother Josh disappeared and her Mother walked out of her life. Ever since it has always been just her and Dad, living alone in Thorne Cottage.

But after that mysterious phone call that Dusty receives, her life is about to be shaken up. How is it that this boy obtained her number? Even more mysterious, how is it that he says things to her show more that no one else but herself can possibly know? Personal and intimate things, such as the disappearance of her brother? But Dusty comes to realize that this boy is not normal and from decoding the tone of his voice and the sounds from the background of wherever he could be, she makes the choice to look for him in the cold and lonely winter night.

She knows that he has answers to the questions that she could never phantom. If anyone can tell her the reasons of why things happened, he can. But he warned her that he's dangerous and the he is unlike anything she has known, and little by little his presence begins to cause fear and anger to the people of her town. Rumors begin to surface of the sickening things he has done in nearby towns. No one knows who he is or where he came from, not even the Police who are conducting a major investigation. Dust encounters danger from the unexpected of places. But deep down, she knows that this boy is not like what the rumors describe him. She is willing to do anything it takes to find him and protect him. Even if that means that her very life could be in serious danger.

There are so many things that i want to say about this book! Because it was so good! It only took me 2 days to read this book- goes to show you just how much i got into this story. Tim Bowlers description and setting of this story was life like! Not to mention Beautiful! The lonely winter backdrop of a town with beautiful landscapes such as a Kilbury Moor, Raven's Fell and the long still lake. The winter made this story so eerily haunting. I really loved that about this story. The setting really made it all come to life.

Pick up this book guys! Trust me, you will instantly fall into this story and be lost within its mystery and beauty! show less

This book was quite stupid. It tried desperately to be suspenseful, but only ended up in making me go, "What the f*%#?".

First off, the main character Dusty has absolutely no personality whatsoever and does stupid, irrational things that no one with an ounce of sense would do. She's mean and disrespectful to her father, (I noticed this trend in YA books today. How is this okay? My dad would've hung me in the backyard.) to her friends, and almost everybody else under the guise of being "a tomboy". Yeah, beacuse being a tomboy makes me look tough and badass and excuses me from asshole-ish behavior. *Eyeroll* Yet she doesn't do anything to make her appear as one. She just looks stupid and incompetent. Sad to say, because it's not always show more like this, but usually this type of female character is often created by male authors. I don't know what it is, but it's my personal observance.

The writing is boring, and full of useless pages of unimportant chatter with her poor father, who desperately needs support but gets only sh*t from his bratty daughter. Ugh, just-

This book made me sooooo mad. Mad enough to where I couldn't finish. So there.

Dropped at 31% or pg. 103. show less

Dusty doesn’t know anything about the boy who mysteriously calls her one night as he attempts to commit suicide, then startles her with all the personal things he knows about her and her life—like the disappearance of her brother, Josh. All she knows that there is something terribly alluring yet dangerous about him at the same time. Her curiosity drags her into an out-of-this-world intriguing mystery that makes her enemies and drives her to her tomboyish limits.

For there really ARE a lot of things strange about the boy. Like how he knows all of these intimate details about people. Or how he disappears without a trace. And then there are the stories that the angry mob from other towns tell, of the boy having a certain hold over girls show more and then raping them, of him disarming or killing living beings with just one wave of his hand.

Dusty doesn’t know how to feel about this boy. Her family, the cops, her friends, the mob—all are telling her to stay away from him, she is only going to implicate herself if she continues to mess things up so that it looks like she’s helping him. But all Dusty is certain of is that the mysterious boy is the key to finding out what happened to her brother Josh, all those many years ago.

And for that, she can’t stop getting involved, until her very life is in mortal danger.

FROZEN FIRE is interesting a fairly well-written. A lot happens at once, which may confuse some readers, but it is a worthwhile story, with a satisfying ending. show less

I got really into this book and enjoyed it, until the end, when things stopped making sense. Boo. I really hate novels that leave it all up to the imagination, too. Some things I can figure out, other things I really need some help with--like, what that heck happened to the main character there at the end?