Review: The Color of Snow by Brenda Stanley

Synopsis:   When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora--a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed.

Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.




Review:  The Color of Snow is really well written, though some of the issues such as abduction, molestation, and pedophilia are a little bit of tough subjects, in general.  The idea of being kidnapped and treated the way that Sophie was, kept in a cage, is horrifying, yet fascinating to me.  It's a parents worse nightmare to think of their child being abducted - and the emotional trauma to the child, is horrific in my opinion.  I do find it fascinating that the victim comes to love their abductor.  Anyway, back to the book. 

Sophie is rescued and returned to her grandparents who have been looking for her.  Once free of her abducter - in this story, her father - she has to live in a socialized world, with a family that she has been raised to believe blame her for her mother's death.  Sophie has to really adapt and grow, and go past her comfort zone in this book.  She is forced to question her previous life with her father.

The book is told in two points of view - that of her father, Luke, and that of Sophie.  This makes it interesting, because we get to see past and present from both characters side - we get to see what each is feeling and what lead them to their current place.  And even though Luke kept Sophie in a cage, I couldn't help feeling for him - his losses and pain.  I did end up liking him, which seems weird considering he is a kidnapper. 

I really think this is an excellent book.  To read it for yourself, you can purchase if for your Kindle at Amazon write now for $2.99.  It's worth way more than that!