During the ice storm, all of the characters are stuck in the main house with one another. There is an irony in being trapped in a room with several people while stationed in total isolation. The stress of this proximity leads to rising tensions between Wyatt and Val and results in Wyatt and Jeanne forcibly drawing blood from Sigrid. How did your perceptions of Wyatt and Jeanne change at this turning point in the story? Discuss how Val is increasingly wary and distrustful of Wyatt from this point forward. Does Sigrid’s fear toward Wyatt and Jeanne actually advance her relationship with Val? With Nora and Raj?
Girl in Ice is told entirely through Val’s perspective. If you could read the book through another character’s eyes, whose would it be? How might each of the characters describe one another and the setting of the Arctic, and how would these ideas differ from Val’s perceptions of her surroundings? For example, Val finds the Arctic desolate and unforgiving, while Sigrid loves being outside in the cold. How would Sigrid’s perception of her environment differ from Val’s?
Each of the characters seems to be in Greenland to cope with death. Val has recently lost her brother, Jeanne has lost her husband and daughter, and Nora and Raj have lost their infant son. Even Wyatt is dealing with cancer and facing his own impending death. How can a new environment help us gain perspective on our problems? How can seeking out a new environment backfire on us?
Jeanne is loyal to Wyatt even when he mistreats her and insults her behind her back to the other characters. She even intentionally sabotages his research to try and keep him from leaving the Arctic and her with it. Why might Jeanne go along with his violence, abuse, and scheming throughout the novel, and what do you think causes her to finally turn her back on him? Does she turn against him for her own sake, or for Val and Sigrid’s?
At what point did you start to suspect Wyatt of being responsible for Andy’s death? Do you think that Val became suspicious of Wyatt soon enough, or was she in denial? What do we know about Val that can help us understand why she kept herself from seeing a painful truth?
Did you theorize about Andy’s death or the mystery of Sigrid thawing out alive while reading? Discuss what you thought might have happened to Andy or how Sigrid could have thawed out from the ice alive. Were you surprised by the ending?
Enhance Your Book Club
Who would you like to see cast in a movie or TV adaptation of Girl in Ice?
The characters in the book, especially Wyatt and Jeanne, have had to eat mostly canned, dried, frozen, or reconstituted fare flown over from the mainland at great expense. In one scene, they name a few fresh foods that they crave after having spent more than a year on the research base. What fresh foods would you miss the most if you found yourself in a similar situation?
Sigrid and Val overcome a sharp learning curve due to their inability to understand each other’s speech patterns and language. Spend five minutes with your group trying to communicate without speaking, then discuss the experience. Can you better relate to Val and Sigrid as characters struggling with communication?
After learning what the challenges of living in the Arctic can be like, look into supporting Indigenous groups in Greenland. Some resources include the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs page on Indigenous peoples in Greenland, or Oceans North, which aims to spread awareness about the conserving the marine environment and coastal lands in collaboration with Indigenous peoples in the Arctic.
What parallels in Sigrid’s ancient society do you see in the world today, in terms of competing for resources deemed more and more precious due to climate change?