Snowblind by Christopher Golden
Jan. 5th, 2014 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Twelve years ago the small town of Coventry, Massachusetts was in the grasp of a particularly brutal winter. And then came the Great Storm. It hit hard. Not everyone saw the spring. Today the families, friends and lovers of the victims are still haunted by the ghosts of those they lost so suddenly. If only they could see them one more time, hold them close, tell them they love them.
It was the deadliest winter in living memory … until now.
When a new storm strikes, it doesn’t just bring snow and ice, it brings the people of Coventry exactly what they’ve been wishing for. And the realisation their nightmare is only beginning.
12 years ago a terrible snowstorm hit Coventry in Massachusetts and caused many deaths. But not all those deaths were due to the weather. There were things in the snow – ice men – that dragged people to their death. Now another snowstorm is heading to Coventry and the ice men are coming for new victims …
Christopher Golden’s horror novel mixes THE RETURNED with THE ICE STORM and is essentially an ensemble character piece with a bit of horror mixed in. The main problem is that there are too many characters here, which meant that they were all drawn quite thinly. As a result I found it difficult to become really attached to any of them while the horror element is introduced too late and kept too sketchy for me to care much for those characters once they’re put into danger. Ultimately the writing is okay, I did like the way Golden weaved the recession into his characters’ lives and the depiction of the snowstorms are atmospheric but as a horror novel this didn’t do it for me. I would however check out Golden’s other books.
There are a number of main characters – Dougie who turns to crime to supplement his income when the economy cuts his hours at a local garage; Joe Keenan, a detective haunted by his failure to save three people from the storm 12 years earlier, Jake, a photographer and police cameraman who’s still dealing with the death of his younger brother Isaac in the earlier storm and TJ, an electrician who plays guitar at his wife Ella’s failing restaurant whose mother died in the earlier storm. All are thinly sketched and while Golden does try to show their grief and guilt, none get enough page time for this to develop beyond the two-dimensional. The re-appearance of the ghosts of some of the victims was supposed to let the character address that grief but the reconciliations are forsaken in the name of plot with the result that none of them really rang true and all of the characters accept the return far too easily.
Ultimately the revelation of the demonic ice men fizzled rather than popped. Golden deliberately keeps them vague in description and intention, with the result that it was difficult for me to care about the threat they posed.
All in all the horror was ho hum, although I would check out Golden’s other work.
The Verdict:
Christopher Golden’s horror novel mixes THE RETURNED with THE ICE STORM and is essentially an ensemble character piece with a bit of horror mixed in. The main problem is that there are too many characters here, which meant that they were all drawn quite thinly. As a result I found it difficult to become really attached to any of them while the horror element is introduced too late and kept too sketchy for me to care much for those characters once they’re put into danger. Ultimately the writing is okay, I did like the way Golden weaved the recession into his characters’ lives and the depiction of the snowstorms are atmospheric but as a horror novel this didn’t do it for me. I would however check out Golden’s other books.
SNOWBLIND is released in the United Kingdom on 16th January 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
Twelve years ago the small town of Coventry, Massachusetts was in the grasp of a particularly brutal winter. And then came the Great Storm. It hit hard. Not everyone saw the spring. Today the families, friends and lovers of the victims are still haunted by the ghosts of those they lost so suddenly. If only they could see them one more time, hold them close, tell them they love them.
It was the deadliest winter in living memory … until now.
When a new storm strikes, it doesn’t just bring snow and ice, it brings the people of Coventry exactly what they’ve been wishing for. And the realisation their nightmare is only beginning.
12 years ago a terrible snowstorm hit Coventry in Massachusetts and caused many deaths. But not all those deaths were due to the weather. There were things in the snow – ice men – that dragged people to their death. Now another snowstorm is heading to Coventry and the ice men are coming for new victims …
Christopher Golden’s horror novel mixes THE RETURNED with THE ICE STORM and is essentially an ensemble character piece with a bit of horror mixed in. The main problem is that there are too many characters here, which meant that they were all drawn quite thinly. As a result I found it difficult to become really attached to any of them while the horror element is introduced too late and kept too sketchy for me to care much for those characters once they’re put into danger. Ultimately the writing is okay, I did like the way Golden weaved the recession into his characters’ lives and the depiction of the snowstorms are atmospheric but as a horror novel this didn’t do it for me. I would however check out Golden’s other books.
There are a number of main characters – Dougie who turns to crime to supplement his income when the economy cuts his hours at a local garage; Joe Keenan, a detective haunted by his failure to save three people from the storm 12 years earlier, Jake, a photographer and police cameraman who’s still dealing with the death of his younger brother Isaac in the earlier storm and TJ, an electrician who plays guitar at his wife Ella’s failing restaurant whose mother died in the earlier storm. All are thinly sketched and while Golden does try to show their grief and guilt, none get enough page time for this to develop beyond the two-dimensional. The re-appearance of the ghosts of some of the victims was supposed to let the character address that grief but the reconciliations are forsaken in the name of plot with the result that none of them really rang true and all of the characters accept the return far too easily.
Ultimately the revelation of the demonic ice men fizzled rather than popped. Golden deliberately keeps them vague in description and intention, with the result that it was difficult for me to care about the threat they posed.
All in all the horror was ho hum, although I would check out Golden’s other work.
The Verdict:
Christopher Golden’s horror novel mixes THE RETURNED with THE ICE STORM and is essentially an ensemble character piece with a bit of horror mixed in. The main problem is that there are too many characters here, which meant that they were all drawn quite thinly. As a result I found it difficult to become really attached to any of them while the horror element is introduced too late and kept too sketchy for me to care much for those characters once they’re put into danger. Ultimately the writing is okay, I did like the way Golden weaved the recession into his characters’ lives and the depiction of the snowstorms are atmospheric but as a horror novel this didn’t do it for me. I would however check out Golden’s other books.
SNOWBLIND is released in the United Kingdom on 16th January 2014. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
