The Winter People

This was just as spooky and atmospheric and I had hoped it would be. With a totally immersive story line and fantastic writing, the book asks what lengths people are willing to go to in order to see their loved ones again. This is my favorite McMahon novel and I'd highly recommend it.

strong beginning, weak ending. the mother should have been a villain

I Loved this one! It was Pet Sematary meets a mystery vibes. This is my second read from Jennifer McMahon and I am falling in love with how she writes such relatable and loveable characters.
I HIGHLY recommend this one, especially if you loved Pet Sematary.

Winter People is a mix for me. The way this is formatted was a tad annoying. There are a lot of characters and their stories throughout this book and usually that doesn't bother me.

However, the past timeline (Sara's journal pages) and the way it is thrown into the mix disrupted the present timeline for me. I would have much preferred the journal pages at the start of each section, together, like a mini-prologue. That's just my preference though.

The story itself wasn't my favorite either. I did love the atmosphere that was set and the cave setting. I was just hoping for some actual spooky as this is touted to be a ghost suspense. It's not actually about ghosts though...so that doesn't really fit. Maybe more of a paranormal women's fiction...

Overall, I was disappointed. I didn't love this one but didn't hate it either. It would be good for those who want an eerie type atmospheric read for Spooktober, but don't expect to be thrilled or scared with this one.

3.5 rounded up

3.5 ⭐

This book had so much potential to be a 4.5-5 star read. There were areas of the book that seemed over explained/redundant and other areas that I felt opposite. The ending was so good but I felt when Alice was explaining why things were happening she didn't explain everything well.

Katherine and Candace as characters were the literal worst. Katherine was at least well done and believable – just the type of person that being around them makes your head hurt. Candace, on the other hand, seemed off her rocker and as though there was more to her story that we'd find out later (spoilers: we never do).

JM however does an AMAZING job at creating the scene and I feel it really makes the whole book so much better. Her description of Candace's home from afar vs up close had to have been my favorite part of the book and almost gave me chills while reading it.

Rating: 3.9 leaves out of 5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 3.5/5
Story: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Mystery
Type: Audio
Worth?: Oh yeah.


Another book from my road trip done. This was the first book I actually wanted to read from this author but I actually read The Drowning Kind, which I also have 4 leaves. What I really like about this book, or rather her writing, is the back and forth in time and how they all connect. It is really enjoyable.

The characters were well done and the plot of the whole thing was sad and creepy. I wouldn't say it was horror, I didn't get scared. Still worth the read though!

One of the most satisfying horror books I've read in ages. Best read with the headphones on listening to sounds of a blizzard. Definitely reading more of this author.

3.5 stars

3.5
Decided to round the rating down after thinking about it more.

This was all geared up to be a solid 4 star rating, until the author didn't stick the landing in my opinion. I found the first half or so of the book extremely engaging and creepy, and kept reading because I really wanted to know where this was all leading! I had several thoughts and expectations of who I thought the killer(s) would end up being, but none of them were fulfilled. Many of the plot devices brought up early on, the white apparition in the woods, the bone ring, even Sara's evident walking of the town at night, were only brought up once and didn't seem to tie in much with the actual ending.

I also wasn't expecting fully fleshed out, three dimensional characters in a quick horror/thriller read, but I found a lot of the characters, particularly in the modern day setting, unrealistic and flat. Ruthie, in particular, made me scream at the book, horror movie style, with her poor decisions and lack of reaction in some places. I still don't understand Ruthie's reluctance to call the cops when her mom went missing, apart from plot convenience. Katherine's entire inclusion in the story felt unnecessary, as she was just a vehicle for the bone ring in the present day, and to be the one to call the next Sleeper.

So I docked it a star for my dissatisfaction with where the plot ended up and the ending. At 3 stars it's still an okay book, but I doubt I'll be recommending it to friends.

[ i actually finished this back in september but forgot to update ]

picked this up in vermont when i was visiting, the bugs in the summertime are scarier than this book.

a good enough thriller/horror book to send a chill down your spine every now and then, but i did feel bored about 60% of the time. things weren't wrapped up in a neat little bow at the end, which i enjoy, but i still didn't feel satisfied by the answers/ending.

I almost didn't read this because I have tried McMahon before and not enjoyed the ones I read but this one can up on a list of truly spooky books to read in October from someone whose taste I totally trust. So I went for it. And I didn't dislike it!
The story was pretty spooky, I think the location (isolated small town, threatening natural formations, and fields that fail to produce crops) was a huge plus. I was okay with jumping timelines. A couple of times McMahon builds suspense and then has a character info-dump what happened instead of letting the reader find out for herself. Eh.
The characters were a little one dimensional...one, the wife of the dead photographer really didn't make sense. She is determined to be a hero, to save some other characters from a perilous situation and then she charges in and....doesn't. In fact, she makes it all about her. That kind of threw me.
I loved what she did for a living though!
I don't need to like or identify with characters in order to enjoy a story, and that wasn't an issue here.
Overall, the BIG BAD is pretty damned bad and the pages turned quickly. I might not recommend this one for Halloween, but save it for a snowstorm as the winter weather appears quite often.

You can also find this review on my blog.

4.5 ⭐️
cw: child death, grief, gore, underage drinking/drug use

Much like A Head Full of Ghosts, The Winter People is another audiobook I happened to pick up that I found myself completely enthralled by. My new methodology for finding audiobooks is to sort my TBR by random and to go down the list until I find a book that a) is available on audiobook and b) has a narrator that I like. I listen to the sample and if I like it, I download it and take off. It seems to be working fairly well for me.

The Winter People doesn't fit neatly into any box. It's a bit of horror, a bit of fantasy, a bit of historical fiction, and a bit of thriller. It actually has two narrators, as it switches not only between past and present but also between POVs within each time period. It's hard to nail down, and the reader can't even be entirely sure what's happening until close to the end. I will say that it does a pretty good job of answering all your questions, though, so if you hate ambiguous endings you'll probably like this one.

There are a fair amount of characters, but Jennifer McMahon does a good job of giving them all their own unique voices (well, the narrators probably help there too). I never really found myself mixing them up, and felt like they were all distinctly different people. My favorite is probably Sara Harrison Shea herself, in part because her narrator was unbelievably good. Both of the narrators were great, in fact. I also loved the setting. I have a soft spot in my heart for books set in New England, particularly when I know a lot of the places mentioned. This book took place mainly in Vermont, with a few flashbacks to scenes in Boston.

My biggest (and only, really) issue with this book was the ending. There was a scene that I was positive was the end and I was almost entirely satisfied with where it left off – but then it continued. In my opinion, this kind of caused the book to fizzle out and made for an awkward finish. It meandered just a bit too long. I also felt like things weren't wrapped up entirely well. There were reasons given for everything that happened, but some of them felt so artificial. Like, it felt like the author couldn't come up with an organic way to incorporate some stuff into the story but decided to keep it in anyway. Those minor reasons were why I knocked off half a star, they kind of pulled me out of the story I was until that point so invested in.

Overall, I thought this was an incredible read. Halfway through, I started adding more Jennifer McMahon books to my TBR and will definitely prioritize picking up something else by her. I highly recommend anyone with any interest pick this up. If you enjoy horror stories, particularly those with a historical setting, you're going to love The Winter People.

“Sometimes they're angry. They hate being stuck.”

This was one of my most anticipated scheduled reads for the year. It felt appropriate for the beginning of the winter, since November calls for stories with supernatural twists. The title and the front cover set the scenery. This proved to be a story rich in atmosphere, local lore and with an engaging plot line. And it was also an example of how fast can a certain 5-stars read become a 3 within 120 pages...In my opinion...

The story follows two different plot lines that are obviously connected to each other. Set in West Hall, Vermont, a land of witches and dark woods, we initially find ourselves in 1908 when Sara loses what is most precious and dearest to her. Her daughter. And she wants her to return close to her. In our present times, two girls living in Sara's house, discover their mother is missing. Another woman, Katherine, wants to find answers to her husband's death. These stories are linked by a common denominator, a strange, nameless threat that lurks in the woods.

The atmosphere is excellent. Actually, it's beyond excellent. It's exemplary both in construction and execution. McMahon creates a setting that draws you in from the very start. Girls are disappearing without a trace, animals are found dead, violently killed, the children are locked in their houses once darkness falls. The land is mysterious, there are whispers of witches living in caves, spirits making their home inside tree trunks. As I was reading, I could honestly feel the cold wind, I could picture the wintry woods, I could hear boots walking with heavy steps upon the snow. The plot, although supernatural in essence, was quite believable and there were many domestic scenes that were chilling and foreboding. These features in combination with Sara, Ruthie and Fawn, who are very interesting characters, made me certain that this would be a wonderful novel. And then a character was brought in and everything changed...

Although the descriptive parts were brilliant, the dialogue wasn't worthy of laurels. It was acceptable (and merely passable at times) since there was too much repetition and quite a few stiff interactions. When this creature Candace came along, a nightmare started. She did a major harm to the novel and the story would have been a 100 times better without her. The dialogue became cringe - worthy, the characters' actions became absurd, the whole construction was torn down. She seemed to have sprung out of a low-quality chick-thriller book (or film, a genre that I deeply loathe) and she sounded like a poorly thought-out villain.The quality of the novel was brought down to a significant degree.

The other thing that disappointed me was the absurdity of the conclusion, if I may call it thus. The motive was implausible, the perpetrator was highly unlikely and not as a twist, but as a frightfully inconsistent choice. Furthermore, the whole plot seemed laughable during the last 100 pages. I may sound harsh but this is how I felt. The line between haunting and unexplained and ridiculous is very thin and I'm afraid that the last steps of the story walked towards the latter.

I recommend the book, though. I really do. It is “Halloween - approved” and the writer knows how to set the pawns. But how do I rate a book that was 5-stars material until the 50% mark and then fell into the 2-stars abyss? I know that most people will enjoy it. It's just that I wanted more but what I got was very little. It was another case of expectations ending unfulfilled. May you fare better...

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

Ternyata buku ini termasuk genre horor. Atmospheric horor tepatnya, cukup membuatku merinding.
Ruth gk sabar ingin keluar dr kota tempatnya tinggal, namun suatu hari ibunya menghilang sehingga dia terpaksa hrs menjaga adiknya. Ketika dia membongkar-bongkar isi rumah untuk mencari petunjuk kemana ibunya pergi, dia menemukan suatu buku yg ditulis oleh Amelia Larkin, berisi buku harian bibinya, Sara Harrison Shea. Dalam buku harian itu Sara menceritakan jika orang yg sdh mati bisa dibangkitkan kembali.
West Hall memang terkenal membuat orang2 menghilang tanpa jejak. Salah satu sejarah kota juga menyangkut kematian Sara Harrison Shea. Apakah yg sebenarnya ada di West Hall??

This book was different in mood and story than other books I have read for a very long time. Although it jumps back and forth in time from the backstory that takes place in Sara's diary to a present day disappearance, McMahon does a great job of melding the stories. Sara, who has lost several children and has a wonderful relationship with her 8 year daughter, but perhaps struggles in her marriage, watches her daughter follow her husband out into the snow. Hours later, when the husband returns, he is alone and completely unaware that his daughter had run out after him. The daughter is found dead in the bottom of a deep well. The darkness and grief that enfolds Sara is really the rest of the novel. The story streams on with an old hag, curses, insanity, and violence. It reminded me of early Stephen King books, where it was hard to draw the line between the real and the supernatural, between real and imagined fears. I will absolutely read more books by Jennifer McMahon. Maybe it's time to get back to horror.

I want to say that it started slow, but it didn't really. It started with unlikable characters. However, they grew and became more likable. The action was fast paced and there was so much emotion to process! It was fabulous. Part history, part mystery, part horror, part literature. Great book!

So. Not what I was expecting. I started this at Barnes and Noble one day because, hey, a lot of hype, so I'm curious. And I like horror. And the first few chapters were engaging enough.

But those first few chapters should be in another book. I made it to page 38 at B&N and thought it sufficiently interesting to get it from the library. So I picked up again with the introduction to...RUTHIE? She's a modern day 19-year-old named RUTHIE? I don't think so. Not unless her parents are religious, which they didn't seem to be at all. And her boyfriend is Buzz? Is Ms. McMahon stuck in 1960 or something? Anyway, I was still willing to stick with it because, hey, I grew up in NH, and I recognized a lot of the towns name-dropped in this book.

So I finished it this morning.

For the love of all that is holy, I cannot figure out why everyone and their butts were going on and on about how this is a beautiful, chilling, moving, poignant, etc etc etc book when it is rote genre at best. The prose is NOT elegant. It is standard and fairly humdrum. The characters are mostly irksome and not particularly engaging; which is a pity, because this book, for once, isn't a sausage fest–it's a taco fest. But the women in it aren't very good characters. They're all–except Ruthie, until the very end–stupid and emotionally delicate and make incredibly inane decisions. And Fawn didn't seem the least bit real to me. She was a bad horror cliche child, not a real child, even though she ended up being just a normal child. I kept waiting for a shoe to drop with her, and it never did. And how many times must we the readers be told she has saucer eyes? Apparently, every time she's in a scene, and there aren't any new ways to say it throughout the book either.

This book was okay, but nothing to write home about. I am so confused about the rave reviews. Apparently, they don't know that women actually write good horror. This was pretty darn standard stuff. No beautiful sentences, nothing to make you gasp in awe. No characters that you love more than anything. Mostly, the characters are bland at best, idiotic and annoying at worst. The pacing starts becoming a mess, especially in the last third or so of the book. The time jumps, especially at the end, are ineffective and lack emphasis in the places where emphasis could be used. And the plot twist–such a bad mystery plot twist. Ridiculous, just the worst. I'm used to horror plot twist and the reasons they exist. But in something that is almost more mystery than horror, the plot twist is always the most absurd thing. This one had me confused and then rolling my eyes.

Honestly, I've read plenty of trite genre books that are more engaging and interesting. There is nothing spectacular here, nothing of note, nothing that is new or different. The pacing is similar to any mass market thriller/horror/mystery you could find at a used bookstore. The characters in ‘The Winter People' are no better, their actions no more interesting and actually far less commonsensical. If you want horror by women, do yourself a favour and get some Gemma Files or Sarah Langan. They know the genre and tell better tales.

A good October read–surprisingly creepy with an interesting twist at the end.

I found it really hard to put this down. What starts as an intriguing piece of town folklore quickly evolves into a modern mystery. I really enjoyed this book and definitely would recommend it to others.

So I reread this and it was better than I remembered. I did like Ruthie she was relatable. Over all a decent book that I would recommend.

Bottom line: This book had a whole lotta hype for not a whole lotta reason.

The Winter People actually had a great creepy start that really captured my attention. So from the beginning, you are given the impression that there will be chilling ghostly happenings wrapped up in a suspenseful package. But then there isn't.

So let the book bashing commence...

What happens is this (no spoilers, I promise): in the present day Ruthie's mom goes missing... in 1908 Sara's daughter dies and becomes one of the “winter people”... and a random guy named Gary stumbles upon the missing link to the story. The story is about figuring out what happened to Ruthie's mom, what happened to Sara/Gertie, and what happened to Gary in conjuntion. The entire book is a wild goose chase of putting clues together. I really didn't get any of the suspense that I wanted, and it mostly felt like Scooby Doo. Really.. Scooby Doo.

The chapters switched back and forth between the present and 1908, which is fine - I've read many books written this way and they were great! But McMahon repeats exact elements of the story when going back and forth and creates a very strong sense of deja vu. And you end up being confused if you read it already or if you just think that you read it already. Not okay.

Also, the sideplot with Gary and his wife Katherine was completely unnecessary and distracting. I believe the story would have been much better with further development of the main characters and elimination of Gary and Katherine. Plus, their story was left hanging at the end for no good reason.

This was the first time I have read a book by Jennifer McMahon, and I honestly disliked this book so much that I probably won't read McMahon again. The story was too cookie cutter for me.. with no intrigue, no exceptional plot, and no major character development.