I picked this one up from Amazon under horror / ghosts because I really wanted a change of pace from all the science fiction I had been reading and felt like being scared.
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| Scary Cover. Check. |
In The Dead of Winter Nick Anderson and his family move into an isolated country town after he writes a successful novel so that he can focus on the next one. They rent a nice little place at the edge of town and as winter sets in it seems like the perfect place to write a book. Until Nick's Daughter sees a horrifying apparition out in the woods and strange things start to happen.
As it turns out the town has a dark past that is now coming to light.
Native Americans. Check. White Settlers. Check. Standing Stones. Check.
If anything that's the problem with this book.
It checks all the boxes but it didn't end up making me feel scared. Getting the fear into a book is notoriously difficult, more so than a movie, and it felt like it should have worked in this book it just didn't.
At the end of the day I think the problem was that I just didn't end up feeling all that much for the characters in the book. They needed to be fleshed out more and get me to care for them before the horror really started and that didn't happen.
Oh don't get me wrong I enjoyed the book, and its a good read, especially early on it got me hooked quite easily and as it went on threw in some good twists. Ultimately though it felt like one of those horror movies that slides into an action film early on and turns into a group of people running from one horrifying situation to another with explosions and bullets flying.
So it was a fun read in the end, but it didn't scare me which is what I had wanted. It was almost, but not quite, there.
Having said that the writer has his own blog (Linky) and this looks like one of the first books he has done (the other being People of the Static). Its pretty good from that standpoint - especially given how tricky it is to get horror right.
I am the first to admit that just because I didn't find this book scary like I wanted doesn't mean someone else wont either so give it a try.
Right now I am reading book 14 of The Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, but I wont review that - I am sure there are plenty of reviews out there on it. At least its an ending which I honestly was starting to wonder if we were going to get (much like Game of Thrones). I might pick up another horror book to review and see if I cant find one that does leave me scared but otherwise I have been meaning to review The Home by Scott Nicholson or one of the science fiction books I read earlier this year.
So catch you next Sunday.
As it turns out the town has a dark past that is now coming to light.
Native Americans. Check. White Settlers. Check. Standing Stones. Check.
If anything that's the problem with this book.
It checks all the boxes but it didn't end up making me feel scared. Getting the fear into a book is notoriously difficult, more so than a movie, and it felt like it should have worked in this book it just didn't.
At the end of the day I think the problem was that I just didn't end up feeling all that much for the characters in the book. They needed to be fleshed out more and get me to care for them before the horror really started and that didn't happen.
Oh don't get me wrong I enjoyed the book, and its a good read, especially early on it got me hooked quite easily and as it went on threw in some good twists. Ultimately though it felt like one of those horror movies that slides into an action film early on and turns into a group of people running from one horrifying situation to another with explosions and bullets flying.
So it was a fun read in the end, but it didn't scare me which is what I had wanted. It was almost, but not quite, there.
Having said that the writer has his own blog (Linky) and this looks like one of the first books he has done (the other being People of the Static). Its pretty good from that standpoint - especially given how tricky it is to get horror right.
I am the first to admit that just because I didn't find this book scary like I wanted doesn't mean someone else wont either so give it a try.
Right now I am reading book 14 of The Wheel of Time, A Memory of Light, but I wont review that - I am sure there are plenty of reviews out there on it. At least its an ending which I honestly was starting to wonder if we were going to get (much like Game of Thrones). I might pick up another horror book to review and see if I cant find one that does leave me scared but otherwise I have been meaning to review The Home by Scott Nicholson or one of the science fiction books I read earlier this year.
So catch you next Sunday.
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