I did not know what to expect when I requested this book. I basically requested it because I thought the cover was interesting. This book was excellent! I cant believe that this is the authors first book. I feel that this will be the best YA book for 2017!
The story followed several characters after the death of a girl. The chapters switched back and forth from different characters and their perspective. I really liked the story being told like this. It was very interesting to see how the character's lives intertwined and the ending was a good twist.
This is categorized as a YA book, but I am 46 and loved it! I'm sure this author has many more good books in store for us! Loved everything about this book.

Girl in the Snow was an interesting read for me - it sounds in premise like a lot of psychological thrillers I read but in reality was nothing like those. It is a character study of 3 people attached peripherally or otherwise to a young girl found dead in a small town. A slow burner of a story, this is more about those 3 people and their inner realities than it is about who may have killed the girl or why. Indeed the low key mystery element is exactly that - low key.

Never the less it was fascinating in a literary, underneath way, following the inner and outer turmoil of these 3 characters, seeing how their lives have interacted with the victim, all in very different ways and with very different consequences. There are clearly defined edges to all of them and the 3 of them are linked by their hometown and by various other strands - you come to know them over the course of the story and ultimately how they move on.

I wouldn't want to call it a murder mystery. The police investigation is not really focused on that much, the resolution to that low key mystery when it comes is almost an afterthought and you never really get to know the dead girl at all - simply how our main protagonists saw her.

I really liked it - something a bit different, lovely writing and a sharp emotional edge.

You won't see the ending coming in this one. An awesome thriller and mystery.

What's it's about:
WHO ARE YOU WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING?

When a beloved high schooler named Lucinda Hayes is found murdered, no one in her sleepy Colorado suburb is untouched—not the boy who loved her too much; not the girl who wanted her perfect life; not the officer assigned to investigate her murder. In the aftermath of the tragedy, these three indelible characters—Cameron, Jade, and Russ—must each confront their darkest secrets in an effort to find solace, the truth, or both. In crystalline prose, Danya Kukafka offers a brilliant exploration of identity and of the razor-sharp line between love and obsession, between watching and seeing, between truth and memory.

My thoughts:
DNF 100%
Just can't get in to it, have re started it four times since yesterday ,and still can't get past the chapter I'm on.
There's nothing I like about, and it's not keeping my attention at all. With that said I would like to say thinks to NetGalley for at least giving me a chance at reading it in a change for my honest opinion.

Bottom line: Not my kind of book. I just don't care for the style of writing when the story is told from multiple viewpoints. I find it comes across as stilted and disjointed. I know I can piece together what is happening, but I prefer a book that I can fall into and get immersed in the story.

A mystery, but more a story told from there perspectives about life and love. A girl is found dead and we follow what happens after as well as flashback to before through the eyes of a fellow student, a boy who watched her and a local cop. The story is well woven, the characters brutal in their honest depiction. Although a mystery exists, who killed Lucinda, the book reads more novel than mystery. I didn't figure it out until the great reveal, when the pieces all fell in place.

** I Rate this book a 3.5 Stars**

This book had great bones, and potential to be an amazing thriller. The premise of it sounded great, and while it was great, I suppose I just had an issue with the weirdness of this book. The two teen characters, are weird, and creepy. Their thoughts and behaviors are weird and creepy, and I felt very awkward while reading their chapters. Is that a sign of a brilliant author, Someone who can make a reader feel that strongly about the characters in the book? I believe so. 

There was great writing in "Girl In Snow" it flowed well, regardless of the random things thrown in, like Andrea Yates, and random talk about spines and vertebrae. I actually read it pretty fast, and didn't really have a clue of who murdered Lucinda, which was nice, not to have predicted the killer. There is also a couple of curve-balls thrown at you through-out the book. The author really does keep you on your toes. If you do, or have read this book, please share your thoughts with me. Oh yea, the cover is absolutely stunning!

Received an ARC through NetGalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review, so here goes.

I feel like Girl In Snow was supposed to come across as a fresh, new take on the ever popular murder mystery but frankly, I was bored after a few chapters.

The book starts off with the murder of Lucinda who's found dead in an elementary school playground. We "see" the book through the POV of a boring cop investigating the crime, a creepy teenage boy who stalked the victim before she was murdered, and a chubby goth girl who was briefly friends with the victim.

This book could've been really strong but it quickly fell flat. The dialogue didn't have punctuation or quotidian marks at all which really threw me off and 2 of the 3 main characters bored me to tears. I did like the "who-dunnit" mystery and the mystery of what Cameron's father did. Overall I give this one a 2.5.

A thrilling and gripping story. Girl in Snow will be a book that all readers are going to flock to. I would definitely recommend this book to my mom specifically because she is always looking for something suspenseful to read.

Thank You to Simon& Schuster Books for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.


This is the story of a beautiful, popular, golden 15 years old girl, Lucinda, who is found murdered on a school playground in a small remote town.
The book concentrate the story around three misfits characters : Cameron the damage teenager obsessively in love with Lucinda, Jade the dark, weird, envious, ex-girlfriend turned goth, Russ the repressed officer who has ties to Cameron.
Add a few side characters, a neglecting boyfriend, a foreign wife, some bizarre friends, a widower, a convict, an abusive mother and a homeless.
The story bounces around from one character and his/her side-kick characters to the other character and his/her constellation. None of them are compelling.

Furthermore, I found most of the side stories to be unnecessary and anti-climatic. Even the revelation of ‘whodunit’ was blah, no build-up, no anticipation.And still 10% of the book remained to tie up every one’s story after the mystery had been revealed ( not solved ).

The annoying part for me, was the promise of the book. The writing is pretty good, the story line is pretty good, the set up is nice, a little bit of sexual obsession… all the elements for a perfect murder mystery were aligned and still the book fell flat. The crime itself gets push back in the background to privilege the slow analytic exploration of three weird personalities.
I did not particularly enjoy this book. I wasn't’ looking forward to reading it, nor was I curious about the main characters.

It would definitively do better as a YA category but I guess all the sexual deviance would not make it in the YA department.

I am glad I got the opportunity to review the book and I am sorry I have to give it a bad review.

A very strange but good book. The structure forces you to participate in the obsessive and voyeuristic behaviours that are so prevalent in the characters and their small town. If you're looking for a typical murder/thriller story this is not the book for you. The focus is squarely on three main characters that you watch and explore the past and present events that lead up to and take place after the murder of a young, beautiful girl.

There are many beautiful moments and poetic sentences but instead of hiding, they enhance the darkness and abuse smothering the town. Danya Kukafka does a wonderful job of crafting new angles and edges to love so that it's powerful, pure, obsessive, manipulative, conditional, sentimental, and destructive all at once. This isn't a loud, thrilling hunt for a murder, this is a quiet observation at the destruction that love can cause. So when you pick up this book remember that you are (and will only ever be) an observer.

I’m asked by NetGalley to give my honest review. Here’s my short version: I did not like Girl in Snow.

If you want to read a book about disrespectful, troubled, messed up, damaged teenagers, snotty girls, window-peeker boy, unlikeable characters, this is the book for you.

Add to that lame metaphors and similes, choppy writing, and a confusing screenplay that parallels Jade’s life and you’ve got a one-star review. There was too much dramatic description and too much pondering, reflecting, and remembering.

I felt like Ms. Kukafka was doing her best to tick off the reader (me) as though she were a teenager antagonizing her mother. Also thrown in was a liberal dose of shock value.

On the other hand, it was well written – that brings it up to two stars – in a depressing way. I did not, however, like the theme. It was too dark. Too blah. Too sad and empty. But it did make me want to finish the book. And I did. Oops, I almost forgot, and there was a murder.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

The latest in the ever-growing list of 'Girl'-titled thrillers, this book sported the promise that I would not be able to put it down. I was looking forward to a suspenseful and dramatic read, but it took me a long time to get through this. Like a LONG time. I feel like this story had a good premise, but the plot was meandering and never felt driven by feelings of suspense. It took me so long to finish precisely because I found it so easy to put down...and difficult to pick back up again. The characters were interesting, but felt flat and two dimensional. It was hard to care about any of them.

It took FOREVER for the story to get going. The multiple viewpoints really didn't do much in terms of propelling the plot forward. It all felt blah. Even when I found out who the murderer was, I felt nil. No catharsis. No relief. No 'aha moment'. Even writing this review, I'm struggling to come up with constructive things to say.

Save yourself two months. Don't bother.

I'm pretty sure that this is first mystery/thriller I have ever read and sadly, I was left very confused and bored. I didn't care about any of the characters and I felt myself get uncomfortable and cringe a lot which, I suppose it the whole point for a Mystery Thriller. I did enjoy reading about the misfit character and it was interesting to see that love can make people do odd things. Overall, I just don't think I'm the type to be interested in this genre but I give it a solid 3 stars.

This book was a total surprise to me. Not because I wasn't expecting to like it but because it started off slow and there were slow moments throughout but overall ended well and was well written. It's certainly more YA than women's fiction but I enjoy YA stories that have depth to them. This story had that and more.

This is the story of the murder of Lucinda Hayes. Lucinda is the beloved high school student in sleepy Colorado town. It's told through the point of view of three primary characters, the boy, Cameron who secretly loved her, the jealous girl, Jade who truly hated her, and the Police Officer, Russ who is sent to investigate her murder. Each of the three is forced to confront their own demons while learning to move on from such a horrific event.

If you enjoy murder mysteries along and YA novels, I think you'll find this an enjoyable story.

Girl in the Snow by Danya Kukafka is an average read. It doesn't really stand out. We have seen these characters before and we have read this story before. I did like the characters, but there is nothing that makes them really stand out. I did want to find out what happened, but was disappointed in the conclusion. A book that will entertain you, if you have nothing better to read or do, but will not wow anyone. Just average.

Thriller from out of this world. Edge of my seat the whole way through from page 1 to the end

Wow! Girl in Snow really packs a punch! The story revolves around Cameron, the loner in love; Jade, whose insecurities are twisting her into a stranger; and Russ, an emotionally stunted cop. They are drawn together by Lucinda, the girl in the snow - the girl who has been murdered.
Girl in Snow is so much more than a murder mystery. It is a sometimes painful character study of life in a small town in Colorado. There is so much pain that the story is sometimes hard to read. The pain is relieved by beautiful language and a strong plot.
I read the book in one day because I needed to know what happened next.
Girl in Snow is definitely worth reading.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for an arc in return for an honest review.

The publisher claims in the accompanying notes that I wouldn't be able to put the book down and I started reading, fully expecting a fast paced thriller.

This book is nothing of the sort; it is a slow exploration of three individuals in a small town that has been rocked by the tragedy of the murder of a young girl. Events are seen through the eyes of these three main characters who are all damaged in their own way, and their role in the case. Russ is the police man investigating the murder, Cameron is the confused teen who was obsessed with drawing the murdered girl, and Jade is the girl who used to be friends with Lucinda, but came to hate her. Each character, in their own way, shows what it is like to live in small town America, and have the community know everything and yet nothing about their lives.

For those that like a near resolution, the murderer is revealed at the end of the book, and loose ends are mostly tied up. Russ, Cameron and Jade have all been on a journey and in this respect, I would say that it is more a character driven coming of age story than the murder mystery it is marketed as.

Interesting characters, suspenseful. Enjoyable read.