Lucinda Hayes' body is found on playground dusted in snow.
Introduction grabbed my attention.

Go through the following 3 days with 2 teens- 1 who is an oddball who used to stalk the victim and 1- a teen girl who used to hate the victim and the policeman who is investigating the death.

One snowy morning in a suburb in Colorado the body of a young high school student is found shaking up the small community. After the news is given to the other students Cameron finds himself sick to his stomach and mourning the loss of Lucinda Hayes, the girl he’d been watching and dreaming of forever. Jade finds herself wondering if the wish she made for the perfect Lucida to disappear had been granted.

Russ finds himself working the case looking for whoever is responsible for the girl’s death. It becomes known that Cameron was watching Lucinda and he’s called in for questioning with the police wondering if he had taken things too far. However Cameron’s memories of that night are a bit fuzzy and even he would like to know what happened to the girl of his dreams.

As much as I wanted to like Girl in Snow I came away with the thought that I just really didn’t get this one at all. Being that it’s supposed to be a mystery/thriller read it really didn’t hold any of the aspects that attract me to that type of story. Basically a dead girl is found and at the end you find out the who/why but between those events the police are a joke and there really isn’t much investigating but more digging into the characters lives.

Now as far as the characters in this story Cameron and Jade are both teens so it gives the book a bit of young adult feel with a big portion being told from their POV. But I can’t see this one marketed towards that age with the sexual content involved either so that was also where I was left scratching my head. But on top of that I didn’t really care for any of the characters or their actions. I supposed they are meant to be flawed in their own ways but to me their issues were just plain unlikable.

I’m leaving this read with the thought that I suppose there is an audience out there for any book or writing style but in regards to this one I just wasn’t the audience it’s meant for. But I’m not really sure what audience to recommend picking this one up as I felt the thriller side felt flat and the drama and character development fell flat to me also.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is a debut novel from a talented author. Teenager, Lucinda Hayes has been murdered in a small town in Colorado. We alternate between several characters, learning about their lives and their connection to the victim. The characters were depicted in their most raw and imperfect forms and I feel that this is where Kukafka shines as a writer.

Each character has their own secrets, and they are battling their own personal demons. I had very similar feelings toward this book as I did with the Girl on the Train. The characters themselves were not particularly likable, they were all a bit twisted in some form, and as far as the mystery itself, I can't say I had it all figured out.

We learn about Lucinda through the eyes of the ones who knew her.
Cameron is a boy who has loved and "watched" Lucinda from a distance. Slipping out at night and watching her through her bedroom window. He is a complex, tangled boy, dealing with his own mess of emotions and feelings.

Russ is a cop who, having known Cameron's father before he disappeared, wants to protect Cameron and his mother. Russ has a complicated marriage with a woman whose brother he doesn't fully trust.

Jade is a girl with an alcoholic, abusive mother who treats Jade's sister as a doll she can dress up and live vicariously through. She treats Jade as a lost cause. Jade is in love with her childhood friend, but he only has eyes for Lucinda.

This book was not an edge of your seat thriller, it was a good deal slower than I expected, but it did keep me guessing until the end.

I really liked the whole premise of Girl in Snow, and was impressed at how the author created three such diverse, yet fully realized narrators within the novel. The adolescent angst of Jade and Cameron was so well done, and within these characters one experiences a very realistic portrayal of abuse and mental illness, yet not depressingly so. Teens as "outsiders" and misfits is a popular theme in novels, but the author does such a great job of giving her adolescent characters strong inner lives that we cannot help but empathize, in spite of the way society would classify Jade and Cameron as "weird." The mystery was craftily portrayed as well, and I did not figure out "who done it" too early in the book. It's amazing that this is a debut. I've read seasoned authors who don't have as great a command over character development, pace and dialogue as this talented one does. Looking forward to more from Danya Kukafka....

This is supposedly a mystery about a teenage girl who is murdered. But it's really a character study of three individuals- a young man that stalked her, a girl who hated her and a policeman. It's not a fast paced novel at all, instead there's lots of internal dialog. In fact, it's the opposite of fast. It moves at a glacial pace.

It is well written with lots of well turned phrases. The two teenagers are both odd, damaged souls. Friendless, they live in their own little worlds. Cameron literally spends most of his time spying on his neighbors. Russ, the cop, seems stuck in a dead end job and his marriage is stupefying.

But in the end, I just needed more action to make this one interesting for me. 2.5 stars rounded up given the quality of the writing.

My thanks to netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.

This story is told from different characters points of view as it covers the aftermath of the brutal murder of a young woman. A rich and diverse cast of characters provides much to think about. Violence is held to a minimum, but suspense builds through the actions and interactions of the many unusual characters. The investigation into the murder is only one piece of the story, which is told in clear writing with brief descriptions. The ending comes as a real surprise as the various subplots wind down. The story is not only entertaining but thought-provoking. It is well worth reading..

I was invited to read "Girl in Snow" from NetGalley for an honest review. I wish to thank NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, Inc., and Danya Kukafka for the opportunity to read this book.

Unfortunately, at 20% of the book read, I could not continue. The characters and plot were not interesting to me and the novel dragged.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I hope that the book and the author sell many books!

I was intrigued by the blue eye on the cover, an eye that won't stop staring at me, and one that (despite myself) I can't stop staring at... an eye cloaked in sadness.

Lucinda Hayes shows up in the wee hours of the morning with a cracked skull on the playground carousel. She's undoubtedly dead with a beautiful soft layer of snow covering her body. The small town of Broomsville, CO comes together to try to find out who murdered this young woman. I was enraptured from the beginning and never even guessed the ending until it smacked me in the face.

Told in three perspectives: Det Russ Fletcher- the police officer hiding a past and has a suspicious brother in law. Cameron Whitley- the boy who continued to stalk Lucinda late at night because he was madly in love with her and suffers convenient blackouts. Last narrator is Jade Dixon-Burns, she might just be my favorite- emo, and does not give a flying flip about what anyone thinks or says. She goes to school with Cameron and Lucinda and helps tie this book together.

Who killed Lucinda? The character development was excellent- I really felt like I knew this town and the people that inhabited it. Love affairs, rumors, and secrets riddle the sidewalks and made this one that I could not put down. The author does such a fabulous job creating broken characters and slowly putting them back together again- I can hardly believe that his is a debut! Looking forward to move from Danya Kukafka.

I was very disappointed in Girl in Snow. Poorly written with a plot that I just could not sink my teeth into.

A fifteen-year-old girl is dead, found lying in the snow one cold February morning, and a suburban Colorado town is turned upside down. One by one, members of the community are suspected of killing Lucinda: was it the janitor that found her, the weird boy who was stalking her, her ex-boyfriend, the list goes on… Told from the perspectives of that weird stalker, Cameron, another teenage girl, Jade, who saw Cameron outside Lucinda’s house that night and is carrying a torch for the aforementioned ex, and a middling police officer, Russ, who so happens to be the former partner of Cameron’s dad, before he committed a crime and disappeared. It’s a small town, obviously. While dead “girls” are a dime a dozen these days, in A Girl in Snow, the dead girl is more of an afterthought. We don’t really get to know her, and what we do see doesn’t leave much of an impression. Instead, it’s all about the three narrators, and, in a nutshell, how messed up they are.

Cameron is deeply affected by his dad's disappearance, and while he might have had some type of personality disorder regardless, his troubles manifest themselves in weird ways, like killing pet birds and standing outside people's houses at night. Jade is psychically and emotionally abused by her alcoholic mother, but seems to be holding it together better than anyone else, except for when it comes to her childhood best friend, Zap, who ditched her for Lucinda and popularity. Then there is Russ, who is going through the motions of life without much feeling, as he's chosen to bottle up his deepest desires. Danya Kukafka does an amazing job of exploring their pasts and current motivations, and while the final reveal was perhaps a little obvious, this didn’t bother me so much, as I was more intrigued by the strength of the writing and the characters. Some reviewers seem confused by this book, because most of the characters are teenagers but it is more maturely written and also quite lyrical. Is it YA, literature, or a thriller? Who cares! It’s truly great.

3.5 stars. There are 3 main characters in this book; Cameron, Jade and Russ, as well a Lucinda. Lucinda is found murdered in the snow on the playground in her small Colorado town. We find out that she received blunt force trauma to the head before being left to die on the playground. The book follows the 3 main characters, who knew Lucinda in various ways and each held different thoughts about her. Russ is the police officer that is assigned the case, Jade is a classmate of Lucinda's who wasn't her biggest fan because of some previous boy drama and Cameron, who secretly loved Lucinda, but his love crosses over to him basically stalking and watching her. As with most mysteries, there are also a few other characters in the story that played smaller role in Lucinda's life before her murder.

The story is told the 3 different perspectives of the main characters, which I sometimes am not the biggest fan of, as it can get a big confusing. But the chapters were fairly short and thankfully the perspectives never got confusing while I was reading. I really enjoyed the author's writing and thought that the story moved along at a steady pace throughout the whole book. I did feel like we didn't get as many details about Lucinda or her background as I would have liked. When I feel like I don't know a character very well, I often have a hard time connecting with them, which then sometimes makes me not as invested in the story as I could have been. It was an interesting story and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book.

I just couldn't get into this book. It read too "YA" for me. I did/do still want to know the ending (who killed the girl) but I didn't feel compelled to keep reading to find out. I read a chapter or two and then quit it. Thank you to the publisher for reaching out to me to review.

A fairly mediocre suspense with too many protagonists, most of them unpleasant and unengaging! A rather unlikely ending.... It is tough to write a good and different psychological suspense, given the massive competition in this genre. Thankyou to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read a pre-publication copy.

This book grabbed me from the first sentence and didn't let go. I am terrified, thrilled and sad while reading it. I could hardly put it down.
You need to read this book!!!!

Gorgeous, literary exploration of love, guilt, and obsession.

An interesting read, in three different perspectives, although I found this a bit slow paced in places, still an enjoyable read though.

3.5 out of 5 stars to [book:Girl in Snow|32920254], a new mystery and suspense novel written by [author:Danya Kukafka|16056148] and set to be released on August 1st, 2017. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to review an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel. I enjoyed it and would be interested in reading more by this author.

Why This Book
This is slightly embarrassing, but I'm not one hundred percent certain how I came to read this book. I was awarded the novel on NetGalley in May, but I believe someone recommended it to me, or maybe the publisher reached out to me to take a look at it. I can't find any emails, which I normally save, or any comments that might refresh my memory... so bottom-line, it was part of a NetGalley list of books I wanted to read.

Plot, Characters & Setting
Lucinda is a teenager in a small Colorado town who is found dead in the snow on a school playground by a custodian. She was hit in the head with a blunt object and left to die. The story follows several people in the town who either knew the girl or knew of her, each having different opinions about whether Lucinda was a good person or a bad girl.

Cameron is the boy who loved her from afar, except someone knows he was stalking the girl and watching through her windows. He's had mini-breakdowns after his father left town years ago under very bad circumstances. He doesn't remember doing anything, but people close to him know he was missing, saw him talking to her and believe he's guilty.

Jade is a fellow schoolmate who did not like Lucinda. Lucinda stole the boy Jade loved, but the boy never really loved Jade. Jade is not upset that Lucinda is dead, but her younger sister is angry. Jade's mother treats her daughter poorly and seems to be hiding some sort of a secret.

Russ is the cop assigned to investigate Lucinda's death. He's harboring a secret about his friendship with Cameron's father, as well as the reasons Cameron's father disappeared. He's also certain the school custodian, who happens to be Russ's wife's brother, is guilty. He tries to navigate the situation, but finds himself stuck on the past.

A few other characters intersect, e.g. a couple with a young child that both Lucinda and Jade babysat for. A young school teacher accused of flirting inappropriately with his female students. And the friends and family members of all 3 main characters.

One of these people is guilty. But the question is who... and you'll need to read the book to find out.

Approach & Style
I read the novel on my iPad through Kindle Reader. It was about 4500 lines, which is about a 300 page hardcover -- not that long. Chapters are relatively short and alternate perspective from the 3 main characters: Cameron, Jade and Russ. The language and writing are absolutely beautiful. So much background and description are revealed in the narration and prose. There are limited amounts of dialogue.

Jade tells 2 sides of every conversation -- what she wishes she said (through a play she is writing) and what she actually said. For a young and new writer, the author has a firm grip on flourishing language. On occasion, it fell a little too simple, but it balanced out from the lengthy details of everything else going on in the background.

Strengths
The best part of the story is the absolutely beautiful descriptions of the characters and the scenery. Everything feels authentic. The plot is complex in that there are different levels of relationships happening behind the scenes, which readers only see when certain characters happen to stumble on the supporting cast. It's a good approach to hold interest in the story. The plot has many interesting sub-components, which help reveal who people really are on the inside versus who they appear to be on the outside.

Concerns
I didn't know enough about nor care much for Lucinda. A lot of details were revealed about her, but she's dead when the story starts. As a result, I felt like she could have been anyone as opposed to having a real strong desire inside me to want to know who killed her. I felt less of an attachment to her, but if it were written a little differently, I think it would have been an easy 4 rating for me. Also, once the killer is revealed, there is no scene explaining how/why it happened. You have a hint at the reason for the murder, but you never actually watch or hear the scene played out from either the narrator or a confession from the killer. It felt like a bit of a letdown.

Author & Other Similar Books
This is a very typical story about 3 seemingly disconnected characters where you have to figure out how everyone knew each other. There are a lot of similar type stories on the market right now, as it's a popular genre and sub-genre. In a way, it was similar to "Beartown" in the structure, focus on teenagers and the mystery portion. But it was also like "I Found You" where the 3 stories will intersect somehow, but you just don't know until the end, but also that this this was about teenagers and "I Found You" was not only about teenagers.

This is the author's first book. She definitely has writing talent and storytelling abilities. I think with more experience, she'll flush out some of the areas that felt a bit weak to me and become a fantastic and creative author in this genre. I'm glad I read it and will chance her next book.

About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. <i>Note</i>: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.

The first thing that struck me was how lyrical the writing was. Kukafka has quite a way with words. Regardless of the content, each sentence seemed to flow beautifully and at times the book felt more like poetry than prose. For most of the book, I had on an ambient playlist in the background which only served to reinforce how beautifully written it was.

The second thing that struck me was how uncomfortable I felt about Cameron, who was clearly a stalker. Cameron is portrayed as innocent, well-meaning, lovesick, and mentally ill. He obsessively watches Lucinda at night and draws picture after picture of her. It's clear he means her no harm, but he is still an extremely unsettling character and I felt very uncomfortable with the portrayal of stalking in this book--none of the other characters seem to care at all and it is never damned in any way. Cameron also makes multiple negative judgments about women's bodies that make me extremely uncomfortable and are seemingly without purpose.

Russ is a weak-willed puppet of a police officer. His character development does make him somewhat redeemable, but he covered up the assault and battery that his former partner committed on a young woman, which really doesn't put me in his corner. There are a lot of instances in this book that demonstrate the ability to love someone in spite of what they've done and I think this is meant to be one of those, but I dislike the way it was handled. Russ covers up Lee's crime because he's in love with him, we're led to believe that Lee committed this crime because something happened between Russ and Lee. I don't love the implication that internalized homophobia caused a man to beat a woman to a pulp because he almost held another man's hand. I understand that all the characters are morally grey, but we already have enough poor portrayals of lgbtqia characters and I'm not psyched to see more.

Jade was the only main character I could even stand. She had plenty of faults and was imperfect, but had committed no crimes I could not forgive. Her screenplays were random and kind of annoying, but I understood their purpose. She was also voyeuristic, but in a far more acceptable way. I didn't love her hatred of all other girls, but she seemed to hate everyone indiscriminately, so I gave her a pass on that.

Choosing a star rating was extremely difficult here. I wanted to give it two stars, as I was constantly making faces and shifting around uncomfortably while I read. But I think that discomfort was part of Kukafka's intent. I don't love what she used to achieve it, but I can appreciate that she's a great writer. So I give her three stars for fantastic writing, subtracting the last two for content.

I like the cover, but I didn't really enjoy reading the book. I know Cameron has psychological problems, but I couldn't feel for his character. The writing seems "jerky". The different points of view didn't merge smoothly. It's like reading different short stories that are not connected at all. There was tension in trying to guess the killer. But other than that, I feel no empathy for the characters. It's true they have problems but there's not enough depth to either like or hate them. The story seems to meander endlessly and mindlessly, and I couldn't wait to get to the end, if only to know the killer.
I'm sorry that I don't like Ms Kukafka's style of writing.

Very dark and graphic. The book is well written and interesting. I stayed with it until about half way through and then just skipped to the end. It was just not the book for me. The inner turmoil and suffering of the characters was to excruciating for me to read every word. Quite ugly and brutal.