{"id":7307,"date":"2023-02-14T01:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/?p=7307"},"modified":"2024-06-13T00:00:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T04:00:41","slug":"book-as-simple-as-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-as-simple-as-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"As Simple as Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"book-1049\" class=\"bdb-book-info\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_assimpleassnow.png?fit=250%2C389&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"As Simple as Snow\" class=\"alignright\"\/><strong>Title:<\/strong> As Simple as Snow<br \/><strong>Author:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/author\/gregory-galloway\/\">Gregory Galloway<\/a><br \/><strong>First Published:<\/strong> <span content=\"2005-03-01\">March 1, 2005<\/span><br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/publisher\/berkley\/\">Berkley<\/a><br \/><strong>Pages:<\/strong> 324<br \/><strong>Genre:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/genre\/coming-of-age\/\">Coming of Age<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/genre\/mystery\/\">Mystery<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/genre\/young-adult\/\">Young Adult<\/a><br \/><strong>Format:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/format\/ebook\/\">Ebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/format\/hardcover\/\">Hardcover<\/a><br \/><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/source\/purchased\/\">Purchased<\/a><br \/><strong>Rating:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/book-database\/rating\/4\/\"><span class=\"bdb-font-awesome-star-wrap\"><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"fas fa-star\"><\/i><i class=\"far fa-star\"><\/i><\/span><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/8523531-as-simple-as-snow\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/addtogoodreads.png?ssl=1\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><br \/><br \/><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> <p>Anna\u2014who prefers to be called Anastasia\u2014is a slightly spooky and complicated high school girl with a penchant for riddles, Houdini tricks, and ghost stories. She spends much of her time writing obituaries for every living person in town. She is unlike anyone the narrator has ever known, and they make an unlikely, though happy, pair.<\/p>\n<p>Then a week before Valentine's Day, Anna disappears, leaving behind only a dress placed neatly near a hole in the frozen river, and a string of unanswered questions. Desperate to find her, or at least to comprehend what happened and why, the narrator begins to reconstruct the past five months. And soon the fragments of curious events, intimate conversations, secrets, and peculiar letters (and the anonymous messages that continue to arrive) coalesce into haunting and surprising revelations that may implicate friends, relatives, and even Anna herself.<\/p>\n<strong>Get the Book:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3TXPzyS\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a>\r\n<hr \/><\/div>\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\/\",\n\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Review\",\n\t\t\t\t\"datePublished\": \"2023-02-14T06:00:55+00:00\",\n\t\t\t\t\"description\": \"As Simple as Snow\",\n\t\t\t\t\"publisher\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Organization\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Radical Dreamer\"\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/book-as-simple-as-snow\\\/\",\n\t\t\t\t\"itemReviewed\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Book\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"As Simple as Snow\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"author\": [\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Gregory Galloway\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"sameAs\": \"https:\\\/\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/book-database\\\/author\\\/gregory-galloway\\\/\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t],\n\t\t\t\t\t\"isbn\": \"B001QL5MHS\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"numberOfPages\": 324,\n\t\t\t\t\t\"publisher\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Organization\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Berkley\"\t\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\t\"image\": \"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/book_assimpleassnow.png?fit=250%2C389&ssl=1\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"datePublished\": \"2005-03-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"sameAs\": \"https:\\\/\\\/www.goodreads.com\\\/book\\\/show\\\/8523531-as-simple-as-snow\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"genre\": \"Coming of Age\"\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\"author\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"name\": \"Jamie\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"sameAs\": \"https:\\\/\\\/pastelgoth.net\\\/blog\\\/\"\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t, \"reviewRating\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"@type\": \"Rating\",\n\t\t\t\t\t\"ratingValue\": 4,\n\t\t\t\t\t\"bestRating\": 5\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\n<h2>Review<\/h2>\n<p><strong>As Simple as Snow<\/strong> is a young adult coming of age story about an average teenage boy and his brief and turbulent relationship with his goth girlfriend, Anna. The book is labeled as a mystery but I honestly don\u2019t see it that way. In fact, I think that this book is hideously mismarketed as a mystery novel. Galloway himself ran a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.assimpleassnow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">website<\/a> for a while where he interacted with readers and would give them further clues to the \u201cmystery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It has been over a decade and there hasn\u2019t been any real answer to what happened to Anna. The reason why was that the mystery was never meant to be solved, it\u2019s a game like the ones played by Anna in the story. All of the hints within the story and teased by the author are red herrings. The mystery is not actually what the story is about.<\/p>\n<p>The narrator is intentionally ambiguous so as to make him relatable to the average teenage reader. While everyone may think of themselves as unique, quirky, or cool, if we stop to take a good hard look at ourselves, I think that many of us feel that we\u2019re pretty average. We go out of our way to conform to an idea of what we\u2019d like to be. I appreciated the narrator because he is a perfect representation of that feeling of uncertainty, of not being able to fit in, of feeling like an outcast; an experience shared by many young adults stumbling through high school.<\/p>\n<p>The narrator is defined by his malleability, whether he realizes it or not. When he meets Anna he thinks she\u2019s weird, but quickly finds himself drawn to her. She has a personality that is exciting to him, and steadily he begins to mold himself to her, playing all of the little games that she creates no matter how ridiculous. At first glance, they may seem like an ideal relationship of opposites, but as I read I began to question the romance.<\/p>\n<p>The important facet of the narrator and Anna\u2019s relationship really was that Anna became an overwhelming force in his life. While the narrator is a supportive and stabilizing figure for Anna, she was not necessarily a positive influence on him. Her disappearance understandably leaves him distraught, and the second half of the novel picks up speed as the narrator starts to question his life without Anna as a guide. In her absence, the things that seemed special to them were really not all that special, and the narrator realizes that he has choices in his life, if only he would just make them.<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that this book took me several months to finish. It\u2019s not that the writing was bad, quite the opposite in fact. The first half of the novel is painstakingly slow as the relationship between the narrator and Anna is developed. It seems benign at first, and I had begun to wonder where the story was going or why so much time was spent on the duo\u2019s everyday interactions. It wasn\u2019t until the end of the book and for a few days after that the message of the story really sunk in, and the careful buildup at the start made so much more sense.<\/p>\n<p>I can see why this book is a favorite of my husband\u2019s and why it has captivated readers despite its relative obscurity. While I found it frustrating at times, I ended up enjoying this slow burn of a novel. I cautiously recommend it with an extra reminder not to go in with expectations of a mystery.<\/p>\n<h2>Quote<\/h2>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I began to think of Anna as a <strong>bad force<\/strong> in my life. I had never thought that way before, but nothing seemed to be going right. Instead, the days kept getting <em>stranger and stranger<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<h2>Content Warnings<\/h2>\n<span class=\"ubb-spoiler\"><a class=\"ubb-view-spoil\">View Spoiler &raquo;<\/a><span style=\"display: none;\" class=\"ubb-thespoil\">Suspected Suicide <a class=\"ubb-hide-spoil\" style=\"cursor: hand; cursor: pointer;\">&laquo; Hide Spoiler<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<h2>About the Author<\/h2>\n<div class=\"ubb-about-author\">\n<h3>About Gregory Galloway<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_gregorygalloway.png?fit=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft ubb-about-author-photo\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_gregorygalloway.png?w=200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_gregorygalloway.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/author_gregorygalloway.png?resize=75%2C75&amp;ssl=1 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Gregory Galloway received an MFA from the Iowa Writers&#8217; Workshop. His first novel, As Simple As Snow, was a recipient of the Alex Award.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ubb-author-links\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.assimpleassnow.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/174032.Gregory_Galloway\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Goodreads<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3BBfUMY\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Amazon<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/39adamstrand.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Tumblr<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review As Simple as Snow is a young adult coming of age story about an average teenage boy and his brief and turbulent relationship with his goth girlfriend, Anna. The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[70,1928],"book-author":[1320],"book-illustrator":[],"book-series":[],"book-publisher":[],"book-genre":[],"book-source":[],"book-format":[],"class_list":["post-7307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ya-book-review","tag-american-literature","tag-manic-pixie-dream-girl","book-author-gregory-galloway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_assimpleassnow-header.png?fit=1080%2C540&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7307"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18527,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions\/18527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-author?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-illustrator?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-series?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-publisher?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-genre?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-source?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"book-format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-format?post=7307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}