There's always a certain kind of melancholy surrounding fairy tales. I mean the non-disneyfied versions. The ones where the little mermaid doesn't get the prince and upon her refusal to murder him, turns into sea foam and dies, where the wicked queen in Snow White is given burning iron shoes and forced to dance until she drops dead, where the evil step sisters in Cinderella cut off their heels to fit in the glass slipper and Cinderella sets crows upon them to peck out their eyes as punishment. Those kinds of fairy tales. But even if you ignore the gruesome and violent ends to these stories, the circumstances around them are steeped in melancholy. Cinderella's loss of parents and subsequent servitude to her step family, Snow White being the vessel of beauty causing the queen so much jealous rage that she wants to murder her, the little mermaid feeling adrift (pun intended) in her current place and wanting to experience land and love... none of these people led particularly happy lives before the magic entered into it. 
 It is in this vein that The Snow Child is written. Based around a russian folktale called "The Snow Maiden," The Snow Child tells the tale of Jack and Mabel: a loving couple unable to have children of their own living out in the snowy wilderness in 1920s Alaska. One particularly harsh winter, the husband and wife create a child out of the snow. The next day they awake to find their snow creation destroyed and flitting through the trees is a young blonde haired girl who only seems to show up when the snow falls. 
 The melancholy felt by Jack and Mabel over the loss of their infant child and their subsequent inability to produce children is pervasive throughout the majority of the book. It is this melancholy that connects the book so directly to the folklore it is based on. Yes, thematically, the plot looks similar (although the ending is different) but it is the sense of deep sadness that reminds me most of folk tales. Without this initial loss in their relationship, The Snow Child would not have happened. 
 Ms. Ivey does a fantastic job describing the earthly magic of the snowy Alaskan landscape and the wonderment born from all the wildlife roaming about the trees and creeks. The book maintains the mystery of whether or not Faina, the snow child, is literally some form of magical snow fairy or is simply an orphan now living in the woods by herself throughout its entirety and the main reason why this ambiguity stands is due to the writing. When describing encountering a moose or other creature in the woods, there's this magical quality to the whole scenario. If you've ever gone on a hike in the middle of winter and stood still listening to what wildlife remained you'll recognize the sense of magical tranquility that appears throughout the book. 
 That being said, I'm unsure what the book set out to accomplish. I suppose you could classify this as a reimagining of the original folktale but the book still felt purposeless to me. The scope of the book is such that years pass between its beginning and its end in a mere 300 some pages. Perhaps I've grown too accustomed to sprawling 700+ long epic fantasies, but I kept longing for more time to explore Jack and Mabel's lives. The ending third portion of the book felt like it could have been it's own 300 page story. I so desperately wanted to see more than I was given that when the book finally ended I was left disappointed. 
 The ending felt awkward and left me confused. It was neither a sad nor happy ending, the book kinda just.... stopped... I don't know why Faina does what she does and I don't see any deeper meaning behind the last paragraph. It just... is a somewhat sad ending that abruptly ends the book. And given that the ending specifically relates to the events of the last third of the book, I wasn't given enough time to fully feel the weight of Faina's decision (if it even was a decision? The book is unclear about that). It overall was confusing. 
 One last thing that bugged me. Whenever anyone is speaking to Faina, the quotation marks around their speech is removed. This initially helped with the mysterious magical quality Faina has, but as she becomes more grounded in Jack and Mabel's world, the lack of quotations just becomes confusing. Why distinguish conversations with her in such a manner? Regardless of the mystery surrounding her origin, she's clearly real and not a hallucination. Why not include the quotation marks? A minor thing, but it bothered me. 
 The Snow Child was and enjoyable experience, although I think I like it more for what I wanted it to be than what it was. The Alaskan setting carried most of the book and I enjoyed the mystery surrounding Faina but was left wanting more after it was all over. Seriously, I would have read a whole separate book detailing the last third of the book WHY DID WE HAVE TO CRAM THAT INTO A MERE 100ISH PAGES?? Sigh. We could of had it all.