Literature / The Country Of Ice Cream Star

The Country of Ice Cream Star Is a 2014 post-apocalyptic novel by Sandra Newman. In the (possibly) distant future, all the white people in the USA have either been killed by a disease called WAKS, or fled to Europe. The remaining black population, while more immune to WAKS (which they call "posies"), still only live to be about 20.

Ice Cream Star and her Sengle people are some of the survivors. They live in Massa (Massachusetts) alongside their allies, the Christings and the Lowells; and their enemies, the Nat Mass Armies. All the groups, however, are allied in their hatred of the roos (Russians), who kidnap and kill their children. One day, the Sengles discover and capture a roo named Pasha, who claims to be 30, and who befriends Ice Cream. When Ice Cream learns her brother has posies, and that the roos have the cure, she sets off with Pasha to Washington DC to retrieve the cure from them.

It doesn't work out as planned. Ice Cream is soon forced to become the religious leader for a cult-ish society that has occupies New York City. Still, she is convinced on going to Washington to find the cure...

A sequel is currently in the works, with an unknown release date.

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Tropes

• Aerith and Bob: The Christings, Marianos, Quanticos, and some of the Mass Armies have real-world (though perhaps uncommon/foreign) names such as Susannah, Felipe, Patricia, Kalim. The Lowells' names are their jobs, such as El Mayor and First Physician. The Sengles have much stranger names, such as Ice Cream, Keepers, Asha Badmouth, and Hate You.
• Affably Evil: The Russian prisoners in Quantico. Some of them are rude to Ice Cream, but are ultimately decent people.
• An Aesop: Killing and war is always bad, even when it's justified.
• Bad Liar: Ice Cream can easily tell when Pasha is lying
• Badass Army: The Quanticos, who are presumably descendants of the Marines who lived in the Quantico base
• Barbarian Tribe: The Nat Mass Armies. Also somewhat an Army of Thieves and Whores.
• Bilingual Bonus: Many words in the Massa peoples' new English dialect are based in French.
  • Belle: French for "beautiful"
  • Bone: from French bon/bonne, meaning "good"
  • Enfant: French for "child," though the way Ice Cream uses it, it seems to mean "very young child" or "baby."
  • -esse: common French suffix for nouns
  • -euse: common French suffix for adjectives
  • mally: from French mal, meaning "bad"
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The Russians are evil. The Massas, Marianos, and Quanticos are definitely better but are still rife with greedy, manipulative, bloodthirsty, fanatical, predatory, and/or ignorant people
• Bratty Half-Pint: Keepers. Also First Runner, somewhat.
• Broken Tears: Pasha, when Ice Cream sees him for the first time after the Quantico/Russian war starts. He's distressed that he hasn't been able to keep Ice Cream out of danger. At least it proves he's not a Deep Cover Agent...
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Mild examples, as all the Sengles' unusual vocabulary is still based in English. Overlaps with Future Slang.
  • Russians are "roos"; Russian is "rooish"
  • American white people are "Sleepers"
  • Washington DC and its surrounding areas are called Quantico (after the Marine Corps base)
  • The Nat Mass Armies' equivalent of concubines are called "simpers"
• Cassandra Truth: Pasha tells Ice Cream about all the wars he's fought and people he's manipulated and kills. She doesn't think he's lying per se, but she doesn't really grasp how awful of a person he was. When she gets pissed at him about the Quantico war, he calls her out on this.
  "Told you I be mally, but you ain't believe."
• Christianity is Catholic: Soledad says the Marianos are "catolicos." Their beliefs certainly don't align with what we call Catholicism, though (see Cult).
  • The Christings are non-Catholic Christians, but Soledad says they are not true Christians.
• Corrupt Church: The entire city of Ciudad de las Marias is somewhere between this, a cult, and a Church Militant. The figurehead of the government is the Maria, with her counsel of apostles being the ones who make most of the decisions. Many members of the counsel, as well as the Maria's assistant, Anselm, are greedy and malicious, apathetic, or just plain crazy.
• Cult: The Marianos believe that when Jesus and Mary died, their spirits moved on into someone else, and when they died, the spirits found someone else, etc. Whoever is the current Maria rules Ciudad de las Marias, and she is supposed to kill her Jesus so that he dies for everyone's sins. For some reason, Jesus is always a white man. Pasha is white and Ice Cream is allegedly a virgin, so Soledad decides they should be the next Jesus and Maria. The government knows this is B.S. but the citizens believe it.
  • The Christings, while a lot nicer than the Marianos, are also kind of a religious cult. Every woman is a Christwife to one husband, the oldest man of the group.
• Deep Cover Agent: Pasha is accused of being one. He did used to be one, but it becomes clear that he genuinely cares about and wants to help Ice Cream.
  • To a lesser extent, Soledad could be considered one as well. She lives among the Nat Mass Armies trying to find a Jesus for the Marianos.
• Deity of Human Origin: Ice Cream, in her role as Maria, is said to be one. The citizens believe this, but the government knows it's a sham. Though apostle Felipe believes she's really a god after she survives being "poisoned" by him. (Really, Anselm just replaced the poison with water.)
• Determinator: Ice Cream.
  I know, ain't evils in no life nor cruelties in no red hell can change the vally heart of Ice Cream Star.
• Doorstopper: The hardcover edition has 580 pages.
• Downer Ending: Ice Cream leaves for Europe on a boat full of people who hate her (except Pasha), in hopes that the Europeans will give her the cure for posies. She has no idea if the plan will work, and leaves feeling that the Quanticos and Marianos will all by killed by the Russians. Fortunately, there is a sequel planned, so it might work out well after all.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Pasha is called "Vampire" by the Russian soldiers because he always survives by assimilating with, then killing, the natives of the country he's fighting in
• Faux Affably Evil: Polkovnik Razin. When he is a prisoner of war, he is like the other prisoners: polite, if brusque. When she meets him again after his release, he's a lot crueler to her and more openly manipulates her.
• From the Mouths of Babes: It's easy to forget that everyone in the novel (except the Russians) is under 20, especially because they drink, smoke, have kids, and run governments and armies.
• Future Slang: What's notable about the book is that the entire thing is narrated in a patois of Newman's own invention. The Sengles, Lowells, Christings, and Armies all speak this way, while the Marianos who speak English speak "sleeper" (regular) English. The Quanticos speak more or less regular English, but with a noticable southern accent.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Soledad, the simper who gives Ice Cream a knife when she's captured by the Mass Armies, and befriends her later on. She may not be as golden-hearted as we think, though, since she basically forced Ice Cream to be the next Maria and wormed her way into being her apostle.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Ice Cream with Pasha, who is twice her age. May be a May–December Romance, but it's ambiguous.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Anslem, kind of. He saves Ice Cream's life by having her pregnancy aborted and replacing Felipe's poison with water, but he's a real dick to her about it, and is probably doing it out of self-interest.
• Light Is Not Good: Ice Cream is noticeably creeped out by the paleness of the Washington Monument and the White House.
  • There's also the fact that the Russians are the only white people in the novel.
• Love Triangle: Ice Cream has had an ongoing secret relationship with Mamadou, then starts one with El Mayor. Eventually each man finds out about her relationship with the other, but don't seem to care too much.
• My Parents Are Dead: Or in Pasha's case, My Daughter Is Dead. He explains that this is probably the reason he's so protective of Ice Cream Technically the case with all the Massas, Marianos, and Quanticos, but because none of them remember their parents well, it's not a big deal
• Masochism Tango/Love-Hate Relationship: Ice Cream and Mamadou
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ice Cream was dumb enough to trust Pasha's plan of exchanging Russian prisoners for the cure, and convince the Quanticos/Marianos to go through with it. The Quanticos and Marianos get absolutely slaughtered, and don't take nearly enough prisoners to make a worthwile trade.
  • Subverted in that Pasha really did believe his plan would work and wasn't intentionally misleading Ice Cream. So really, Nice Job Breaking It, Pasha.
• Only One Name: Pasha for most of the book. Polkovnik reveals his full name is Pasha Toporov
  • Ice Cream gives all the Sengles' last names exactly once and doesn't use them again. There are so few of them that last names aren't really necessary.
• Renegade Russian: Inverted. Pasha seems to be really the only good Russian in the entire Russian Army.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Ice Cream really does not like death, period. She refuses to kill Pasha and other Russians on multiple occasions, even when it's tactically not a good plan.