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The Girl Without a Face
At age fifteen, Katie Wilder might be one of the greatest figure skaters in the world . . . but no one even knows she exists. When a childhood accident leaves her face so severely scarred that she wears a mask, Katie never leaves the Ice Castle, the rink owned by her father, a once-famous coach. Skating since she could walk, and without friends and distractions, every moment is dedicated to her passion⏤skating⏤under her father's guidance.
However, when her father returns to coaching and Olympic hopefuls come to train, her safe and private world is gone. Katie searches for the courage to not only show the world what she can do on the ice, but more importantly, make her first friend, and start to live a life that extends outside the rink.
REVIEWS FROM THE FIGURE SKATING WORLD
"Could not have a more perfect message, especially today. Love, acceptance, and in the end, the courage to inspire.”
-Skating magazine (official publication of U.S. Figure Skating)
"An entertaining and engaging book. With well-known skating personalities blended with fictional characters, skating fans will definitely feel connected to the story. Highly recommended!”
-International Figure Skating magazine
"What a wonderful read! Captures the skater's perspective so accurately I was perspiring like I was back competing at U.S. Nationals. This book was like a dessert I didn't want to finish. 100% loved it!”
-Jordan Cowan, On Ice Perspectives
"This book is a treat! Truly entertaining while remaining authentic. A very enjoyable and exciting read, not limited to figure skating fans.”
-Tatjana Flade, International figure skating journalist
"A must read! I can't wait for the movie!”
-Tom Zakrajsek, World & Olympic figure skating coach
"Strength, humor and courage in the midst of adversity! A great read!”
-Golden Skate
However, when her father returns to coaching and Olympic hopefuls come to train, her safe and private world is gone. Katie searches for the courage to not only show the world what she can do on the ice, but more importantly, make her first friend, and start to live a life that extends outside the rink.
REVIEWS FROM THE FIGURE SKATING WORLD
"Could not have a more perfect message, especially today. Love, acceptance, and in the end, the courage to inspire.”
-Skating magazine (official publication of U.S. Figure Skating)
"An entertaining and engaging book. With well-known skating personalities blended with fictional characters, skating fans will definitely feel connected to the story. Highly recommended!”
-International Figure Skating magazine
"What a wonderful read! Captures the skater's perspective so accurately I was perspiring like I was back competing at U.S. Nationals. This book was like a dessert I didn't want to finish. 100% loved it!”
-Jordan Cowan, On Ice Perspectives
"This book is a treat! Truly entertaining while remaining authentic. A very enjoyable and exciting read, not limited to figure skating fans.”
-Tatjana Flade, International figure skating journalist
"A must read! I can't wait for the movie!”
-Tom Zakrajsek, World & Olympic figure skating coach
"Strength, humor and courage in the midst of adversity! A great read!”
-Golden Skate
362 pages, Paperback
Published June 17, 2020
7 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 22, 2020
As a figure skating fan and someone seeking more novels of female empowerment, “The Girl Without A Face” delivers, though not in heaping handfuls I had hoped from reading the synopsis. Randall B. Hicks and co-author daughter Hailey Hicks clearly know figure skating; in this era depleted of literature about the sport, it was refreshing to see the narrative reference up-to-date names like Nathan Chen and Alexandra Trusova. These real-life sports figures are, however, cleverly sidelined by a cast of fictitious creations including the protagonist Katie Wilder, whose disfigured face must be covered by a mask in public. The emotions in this book feel real, notably Katie’s fear and sadness from being perceived as a public disgrace due to her handicap. The novel’s authenticity comes partly from Katie’s struggle, but more importantly from the interwoven threads of realism integrated into the plot. As I mentioned earlier, real-life stars of the sport exist side-by-side with the fictitious ones; in turn, the novel goes the extra mile by explaining the scoring system and the importance of GOE. Even the now-defunct Ice Castle arena is cleverly turned into a current training center; the illusion that the Lake Arrowhead rink is currently in use was pulled off so well, it made me check google to see if I missed something important.
What I appreciated most about “The Girl Without A Face” was how “local” it felt for me. I can tell Randall Hicks lives in So-Cal just like myself because his descriptions of Los Angeles, In-N-Out hamburgers, and Rubio’s fish tacos was creepily relevant to me. (These descriptions brought back memories of my own figure skating training days when I’d eat dinner at Rubio’s afterwards.) But the coincidences do not end there: the book wonderfully incorporates one of my own former figure skating instructors, Leslie Deason, who is mentioned training a fictitious skater on page 214! Talk about adding a layer of realism!
On the flip-side, however, the book suffers from under-developed themes. I felt Katie’s fear could have been pushed further, her joy of finally getting out of the Ice Castle rink needed to be greater, and her mom’s *spoiler* eventual reappearance and redemption needed to be MUCH more significant than what we got in the final chapter *end of spoiler.* Also, the book has several noticeable typos; on page 230, “the back of they rink” should have been “the back of the rink,” and the word “hamster” is misspelled as “hampster” on the final page excerpt “About the Ice Castle.”
Aside from these minor flaws, this is probably the most enjoyable fictitious book about figure skating I have read. And clearly the most relevant to today’s readers.
What I appreciated most about “The Girl Without A Face” was how “local” it felt for me. I can tell Randall Hicks lives in So-Cal just like myself because his descriptions of Los Angeles, In-N-Out hamburgers, and Rubio’s fish tacos was creepily relevant to me. (These descriptions brought back memories of my own figure skating training days when I’d eat dinner at Rubio’s afterwards.) But the coincidences do not end there: the book wonderfully incorporates one of my own former figure skating instructors, Leslie Deason, who is mentioned training a fictitious skater on page 214! Talk about adding a layer of realism!
On the flip-side, however, the book suffers from under-developed themes. I felt Katie’s fear could have been pushed further, her joy of finally getting out of the Ice Castle rink needed to be greater, and her mom’s *spoiler* eventual reappearance and redemption needed to be MUCH more significant than what we got in the final chapter *end of spoiler.* Also, the book has several noticeable typos; on page 230, “the back of they rink” should have been “the back of the rink,” and the word “hamster” is misspelled as “hampster” on the final page excerpt “About the Ice Castle.”
Aside from these minor flaws, this is probably the most enjoyable fictitious book about figure skating I have read. And clearly the most relevant to today’s readers.
August 27, 2020
After being badly burned in an accident when she was young, Katie Wilder wears a mask to hide her injured face from the world. The daughter of a once famous skating coach, she spends many hours skating – becoming one of the best skaters in the world even if nobody knows it. But when her father is able to return to coaching and starts coaching pair skaters who may qualify for the Olympics, Katie’s life begins to change. Will she find the courage to chase her own figure skating dreams or will she keep hiding behind her mask?
Set in the real life world of competitive figure skating, “The Girl Without a Face” is an interesting, poignant novel that features real skating events (for example the Grand Prix Series, Nationals, and the Olympics) and real life places (the home rink Katie skates at really exists but is now sadly closed) mixed in with the fictional story of Katie. And Katie’s story is very well done – scarred both on the outside and inside, she grows to realize that she can not only have friends and realize her dreams but help people despite her disfigured face. She has a wicked sense of humor that had me chuckling more than once while reading the book. I loved reading as she grows as a character throughout the course of the book, discovering that she may have been wrong about a few things but willing to learn from her mistakes. And oh can she skate! As for the skating elements, I found they were nicely done with a good mixture of real and fictional characters including real-life skaters and a few real-life coaches. I am not a skater but a skating fan who watches as much skating as I can every year (not just in Olympic years) and I found the skating elements to be just right (as a non-skater I can’t speak to the minute scoring aspects). To be sure, there were a few times, especially towards the end of the book, when I was muttering “this would never happen in real life” but the book is fiction after all (and the authors freely admit they took some licenses with some skating aspects) and it does make for some thrilling moments towards the end of the book. Finally, I loved the final sentences of the book – what a perfect way to end the book!
“The Girl Without a Face” is a nicely done novel.
Set in the real life world of competitive figure skating, “The Girl Without a Face” is an interesting, poignant novel that features real skating events (for example the Grand Prix Series, Nationals, and the Olympics) and real life places (the home rink Katie skates at really exists but is now sadly closed) mixed in with the fictional story of Katie. And Katie’s story is very well done – scarred both on the outside and inside, she grows to realize that she can not only have friends and realize her dreams but help people despite her disfigured face. She has a wicked sense of humor that had me chuckling more than once while reading the book. I loved reading as she grows as a character throughout the course of the book, discovering that she may have been wrong about a few things but willing to learn from her mistakes. And oh can she skate! As for the skating elements, I found they were nicely done with a good mixture of real and fictional characters including real-life skaters and a few real-life coaches. I am not a skater but a skating fan who watches as much skating as I can every year (not just in Olympic years) and I found the skating elements to be just right (as a non-skater I can’t speak to the minute scoring aspects). To be sure, there were a few times, especially towards the end of the book, when I was muttering “this would never happen in real life” but the book is fiction after all (and the authors freely admit they took some licenses with some skating aspects) and it does make for some thrilling moments towards the end of the book. Finally, I loved the final sentences of the book – what a perfect way to end the book!
“The Girl Without a Face” is a nicely done novel.
July 29, 2020
This book. I can’t explain it. It’s outside of my normal reading genre. And yet I loved every single second of it. Down to the tears that surfaced at the end. This book is something else. Something entirely different from what we see on shelves. It had such a strong message and really leaves an impression on the reader. I couldn’t put this book down, but I didn’t want it to end.
Katie has so much sass and maturity to herself and it makes the book effortless to read, almost like a friend telling you her life story. While I am not a skater, I am one of those people who loves to watch it during the Winter Olympics so this book held a little extra something special for me. And while I didn’t understand all of the skating terminology, the book was so well written that it didn’t even matter.
Overall, I recommend this book to everyone. For the person who needs a pick-me-up, the person who needs an escape, or the person who needs some leisure reading. Everyone can benefit from reading this book.
Katie has so much sass and maturity to herself and it makes the book effortless to read, almost like a friend telling you her life story. While I am not a skater, I am one of those people who loves to watch it during the Winter Olympics so this book held a little extra something special for me. And while I didn’t understand all of the skating terminology, the book was so well written that it didn’t even matter.
Overall, I recommend this book to everyone. For the person who needs a pick-me-up, the person who needs an escape, or the person who needs some leisure reading. Everyone can benefit from reading this book.
February 23, 2023
Excellent YA skating read. You don't have to be YA or a skating expert to enjoy this one.
It is basically a coming of age story about a girl whose face was badly burned as a young child in an accident. She has worn a mask every since even though she is a great skater. Upon making a couple of skater friends, she decided to compete.
There is so much interesting and thought-provoking material presented in this book. I would be a great book club selection for teens and even for adults.
It is basically a coming of age story about a girl whose face was badly burned as a young child in an accident. She has worn a mask every since even though she is a great skater. Upon making a couple of skater friends, she decided to compete.
There is so much interesting and thought-provoking material presented in this book. I would be a great book club selection for teens and even for adults.
January 3, 2023
This book has such a wonderful feel good message to it. I loved how Katie was able to overcome her challenges and be the skater she was born to be. It did help that she had Alex and Lissy there to help her along the way too
I also learned quite a bit more about figure skating and the rules for it. I do love watching figure skating on TV!
I also learned quite a bit more about figure skating and the rules for it. I do love watching figure skating on TV!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2025
fantastic
Well written story based on facts. A must-read book for figure skating fans, or anybody who would be interested in knowing more about the culture of figure skating. I loved the book!
Well written story based on facts. A must-read book for figure skating fans, or anybody who would be interested in knowing more about the culture of figure skating. I loved the book!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews