** spoiler alert ** 
 Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Girl is slowly turning into a glass statue. 
 Ironically, the central story is sometimes one of the less weird aspects of "The Girl With Glass Feet," a delicate spun-glass novel by Ali Shaw that barrels over the border of magical realism right into all-out fantasy. Shaw's prose is nothing short of exquisite, but the magical atmosphere also serves to make the characters -- even the protagonists -- feel like elegant little dolls, and not like people. 
 Midas Crook is the town weirdo, that guy who can only connect with the world around him through the lovely pictures he takes. But then he encounters Ida, a beautiful, drably-dressed girl wearing enormous boots, and after taking a picture of her, he falls in love. Unfortunately, Ida did not come to the island because she wanted to -- her feet have turned into glass, and apparently it's going to spread upward until her entire body is transmuted as well. 
 Naturally, Midas joins her on her quest to find some sort of cure for her affliction, which she believes can be found on the island that she originally came from. As the two race against time to find a cure, they encounter a strange web of island inhabitants -- and love begins to bloom between the two. But is it worth loving someone when they only have a brief time left? 
 My brain wants to call "The Girl With Glass Feet" a tale of magical realism, but it veers so far into the realm of fantasy that the tag barely fits. There are tiny flying cows, glassy corpses buried in the mud, and a creature that turns everything white -- and of course, the central love story is complicated by the fact that Ida's body is slowly turning into a glass statue, irreversibly and inexorably. 
 The loveliest part of this novel is the prose, and how Shaw painstakingly sketches this magical island. It's all white snow, pale shadows and grey seas, with an eerie dreamlike quality that makes it feel almost like a tiny world unto itself. The problem is while the eerie, delicate prose is enough, the fanciful additions feel like overkill. The writing is exquisite by itself, but the flying cows and magical creatures wandering over the island make it feel like the author is saying, "See? Magical stuff here! It's such a weird, otherworldly place! PAY ATTENTION!" 
 Unfortunately, these magic elements serve no purpose except as a sparkly backdrop for the story. What's more, the atmosphere is dampened by what eventually happens with Ida and Midas... and while I won't reveal what happens, it's not exactly the stuff of fairy tales. 
 And Shaw does an excellent job sketching out lovely, detailed outlines of characters -- Ida's busy active life is shattered by her weird glass-feet disease, and Midas learns to deal with life outside the range of a camera. However, often these characters feel distant and remote, and many of the supporting cast feel more like pretty pale dolls that are being moved around the story. It's hard to connect with them. 
 "The Girl With Glass Feet" is a bittersweet, exquisitely-written little story filled with glass, snow and pale magic... but somehow, the characters never quite come to life. But Ali Shaw is definitely a talent to watch, once she polished up her storytelling skills.