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Puffin Books Fia and the Last Snow Deer.
Born under the same solstice sky thirteen years ago, Fia and her reindeer Solas have a powerful and unbreakable connection. But now, struggling to survive a seemingly eternal winter, Fia's village turn their sights on Solas - both for the meat the last remaining reindeer can provide and an ancient prophecy promise that an ultimate sacrifice will once more return sunlight and life to the world . . .
Refusing to allow the worst to happen, Fia and her cousin Mish run from the village with Solas, seeking out the Deer Mother - the mythical being who wakes the sun at the winter solstice and who they believe is their only hope of saving Solas and their village.
But the wilderness is harsh and shadows lurk at every turn. Can they make it to the Deer Mother? And, if they do, what choices will they face to bring back the sun?
A truly timeless verse novel set in snowy pre-historic Ireland, about hope, kindness and the power of friendship, from exceptional new writing talent, Eilish Fisher, brought to life with stunning illustrations from Dermot Flynn.
Refusing to allow the worst to happen, Fia and her cousin Mish run from the village with Solas, seeking out the Deer Mother - the mythical being who wakes the sun at the winter solstice and who they believe is their only hope of saving Solas and their village.
But the wilderness is harsh and shadows lurk at every turn. Can they make it to the Deer Mother? And, if they do, what choices will they face to bring back the sun?
A truly timeless verse novel set in snowy pre-historic Ireland, about hope, kindness and the power of friendship, from exceptional new writing talent, Eilish Fisher, brought to life with stunning illustrations from Dermot Flynn.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 26, 2024
18 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
September 2, 2024
A beautifully written book in verse about a brave young girl who adventures into the unknown to fulfil a prophecy and save her village. At her side is her cousin, a wolf and Solas her deer.
The language, friendship and themes of hope and renewal are beautiful.
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Rambling notes for my memory:
For years, the sun hasn't risen and the hunting party return again with not enough food to survive.
Fia was born on the same day as the final reindeer and their connection is strong. The villagers are likely to kill it to eat unless they flee.
Her grandmother Gerd is the village wise woman who understands the prophecy of the Deer Mother who ought to bring spring and encourages Fia to do what she knows is right. To reunite the deer with this goddess. Gerd gifts Fia an antlered headdress that keeps her warm and helps her sed through the eyes of the wolf.
She and her cousin Mish were the closest friends when young, however they have become distanced since Mish took what Fia thought was her place in the hunting party. In fact, Mish did it to save Fia for greater things.
He insists on joining her on the journey, and despite her pride, she allows him. Their friendship rekindles as she discovers his kindnesses. The wolf that comes to them, the deer does not startle at, and Fia realises it is no threat. In fact it becomes their companion. Mish gives away the majority of his food to keep it alive.
The deer mother is essentially Galadriel.
Acorn as a token of hope.
Triggers: scary whispering shadow creatures, Mish almost dies, you think the deer mother will cook the deer into her potion (she doesn't, phew).
The language, friendship and themes of hope and renewal are beautiful.
---
Rambling notes for my memory:
For years, the sun hasn't risen and the hunting party return again with not enough food to survive.
Fia was born on the same day as the final reindeer and their connection is strong. The villagers are likely to kill it to eat unless they flee.
Her grandmother Gerd is the village wise woman who understands the prophecy of the Deer Mother who ought to bring spring and encourages Fia to do what she knows is right. To reunite the deer with this goddess. Gerd gifts Fia an antlered headdress that keeps her warm and helps her sed through the eyes of the wolf.
She and her cousin Mish were the closest friends when young, however they have become distanced since Mish took what Fia thought was her place in the hunting party. In fact, Mish did it to save Fia for greater things.
He insists on joining her on the journey, and despite her pride, she allows him. Their friendship rekindles as she discovers his kindnesses. The wolf that comes to them, the deer does not startle at, and Fia realises it is no threat. In fact it becomes their companion. Mish gives away the majority of his food to keep it alive.
The deer mother is essentially Galadriel.
Acorn as a token of hope.
Triggers: scary whispering shadow creatures, Mish almost dies, you think the deer mother will cook the deer into her potion (she doesn't, phew).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2025
I wanted to read some wintery books and this was definitely it. Prehistoric Ireland is stuck in an endless winter and a young girl goes on a quest save her reindeer friend and to return the summer. This provided the snowy forest landscapes and magic I needed!
August 27, 2024
A glistening verse novel with a concept that sings. Fia is full of heart, bravery and, despite the unending winter, warmth. Folklore and magic abound in the verses following a Palaeolithic Ireland trapped beneath a blanket of snow and darkness. Fisher breathes frosty beauty into every carefully chosen word. A truly transporting and spellbinding read.
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December 20, 2025Really beautiful. Back in November I was in London and I chose this book in Waterstones as their book of the month. Although I think they're often beautiful, for some reason I tend to find it difficult to connect with books containing illustrations. How much can I rely on the words? How long should I be looking at the illustrations to understand the full story? Same with this book. But the end was pretty powerful and the story contains a nice lesson and moral dilemma. Also the cover is gorgeous!!
December 6, 2025
a lovely story blending irish folklore, animal companions and subtle notes on a changing climate
December 27, 2025
such a beautiful book! perfect to read during the last couple days when it was so icy out.
December 31, 2024
A wonderfully atmosphere novel that speaks to ages past to myth and magic. I didn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked and that took me out of the story and at times I did feel it drag on which is unusual in a verse novel. I did love the artwork which really brought to life the story and was whimsical and magic-filled.
March 14, 2025
This is a beautiful book. I chose to read it now, as I felt as though I needed something a little more gentle after reading novels about cannibals and vampires (which I also loved). It definitely helped me to dial things down a little bit, but it was still an emotional read.
The book is told in free verse. Fia is a young girl whose community has been living through a very hard winter. Food is scarce and her people are struggling. When their hunters return from their latest journey with little food, they all know that something needs to change, else it may cost them lives. They need the Deer Mother to bring back the sun, and a way to encourage this may be to sacrifice something. Fia has a snow deer; they were born under the same solstice, so their bond runs deep. In order to try and save her community, she embarks on a journey to try and find the Deer Mother. Only thing is, if she does manage to find her, will she be able to make a sacrifice, to help others?
The main message of being able to sacrifice something for others, and so putting others before your own needs or desires was very well done. As with this genre of tale, Fia learns things about herself, and those around her, on her physical journey, meaning that she has grown and gained insight into herself. The story is well crafted, meaning that you care about all of the characters, whether they are humans or animals. It also shows that sometimes, the sacrifice that you may need to make isn't quite what you thought it would be.
A lovely book. The illustrations also help to bring this to life. The colour palette is monochrome for the majority of the tale, but as we near the end, there are splashes of yellow and gold, reminding us that there is always hope.
The book is told in free verse. Fia is a young girl whose community has been living through a very hard winter. Food is scarce and her people are struggling. When their hunters return from their latest journey with little food, they all know that something needs to change, else it may cost them lives. They need the Deer Mother to bring back the sun, and a way to encourage this may be to sacrifice something. Fia has a snow deer; they were born under the same solstice, so their bond runs deep. In order to try and save her community, she embarks on a journey to try and find the Deer Mother. Only thing is, if she does manage to find her, will she be able to make a sacrifice, to help others?
The main message of being able to sacrifice something for others, and so putting others before your own needs or desires was very well done. As with this genre of tale, Fia learns things about herself, and those around her, on her physical journey, meaning that she has grown and gained insight into herself. The story is well crafted, meaning that you care about all of the characters, whether they are humans or animals. It also shows that sometimes, the sacrifice that you may need to make isn't quite what you thought it would be.
A lovely book. The illustrations also help to bring this to life. The colour palette is monochrome for the majority of the tale, but as we near the end, there are splashes of yellow and gold, reminding us that there is always hope.
June 7, 2025
Another fabulous read of the year.
This book is in prose, but it's so well constructed that at times you forget.
The writing and illustrations are beautiful and well crafted. The text as a whole is a piece of art.
Fia's home is starving and now it's time to believe in the prophecy - now Fia doesn't want to believe it as does what she can to break it as she loves her Snow Deer.
Between the lines this text is about believing in yourself, but also realising the power of family and working together.
I borrowed it from the library, it's a book that would make a great gift.
This book is in prose, but it's so well constructed that at times you forget.
The writing and illustrations are beautiful and well crafted. The text as a whole is a piece of art.
Fia's home is starving and now it's time to believe in the prophecy - now Fia doesn't want to believe it as does what she can to break it as she loves her Snow Deer.
Between the lines this text is about believing in yourself, but also realising the power of family and working together.
I borrowed it from the library, it's a book that would make a great gift.
July 26, 2025
I don’t tend to read YA books, but this was at the home library of a place I stayed in in Ireland. The story was magical and heartwarming, and I enjoyed the atmospheric world of ancient Ireland the story took me to. The illustrations were beautiful. Only giving it 3 stars because I’m simply not a fan of the simplicity of YA lit - it’s just something personal!
December 25, 2024
Gorgeous, atmospheric, full of adventure, heart, great character arc and incredibly illustrations! I love this ancient Celtic novel in verse for fans of history, Celtic mythology and animal tales - no animals are harmed!
January 20, 2025
Truly magnificent and magical. I listened to this short audiobook, read perfectly by Honi Cooke. I’m going to get a hard copy in order to enjoy the illustrations by Dermot Flynn. Love a bit of Celtic storytelling and it doesn’t get much better than this!
October 24, 2025
Such a beautiful and poetic book about magic, winter, and sacrifice set in ancient Ireland. The whole book is in verse and it has stunning full page illustrations - its technically a kids book but I think everyone would get something from it!
October 7, 2024
Beautiful - a work of art more than a book.
October 21, 2025
3.5 stars. A sweet story about friendship, kindness and sacrifice.
November 25, 2025
really sweett!! also kind of dark which i appreciate in kids media! Really loved that it took itselt seriously :)
December 24, 2025
Just beautiful.
Gorgeous book, lovely story that obviously made me cry - but what doesn't!
Gorgeous book, lovely story that obviously made me cry - but what doesn't!
February 19, 2025
A beautifully written story so appropriate and encouraging story for these times. Beautifully illustrated as well. A total pleasure to experience.
August 18, 2024
Eilish Fisher's remarkable story has all the ingredients of an instant classic.
Leading up to a solstice many moons ago, Fia, her snow deer Solas and cousin Mish set out to find The Deer Mother in order to restore life to Ireland’s icy landscape. A story of friendship, love and hope this captivating debut is not one to miss.
Fisher’s beautiful verse narrative combined with Dermot Flynn’s stunning illustrations have truly made magic in literary form. ‘Fia and the Last Snow Deer’ has become a new favourite and will be a go to recommend from now on.
Thank you Penguin for the advance copy.
Leading up to a solstice many moons ago, Fia, her snow deer Solas and cousin Mish set out to find The Deer Mother in order to restore life to Ireland’s icy landscape. A story of friendship, love and hope this captivating debut is not one to miss.
Fisher’s beautiful verse narrative combined with Dermot Flynn’s stunning illustrations have truly made magic in literary form. ‘Fia and the Last Snow Deer’ has become a new favourite and will be a go to recommend from now on.
Thank you Penguin for the advance copy.
January 12, 2025
This book has got to be the most beautiful book I have ever read. The art is beautiful. The writing is beautiful. The story is beautiful. The characters and plot are fully developed and realistic. The plot is well plotted. It’s just all around fantastic and entirely unique. It was expensive bringing this book over to Canada. Add in a postal strike and it took forever to get here. But it was entirely worth it. It is unlike any other book I’ve read.
November 17, 2025
A charming tale of trust, courage, and determination that is steeped in history and Irish folklore.
November 9, 2025
A lovely free verse story of prehistoric people struggling in an endless seeming winter, mythology comes alive in this beautifully lustrated tale of friendship between man and nature and the struggle to survive until summer wakes again.
December 19, 2025
This is the kind of middle-grade book that quietly raises the bar.
Fia and the Last Snow Deer reads like an ancient story that has somehow survived intact - passed from mouth to mouth, fire to fire. Spare. Rhythmic. Purposeful. The verse does real work here: it strips the story down to bone and breath, making every line feel intentional. No padding. No over-explaining. Just forward motion through snow and myth.
Fia is fierce without being flattened into a trope. Her bond with Solas - born under the same solstice sky - feels elemental rather than sentimental, and the central conflict lands hard: survival versus love, prophecy versus choice. This isn’t a soft, cosy winter tale. It understands hunger. It understands fear. It understands what it costs to be brave when the adults around you are desperate.
What really got me was the scale. Despite its accessibility, this book feels epic - tribal, mythic, cinematic. You can see it as a film already: the endless white, the moving shadows, the Deer Mother waiting somewhere beyond belief. The illustrations elevate it further, working in quiet partnership with the text rather than competing for attention. Together, they make the book feel like an artefact.
There’s something deeply respectful about how Fisher treats her young readers. She trusts them with ambiguity. With sacrifice. With the idea that hope doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. And that trust pays off.
A beautiful, wintry, elemental story — I would love to see it on the Carnegie longlist.
4.5 ⭐
Fia and the Last Snow Deer reads like an ancient story that has somehow survived intact - passed from mouth to mouth, fire to fire. Spare. Rhythmic. Purposeful. The verse does real work here: it strips the story down to bone and breath, making every line feel intentional. No padding. No over-explaining. Just forward motion through snow and myth.
Fia is fierce without being flattened into a trope. Her bond with Solas - born under the same solstice sky - feels elemental rather than sentimental, and the central conflict lands hard: survival versus love, prophecy versus choice. This isn’t a soft, cosy winter tale. It understands hunger. It understands fear. It understands what it costs to be brave when the adults around you are desperate.
What really got me was the scale. Despite its accessibility, this book feels epic - tribal, mythic, cinematic. You can see it as a film already: the endless white, the moving shadows, the Deer Mother waiting somewhere beyond belief. The illustrations elevate it further, working in quiet partnership with the text rather than competing for attention. Together, they make the book feel like an artefact.
There’s something deeply respectful about how Fisher treats her young readers. She trusts them with ambiguity. With sacrifice. With the idea that hope doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. And that trust pays off.
A beautiful, wintry, elemental story — I would love to see it on the Carnegie longlist.
4.5 ⭐
December 13, 2025
This is such a unique and beautiful story — I’d never even considered that middle-grade verse might exist, but I can’t think of a better form for this ancient Irish folk story to have taken, especially when accompanied by the most distinctive and atmospheric illustrations.
I’m so pleased I stumbled across this story in hardback, as the colours are so vibrant and impactful. It’s such a shame that the paperback version has dulled and dampened Dermot Flynn’s spectacular art.
I really believe this is a story for all generations. To me, it’s reminiscent of classic fairy tales (Grimm and Andersen), because it doesn’t shy away from the difficult, the gruesome, or the frightening — and yet its overall message is one of comfort, warmth, togetherness, and selflessness.
The perfect story for a dark, cold winter’s night, about the power of hope, resilience, and how important it is to place your trust in others, as well as in yourself.
A difficult one to rate, for sure, but I think owing to its originality and spectacular form, it's at least a 4*.
I’m so pleased I stumbled across this story in hardback, as the colours are so vibrant and impactful. It’s such a shame that the paperback version has dulled and dampened Dermot Flynn’s spectacular art.
I really believe this is a story for all generations. To me, it’s reminiscent of classic fairy tales (Grimm and Andersen), because it doesn’t shy away from the difficult, the gruesome, or the frightening — and yet its overall message is one of comfort, warmth, togetherness, and selflessness.
The perfect story for a dark, cold winter’s night, about the power of hope, resilience, and how important it is to place your trust in others, as well as in yourself.
A difficult one to rate, for sure, but I think owing to its originality and spectacular form, it's at least a 4*.
December 24, 2025
1.5 rounded up to 2 stars.
I loved the originality of the formatting, with the beautiful illustrations and the broken prose. However, there was barely a plot. Sure, Fia and Mish (and Solas) go on an adventure, but what do they actually do? The characters were too one-dimensional for me to understand their choices.
Some of the things that bothered me were:
1) Mish and his revival - how? The reflective passage as he is dying felt like a cop-out. Who exactly was this meant to distract?
2) You're telling me Gerd knew all along? So she made her tribe suffer, and arguably others, and the animals, and the herds suffer and starve and almost die when she had the solution all along?
Very annoyed with how this book turned out, especially as it is so beautiful.
I loved the originality of the formatting, with the beautiful illustrations and the broken prose. However, there was barely a plot. Sure, Fia and Mish (and Solas) go on an adventure, but what do they actually do? The characters were too one-dimensional for me to understand their choices.
Some of the things that bothered me were:
1) Mish and his revival - how? The reflective passage as he is dying felt like a cop-out. Who exactly was this meant to distract?
2) You're telling me Gerd knew all along? So she made her tribe suffer, and arguably others, and the animals, and the herds suffer and starve and almost die when she had the solution all along?
Very annoyed with how this book turned out, especially as it is so beautiful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2025
A tale of midwinter, magic and the bravery needed to rely on your friends.
Fia’s tribe is starving. It has been years since the seasons last turned and kind though they are they begin to look at Fia’s snow deer, Solas, and seeing a way out of their hunger. Fia must travel to find the deer mother goddess set the seasons back on track.
This is a wonderful book to read in the dark days of winter. Fia is a strong character who has to learn to care for others to accept as well as give help. She is a wonderful hero.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of this book.
Fia’s tribe is starving. It has been years since the seasons last turned and kind though they are they begin to look at Fia’s snow deer, Solas, and seeing a way out of their hunger. Fia must travel to find the deer mother goddess set the seasons back on track.
This is a wonderful book to read in the dark days of winter. Fia is a strong character who has to learn to care for others to accept as well as give help. She is a wonderful hero.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of this book.
June 27, 2025
I read this for work. It was fine. Very beautifully written. Super random that I was tasked with reading a book inspired by prehistoric County Cork and I’m going there in a few weeks. What a coincidence! My only issue is that Fia is kinda unlikeable but I understand this is a children’s book that’s trying to teach kid’s morals and appreciating others so she kinda has to be for the point to get across womp womp
September 22, 2024
The illustrations in this book are pure magic and so beautiful. The story itself is short, sweet, evocative, and imaginative. I didn’t feel that the verse style of it was used to the best it could have been, and it felt like it lacked something intangible (a depth, a gasping beauty in language, or a more pulsing rhythm) but I still got swept away by the book.
March 3, 2025
I read the hardback and it is beautiful to look at and the illustrations are excellent. The verse novel style is accessible and suits the story - it is very well written. The mythical and magical elements of the tale, set in ancient Ireland, are well conceived and the overall effect is very atmospheric. An excellent book.
May 14, 2025
Read this book in one day!! Yet another book added to my list of the best I’ve ever read!! Such an excellent and immersive story; it’s one of those books that makes you forget you’re reading!! I highly recommend it for anyone who loves the tale of an inseparable bond between a human and an animal that is bound by the stars ✨🌟✨
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews