Thin Ice

Oshkosh Trilogy #3

by Anthea Carson

Three girls disappear the night Ziggy came home to visit from Yale. Find out what happened the night their car went through the ice in Lake Winnebago.

A chilling tale of parents losing control.

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 16, 2013

About the author

Anthea Carson is the co-author of the bestselling chess book, "Tactics Time," “Tactics Time 2,” “399 Super Easy Chess Puzzles,” co-author of “Game of Kings: A Thrilling Modern Reimagining of Pride and Prejudice,” "How to Play Chess Like an Animal," a children's chess book based on chess openings with animal names, as well as a children's tactics puzzle book, and several novels and novellas including "The Dark Lake," a psychological suspense as complex and twisted as any chess game. She is a tournament chess player, a chess coach, and the Game 60 Female US Chess champion of 2004. Anthea obtained her bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, with an emphasis in literature and mathematics. Her fiction writings include a trilogy, several novellas and short stories, some of which, unsurprisingly, are about female chess players in the male dominated world of tournament chess. She currently resides in Colorado Springs with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished editing this book, and wow! I really loved it! I've now done all three books in this series. This one is already available, but will be updated with the changes I've made to it soonish, I think.

If you've followed this series from the start, now might be the time to go back and start over again. I think reading all three books right in a row will be the best way to go about really understanding what this series is all about. It's about the ennui of being a teenager, it's about how even the rich and lovely kids can end up completely screwed up in the head, and it's about how drugs and alcohol, if abused, can really negatively impact your life. I certainly have never had a problem with moderate use of either thing, but if they take control of your life, if you lose track of what you're doing - blacking out, in other words - then you need to stop and take stock of things.

This is book 3 in the Oshkosh Trilogy. The earlier books are:
The Dark Lake, Book 1: My review here
Call me Jane, Book 2: My ramblings here; not really a review. I plan to re-read the group of them at some point and hopefully, looking back at them again, I'll be able to rate that one.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of unanswered questions.

[Kara Prem · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worthless conclusion when it leaves more questions than answers.

Jane, the main character is a horrible, terrible, awful, disgusting, waste of flesh. I mean really, she treats everyone like complete and total dirt, and ugh.

I read the Dark Lake and was drawn into Jane's seeming mental illness, what was reality? What really happened when her car went in the lake?

I read book two and saw Jane as a terrible teenager, completely wasted most of the time, and stealing her friend's boyfriend while becoming more and more mentally unstable.

The first half of Thin Ice had Jane mooning over Paul who had 0 interest in her, and couldn't let it go. Then we get to the conclusion and what??? Is Jane's dad dead? Did she kill him? More importantly - is Jane dead? It sure seems like it so WTF was going on in book one? Why did I waste my time?

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing ending

This book ended leaving more questions than it answered. This did not feel like the final book in this trilogy, it felt like it should have been the middle book? Did Jane, Gay and Krishna die? If they did, how was Jane an adult in therapy in book one? I’m so confused. This trilogy had potential to be a good series, but it was so convoluted. Was the author drinking while writing it? 1.5 stars

[Alethea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thin Ice is the last book of Anthea Carson's The Oshkosh Trilogy, which along with the stand alone volume of The Girl With the Alligator Pants, chronicles the dysfunctional life of the anti-heroine Jane Anderson. Carson's work could be viewed as young-adult noir, or as a deeply disturbing reflection on how misdirections of youth haunt adult life.

Thin Ice begins with a botched suicide attempt and ends with a horrific joy ride, the climax of the building tension and unease that permeated the previous novels. Carson's style is minimalistic and what amazes is the power and sense of foreboding she manages to convey in a pallet of muted colors and unexpressed emotion. Jane's high school world is cruel, yet there is a bonding between the friends that is also remarkable. Jane's parents are larger characters than in previous books but are powerless to prevent their daughter's determination to court danger in the attempt to find meaning in her life. Unfortunately, nihilism seems to be as persistent as the winter landscape and the ice-covered lake beckons like a magnet.

Jane does want to live, and the reader cannot help but care for her. She swears off drugs except for coffee and cigarettes, and there is a brief summer in California where light and life in the form of her aunt's no nonsense love might save Jane. When she returns to Wisconsin, though, the dark gears turn faster, her social circle, alcohol, and pot pull her toward the inevitable ride to the lake.

The Oshkosh Trilogy is a mosaic journey through a broken personality. Carson, who studied philosophy, challenges the reader with puzzle pieces of story line scattered throughout the books. Thin Ice's frightening last scene is the piece that puts everything together, locking the nightmare into place.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the ending. I think it could have been shortened to be one book.