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The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon landed itself on my favorites list. Her characterization is above reproach. If only I could write a ghost story like this. I’m currently terrified of my closet. Really.
The plot time jumps, a trend I see a lot lately (and love, by the way) between 1908 and present day with a dash of other decades dropped in. The plot is linear though and the changing decades only adds greater dimension to the thickening story.
Plot – amazing. Characters – flawless. Writing technique – and editor’s dream.
I will definitely be reading more work by this author. It isn’t often a book truly scares me; and this one did.
From the book:
West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.
Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.
The plot time jumps, a trend I see a lot lately (and love, by the way) between 1908 and present day with a dash of other decades dropped in. The plot is linear though and the changing decades only adds greater dimension to the thickening story.
Plot – amazing. Characters – flawless. Writing technique – and editor’s dream.
I will definitely be reading more work by this author. It isn’t often a book truly scares me; and this one did.
From the book:
West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.
Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.
I really enjoyed this spooky, ghost story about people who go missing and the clues they leave behind. The story follows Sara in 1908 and Ruthie in present day West Hall, Vermont. Sara is grieving the death of her young daughter, Gertie. Her husband, Martin, is concerned about her and seems unable to reach her. Sara saw her 1st sleeper when she was a young girl and her Auntie, who some believe to be a witch, shares what she knows about sleepers and how you raise someone from the dead. As Sara sinks deeper in her grief, she begins to write a secret diary. How did Gertie really die?
Present day. Ruthie and her younger sister, Fawn, wake up one morning to discover their mom, Alice, has disappeared. Living in Sara's old farmhouse on the edge of the woods, no listed phone #, no computer, they are really cut off from the modern world. While searching for clues as to why their mom disappeared, they find Sara's secret diary in the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. Is history repeating itself?
I really enjoyed the dual timelines. They both kept me turning pages. There are several other characters that are looking for Sara's diary. Everyone has something they are hoping to find. Will the diary hold the key for them? This spooky ghost story combines the past with the present. If you could, would you bring someone dead back from the past?
Present day. Ruthie and her younger sister, Fawn, wake up one morning to discover their mom, Alice, has disappeared. Living in Sara's old farmhouse on the edge of the woods, no listed phone #, no computer, they are really cut off from the modern world. While searching for clues as to why their mom disappeared, they find Sara's secret diary in the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. Is history repeating itself?
I really enjoyed the dual timelines. They both kept me turning pages. There are several other characters that are looking for Sara's diary. Everyone has something they are hoping to find. Will the diary hold the key for them? This spooky ghost story combines the past with the present. If you could, would you bring someone dead back from the past?
engaging, each character is well explored and brings something meaningful to the story, there are a couple of very well engineered twists; overall a great ghost/zombie story!
3.5 stars. Nice and creepy, pretty absorbing and entertaining. The best fiction ever written? Nah. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and I wished I had gotten it in time for Halloween. I had been looking for a book for that would give me a nice creep for the holiday season, and I decided on a book called Dark Whispers about a haunted inn, but it hasn't been so much creepy as just downright icky. Not appealing enough for me to have finished it yet. The Winter People, on the other hand, I finished in under a week even with my reading pace being unreasonably slow right now! An enjoyable book all around.
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