Cold Snap – Lindy Ryan

A horror novella to get you in the holiday spirit – now that it’s November I’m fine sharing this October review a day late.

Thanks to Titan Books for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review

COLD SNAP – Lindy Ryan (Released October 15th, 2024)

I’ve had quite a few Lindy Ryan books this year, and I’m quickly beginning to have her down as an auto-buy!

Book Description:

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.

A haunting examination of the horrors of grief and the hunger of guilt, perfect for readers of Stephen King, Christina Henry, and Chuck Wendig.

My Thoughts: 3/5 stars

The comparisons for this book – The Only Good Indians, The Shining, AND The Babadook – the bar was high. After her husband fell off the roof while hanging Christmas lights, the newly widowed Christine packs up her teenage son and their cat and flees to a cabin in the woods for the holidays.

Well, as expected, the woods are going to do what they do and make all kinds of creepy sounds, and the trees like to play tricks on you. What is Christine seeing in the woods? Is it a moose? Is it something else? No one would stick around and find out, right? Bad choices after bad choices with this one 😂 the ending started to spiral into what felt like a fever dream, and it got…interesting. That’s really the only word that comes to mind.

**Trigger warning/minor spoiler due to the warning** Please note – while I know most people that love horror don’t mind some blood, gore, and mutilation. However, this one does involve animal mutilation. So if that’s not something you want to read, then you may want to skip this novella.