Snowblind by Christopher Golden

Snowblind by Christopher Golden, Horror Fiction

The small New England town of Coventry had weathered a thousand blizzards...but never one like this. Icy figures danced in the wind and gazed through children's windows with soul-chilling eyes. People wandered into the whiteout and were never seen again. Families were torn apart, and the town would never be the same.

Now, as a new storm approaches twelve years later, the folks of Coventry are haunted by the memories of that dreadful blizzard and those who were lost in the snow. Photographer Jake Schapiro mourns his little brother, Isaac, even as-tonight-another little boy is missing. Mechanic and part-time thief Doug Manning's life has been forever scarred by the mysterious death of his wife, Cherie, and now he’s starting over with another woman and more ambitious crimes. Police detective Joe Keenan has never been the same since that night, when he failed to save the life of a young boy . . . and the boy’s father vanished in the storm only feet away. And all the way on the other side of the country, Miri Ristani receives a phone call . . . from a man who died twelve years ago.

As old ghosts trickle back, this new storm will prove to be even more terrifying than the last.

I'm giving it a 3 out of 5 and this is why:

I read this during the heat of summer. If I’d read this during our horrendous and never-ending winter, I most likely would’ve moved to one of those sunshiny states. This book gets points for its descriptions of an icy cold hell but, most to my dismay because I was truly looking forward to it, it never moved above a three star read for me. I’ll try to tell you why.

As you can guess from the title, a blizzard strikes but this is no run of the mill blizzard. This blizzard brings with it “things” that destroy families for years to come.

Now this is where my problems begin and end. The setup was pretty great, I was getting into the story and enjoying getting to know the many characters who were introduced and poof!, just like that, the story flash forwards twelve years and I have to play to catch up to remember who lost who, who was involved with who, and who was a bit of a dick.  You get the drift. It was bothersome for someone who has such a piss-poor memory but it gets worse. The people who went missing or died begin to inhabit the bodies of living people and then my confusion is upped to a whole new level. Oh my poor tired brain.

It may be my fault for listening to this as an audiobook. I don’t know. People seem to love this book but for me I felt like I was playing a frustrating game of “Who was that again?” throughout most of the novel and I lost interest in the story and the characters as a result.

In the end it reminded me most of a middle of the road Dean Koontz novel.

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