Spring has sprung and yet I still have winter themed books to talk about. These three books were perfect for ushering in that icy snowy chill I was craving this past winter. Maybe too good as we had a lot more winter weather here than we typically do. So, if you’re looking for a frosty way to cool off during the warm days ahead or are just always interested in adding to that endless TBR pile, here are some recommendations and reviews for you.
Our Winter Monster by Dennis Mahoney
Published: 01/28/2025
Publisher: Hell’s Hundred
Format Read: Hardback and Audiobook
Rating: 3.75/5
A couple, whose relationship has been on the rocks since an event a year ago, travel through a blizzard to a ski village getaway to see if they can salvage what is left of their life together. Unfortunately for Holly and Brian, they careen off course not only losing control of their car but also themselves along the way.
The local sheriff, Kendra, still reeling from an unsolved missing couple case from a few weeks prior, is now receiving phone calls from a different couple lost and stranded in the storm. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’s also facing unbelievable reports of a monstrous creature capable of destroying cars, damaging houses, and mutilating people.
Facing your fears may be scary but analyzing what you have become can be terrifying.
Our Winter Monster is an examination of trauma and how it affects us and manifests. It feels like an adrenaline rush every time you are with the characters in the present. You are always on alert looking out for danger. Even in the chapters dedicated to events in the characters’ pasts there’s consistently this sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I did not expect this book to pack the punch it did, and it does so with an experienced voice. Though brutal at times, the violence never feels over-the-top or cartoonish. I also had not anticipated crying during my time with this book, but I found myself devastated at a certain part quickly flipping back and forth pages to make sure I had read the scene right. I quite literally had to sit for a few minutes and let it set in as I cried ugly tears.
I like that Our Winter Monster explores how different people handle trauma. I think that is an important discussion to have and I think horror is a great medium for expressing and discussing that.
I do still waiver on whether or not I like all aspects of the ending, which is why I’ve rated it 3.75 and not 4. Despite that, I still recommend reading Our Winter Monster for the overall experience. It is quite a ride.
Trigger Warning: Assault, physical abuse, death, trauma, violence, dismemberment, gore, kidnapping, and being trapped. *This list is not exhaustive*
The Drift by C.J. Tudor
Published: 01/31/2023
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Format Read: Hardback and Audiobook
Rating: 5/5
Three different people, in three different perilous situations fighting for survival. Hannah wakes up to a crashed bus, broken glass, and dead bodies. Her coach had lost control and driven off the road during their evacuation from their elite boarding school. Meg comes to on a cable car suspended halfway to its destination, “The Retreat”. She is among strangers and none of them have any memory of how they got there. Carter struggles to find a path forward that appeases each of his companions. The generator they rely on to power their home, a remote ski chalet, has become faulty and unreliable. A winter storm threatens to take what is left of their electricity and release something hidden in the depths of the chalet. Tensions build and temperatures fall, will any of three make it out alive?
This book was wonderful. I didn’t go in with any real expectations and I was very satisfied with my experience. There was never a dull moment, I was just as invested in each of the points of view, which does not happen often for me. I loved the mysteries each of our three protagonists are trying to solve and how the story just keeps getting deeper and deeper the more you unearth.
C.J. Tudor is amazing at keeping you on your toes. There’s always something going on; a question being posed, information being shared, a threat bared, or an obstacle blocking the way. None of it feels clunky or forced, nor does it feel rehearsed, and it puts our protagonists under incredible pressure while upping the stakes. As a reader you understood none of the characters were safe though you really hoped they would be.
I mostly listened to this on audiobook, which I highly recommend. Richard Armitage, Nathalie Buscombe, and Rachel Handshaw do a fantastic job narrating the three protagonists’ points of view. Their voices had an immersive quality that also spurred me along.
The Drift is the second of C.J. Tudor’s books I have read, I previously read The Gathering, and I will happily continue to pick up their backlog and future books.
Trigger Warning: Body horror, pregnancy/birth, death, dismembered bodies, gun violence, rape/sexual assault (on page and discussed), and illness. *This list is not exhaustive*
Snowblind by Christopher Golden
Published: 01/21/2014
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Format Read: Hardback
Rating: 3.5/5
In the small New England town of Coventry, a strange and terrible blizzard decimated the community twelve years ago. Icy figures were seen, a boy went missing, and several people wandered into the storm never to return. That night left a scar on Coventry causing those who lost loved ones to be warry of thickly falling snow. Now, there is another deadly storm approaching and a search is underway for a different missing boy. The town is battening down in anticipation, but something isn’t right; a strange phone call from a dead man, people saying and doing things they wouldn’t normally, and an eerie sense of déjà vu.
I honestly wish I liked this book more than I did. This is my second instance with a Christopher Golden novel, I read Ararat back in 2024, and I’m not sure his writing style is for me. I love the concepts of his stories and the character development specifically within Snowblind, but there is something with the execution of it that just didn’t work for me. I found myself pausing for days at a time and having to push myself to finish it.
That said, the characters really touched me, they felt real. I cried at a couple different intervals due to both the building tension from the situations his characters were facing and the very tender moments born from that growth. I was concerned for them and was never certain who would be safe by the end and who wouldn’t make it.
The biggest thing I believe I struggled with was how the story was laid out. The beginning hooks you, I was in. It moved at a decent pace and kept you wanting to know more. I couldn’t flip those pages fast enough. But then we jumped twelve years, and everything slowed down. This is where we basically got our exposition. We learned about the survivors of the storm and where they are now, how their lives were changed and their current difficulties. Luckily, like I said, the characters are compelling, but I do feel like it went from a plot driven story to suddenly being a character driven one and I wasn’t ready for such a hard shift. It also shifted back at the climax of the story. On the night of the second storm everything moves at a fast clip and you’re fighting to keep up with the now interconnecting characters. So much so that I had to reread sections to make sure I understood what was happening.
I do think I’ll try at least one more book from Christopher Golden, I own a secondhand copy of Road of Bones and my sister enjoyed All Hallows. Both of which are more recently written than Snowblind and Ararat and seem to be well received.
Trigger Warning: Death, gun violence, missing children, and child death. *This list is not exhaustive*
Words with Sam 