Midas Crook, a young man with an unhappy childhood and a reclusive personality chooses to see the world through his camera lens. As he sits trying to capture an unusual stream of sunlight, he meets Ida Maclaird, whose haunting beauty he can’t help but capture on film. As he seeks her out later Midas learns the reason for her abnormally large boots and her reason for coming to his lonely and scarcely populated island of St. Haudas. Ida has come in search of Henry Fuwa, a man she believes to know the reason and cure to her “illness” – a condition that is slowly turning her body to glass starting with her feet. As Midas and Ida start to see more of each other, their relationship is hindered by Ida’s secrecy over her affliction and Midas’ extreme reclusion. Overall, an original and imaginative take on northern European faerie tales.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while now. Ever since I saw it in the bookstore when it first came out. But I really did not want to pay full price for the hardcover – so I waited. Recently I discovered that they had a copy of this book at my local library. I was so happy. So what do I think of this book? Man, I do not know where to start. It not good. I read this book and closed the book and I said to myself I’ve never been this confused by reading a book in a long time. I read it and I felt lost. Half the time I had a hard time following what the author was trying to accomplish. One minute story would be flowing nicely and I would be on top of it. Next minute I would be confused because the story line would get all confusing. Some of the characters and the story around them I did not understand what the author was getting at. For example the flying miniature cows – what’s with them. Were they suppose to symbolise something. Ida and her illness, glass feet and literally turning into glass. That whole part of the story was not well described. Also I felt that Ida was not trying that hard to find the cure for her illness. I felt that she was looking for the cure because she was expected too than anything else. Another thing that seemed unnatural and forced was the relationship between Ida and Midas. I felt that Midas was more a child than an adult. He acted and behaved like a child. It was hard to take him seriously. Who knows maybe I missed the whole point of this book. Overall this was not a good read for me. I did not enjoy it because half the time I was lost and did not understand if there was some kind of underling message that I was not getting. In a way the author is trying to write , in some parts of the book, the stream of conciseness type of writing style. This style no one does it better than Virginia Woolf. So no this book did not work for me. I was really disappointed with it. I give this book 1/5 STARS.

Ida Mclaird's feet are turning to glass at a slow but alarming rate, and she has no idea why, or how to stop it. All she has to go on is a recommendation to see a myterious man named Henry Fuwa, a reclusive biologist whose life is devoted to caring for a species of "moth-winged bulls," which are exactly what they sound like - insect-sized bulls with wings. From Henry she visits another potential healer, Emiliana Stallows, who has reportedly cured another girl with Ida's condition. In the process of searching for help, Ida meets a young man named Midas Crook, a loner who was born and grew up on the islands of St. Hauda's Land. She falls in love, though he keeps pulling back, to my utter annoyance. Comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami pepper the professional reviews, but the writing is nowhere near that strong. Then again, few writers can hit those heights. But it is written above middling range, occasionally waxing purple, but usually not. In other words, I enjoyed it, and I can usually find something to pick apart when a writer fails to impress. A bit of over-wrought writing, when used very sparingly, I can handle. And that's the worst I can say about author Ali Shaw. The plot's addictive, the characters fully developed and absolutely wonderful, and though the overall tone of the story veers toward the morose it isn't unrelentingly so. A very imaginative story well told. Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy stories with a fairy tale flavor.