Frozen Beauty is a stunning and poignant novel about loss, sisterhood and coming of age in tragedy.


Frozen Beauty 
by Lexa Hillyer

BEFORE
Everyone out in Devil’s Lake, Michigan, knows the three Malloy sisters: perfect big sister Kit; tomboy Tessa, who shares more with Kit than most people realize; and Lilly, the baby of the family, determined to make her own mark. Yet as close as they are, there are certain things sisters don’t tell one another. And one of them is keeping a secret that will turn their little world inside out.

NOW
No one knows exactly what happened to Kit in the woods that night—all they have are a constellation of facts: icy blue lips and fingers cold to the touch, a lacy bra, an abandoned pick-up truck with keys still in the ignition. Still, Tessa, even in her fog of grief, is certain that her sister’s killer wasn’t Boyd, the boy next door whom they’ve all loved in their own way. There are too many details that don’t add up, too many secrets still tucked away.

But no matter how fiercely she searches for answers, at the core of that complicated night is a truth that’s heartbreakingly simple.

Told in lush, haunting prose, Frozen Beauty is a story of the intoxicating power of first love, the deep bonds of sisterhood, and a shocking death that will forever change the living.


Secrets, secrets, secrets... Oh, there are so many haunting secrets in our lives. And it is the big source of this novel. If you were curious: Frozen Beauty is one of the most sincere explorations of this fact. It is a true coming of age story, centered around tragedy and its aftermath. It captures girlhood, and sisterhood, beautifully and complexly--just as good literature is meant to.

There was a moment, at the start, where I felt as though Frozen Beauty may venture into The Virgin Suicides territory in terms of plot-twists and observations. While there are moments when the novel's atmosphere feels strikingly familiar in its bleak honesty, Frozen Beauty is entirely a story of its own and hits all the right marks. 

The hum of mystery hits you fast when it comes to Frozen Beauty. It's impossible not to be drawn into the web of it all and wonder what it is, exactly, that happened the night that Kit died. As we pull ourselves to the core of the story, and witness the past and present though the eyes of both Tessa and Lily, we can't help but to be chilled to the bone. One thing is absolutely positive in Frozen Beauty and that is the fact that you're invested in these characters, in this mystery, for the long haul.

Lexa Hillyer has crafted something truly moving in Frozen Beauty. It's subtle in its unraveled truths. Each secret pulls apart a new layer, but Frozen Beauty, at its core, is proof that sometimes even the most complicated and tragic outcomes came from the most simple path.

Many topics of importance are tackled in Frozen Beauty. Hillyer approaches them with an equal nod to honesty and sensitivity. Most importantly, she never underestimates her audience and is fully authentic in her writing.

Ultimately, this was a heartbreaking and stunning novel that tackled grief beautifully. There were plenty of moments that felt so emotionally charged, a part of me felt as though I was intruded on someone's life. Frozen Beauty is exactly the type of book I can't help but to fall in love with.