The Winter People

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.