Book Review – Feral Snow by Mark Lowes

Feral Snow is Mark’s debut novel – and what a debut!

Terrified of fatherhood, Paul runs away from his pregnant wife to join an Artic documentary filming crew, for the money of course. He’s really not suited to the climate and on his first trip into the white, he falls into a crevasse. From there it is a gripping tale of his fight for survival against the cold, loneliness, and his own bitter self-loathing. Then a native girl falls in to the crevasse with him, and he learns what he would do to save a child and be a man, be a father.

This book delves into the fierce and often surprising nature of humanity. Contrasting the man’s lack of self-belief with the indomitable spirit of a child. It examines the nature of father-child relationships with examples of the best and worst of what that can mean. And by the end you are left wondering which is the child, which the adult and if indeed there is a difference.

I found that the solution was just a bit too neat for my personal taste, I simply didn’t click with the resolution – that is – I didn’t until the very last paragraph. Then the all too happy ending made so much more sense.

This only gets a four-star from me because I really struggled to slog through the first 60 pages – but that said – from there on I read in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down, I had to know what happened next. This book will keep you reading and it moved me to tears in parts.

Also note that I can totally see why so many others rightfully give it 5*.

This is an excellent debut novel and I would recommend it to readers.

Buy Link: Feral Snow

Mark Lowes is a former teacher, current early childhood educator, and a dad. He lives in Cardiff, Wales, UK, and is sometimes found lamenting over how awful his football team is. While he’s not working with deaf children and their families, he’s writing dark and twisty fiction.

Mark is the winner of Litopia’s Pop-Up Submissions and of a pitch contest at the Cardiff Book Festival.

(This bio and the image are copied from Mark’s Amazon page)