Epeolatry Book Review: Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan
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Title: Cold Snap
Author: Lindy Ryan
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Titan Books
Date: 15th October, 2024
Synopsis: A grieving mother and son hope to survive Christmas in a remote mountain cabin, in this chilling novella of dread, isolation and demons lurking in the frozen woods. Perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians, The Shining and The Babadook.
Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire’s husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn.
Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they’d reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays.
It isn’t long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it’s just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they’d stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody’d find it ’til spring.
But moose don’t walk upright like the shadowy figure does.
They don’t call Christine’s name with her dead husband’s voice.
I couldn’t resist a Christmas horror story. Also, one of my favorite authors (Delilah Dawson) recently published a book with the same publishing company, Titan Books. Cold Snap’s synopsis hooked me. I mean, what a way to go. How horrific and defeating to grieve during the holidays. And the eeriness of the voice, the intrigue, the curiosity. Whatever could be in store for the audience?
This is my kind of read. Ryan’s first chapter throws us into Christine’s world and psychological stakes. We understand why the character is suffering and how it’s affecting her relationship with her son, Billy. The heaviness and depression Christine carries inside her is full to bursting and relatable. And understandable why she wants to run and leave her home to spend Christmas in a cabin in the woods to escape her grief from witnessing the accident. And for what she wishes most of all… Dun dun duuuun! Which ties in nicely at the end of Ryan’s work.
Christine is human with limitations like everyone else. She’s doing her best, yet someone should care for her, too. She’s far from healed or able to see past her misery. Frazzled, unable to focus. The character is always on the verge of splitting open. Ryan writes Christine in such an immersive way that can only thrust the reader into the main character’s experiences. This bookworm wondered a few times if I was slowly losing my mind and if the figure within the pages might be real.
As the novella progresses, Christine obsesses and replays her husband’s memory of twisted fate, all while the creature lurks on the fringes of the main characters’ psyche, like shame and blame. This story will haunt your thoughts, senses, and being. I recommend this quick read to horror fans. Enjoy!
/5
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Amie DeStefano enjoys writing short stories, poetry, the unusual and weird, but especially fantasy or anything else she dreams up and puts on paper. Her short story is published in That Darkened Doorstep anthology. While living in Pennsylvania with her husband and two children, she writes as often as possible. Amie enjoys sushi, coffee, and a good book, but nothing compares to the Zen-in the moment feeling she gets from writing.
