Title: The Winter
People
Author: Jennifer
McMahon
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: February
11, 2014
Genres: Paranormal,
Historical Fiction, Mystery
Reviewed by: Ellen
Fritz
Ellen’s rating: 5/5
SUMMARY
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, Gertie. Now, in present day,
nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and
her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the
grid, a decision that suddenly proves perilous when Ruthie wakes up one morning
to find that Alice has vanished without a trace. Searching 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 deeper into the
mystery of Sara's fate, she discovers that she's not the only person who's
desperately looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one
who can stop history from repeating itself.
REVIEW
As paranormal fiction and horror are two of my
favorite genres, I found The Winter
People absolutely captivating. Only when her mother disappears and the old
house starts giving up its secrets, does Ruthie realize that she is living on a
cursed piece of land where a gruesome family saga played itself out about a
century ago. Soon those who have lost loved ones, as well as those who want to
become rich by selling the Harrison family secret, converge on Ruthie and her
little sister.
Paranormal phenomena like vampires and werewolves
don't scare me at all. Ghosts and things involving the dead rising, however,
are the kind of tales that will make me hesitate to switch the light off at
night. From pale things seen in the woods and the inexplicable smell of ozone,
to mysterious disappearances and the feeling of being watched, this book is
full of that kind of thrilling, thoroughly scary material. The frightening
tales and legends woven round these incidents by the residents of the town of
West Hall, just add to this incredible mystery.
As the story is written from different points of view,
it is difficult to truly identify with one character in particular. Although
Ruthie's part in the story starts off with her being a rather rebellious
teenager who is extremely unhappy with living in a small town, she soon becomes
more responsible when her mother disappears and she is left with the
responsibility of her sick little sister, Fawn. That said little sister is
rather secretive, and a bit weird, doesn't help either.
Other characters like the grieving Katherine who is
looking for clues about her dead husband's last few hours and the mean,
extremely greedy, trigger-happy Candace, are fleshed out and realistic.
The characters from the historic part of the story,
however, were crafted even more believably. In the end I truly didn't know
whether the mystical Auntie, Sarah Harrison Shea, her rather weak husband, or
something far more evil were responsible for the death of the little girl,
Gertie.
The author's brilliant use of the Vermont woods in
winter, a little bone ring, a diary and a mysterious map, augment the spooky
atmosphere of this book.
I highly recommend The
Winter People to all who love a good, thrilling paranormal tale with more
than a bit of horror.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
I was born in 1968
and grew up in my grandmother’s house in suburban Connecticut, where I was
convinced a ghost named Virgil lived in the attic. I wrote my first short story
in third grade. I graduated with a BA from Goddard College in 1991 and then
studied poetry for a year in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. A
poem turned into a story, which turned into a novel, and I decided to take some
time to think about whether I wanted to write poetry or fiction. After bouncing
around the country, I wound up back in Vermont, living in a cabin with no
electricity, running water, or phone with my partner, Drea, while we built our
own house. Over the years, I have been a house painter, farm worker, paste-up
artist, Easter Bunny, pizza delivery person, homeless shelter staff member, and
counselor for adults and kids with mental illness — I quit my last real job in
2000 to work on writing full time. In 2004, I gave birth to our daughter,
Zella. These days, we’re living in an old Victorian in Montpelier, Vermont.
Some neighbors think it looks like the Addams family house, which brings me
immense pleasure.
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