The Winter People: A Suspense Thriller

by Jennifer McMahon

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The New York Times bestselling author of The Invited will shock you with a simmering psychological thriller about ghostly secrets, dark choices, and the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters. • "One of the year's most chilling novels." —The Miami Herald

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.
 
Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search 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 into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

• ISBN10: 0804169969
• ISBN13: 9780804169967
• Publish Date: 6 January 2015 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Anchor Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780804169967

Reviews

[maggiefan]

3.5
Decided to round the rating down after thinking about it more.

[Mad Soul Child]

dnf 21%. решила не мучить себя, читала почти с первых страниц по диагонали, не могу сказать что книга плохая, но я прям мучилась, не настолько история заинтересовала чтобы продолжать

[leahrosereads]

Still as outstanding as I remembered.




12/7-10/14

5 Stars - And A New Favorite - Book and Author

It was all there--Sara’s story, Auntie’s story. Ruthie’s own story, even.
The story of a little girl named Gertie who died.
Whose mother loved her too much to let her go.
So she brought her back.
Only the world she came back to wasn’t the same.
She wasn’t the same.


At its heart, THE WINTER PEOPLE is a ghost story, but it felt like so much more. The family connections within this story are so strong that you root for all parties. You want them to have their happy endings, because you feel like they truly deserve it.


I absolutely loved this novel. It touched on these really profound subjects for me, namely death and an afterlife and family bonds that surpass death. Love that is so strong that it blinds and consumes and makes people irrational.

And then, of course there was the horror element of the story, of loved ones being forced back into this life but not being who they were. They come back as shells of themselves, as ghouls, and it’s heartbreaking. Not just for the poor soul being brought back, but for the loved ones who are still so blind in their love, that they’re willing to take back this loved one, broken, empty and all.


THE PAST

We see the past in the way of one of our main characters diary entries, Sara Harrison Shea. She’s a wife and a mother, and she lives in a very small town - West Hall, Vermont on a piece of land near wooded area known as Devil’s Hand.

Through her entries, we see Sara as a child, being raised by a woman known as Auntie. A native to the land, and someone who knows how to make potions that heal and poison her clients or victims.

We also see Sara as a loving, even smothering mother. She is so completely in love with her daughter, Gertie, that you feel their connection instantaneously. And, you see her as a wife. A strong willed wife to a man (Martin) who is physically weaker than her, but who loves her fully. Martin’s not a proud man, or he didn’t seem to me. He saw his wife’s strengths and loved her for them. However, it’s 1908, so he still does most of the manly tasks around the home (like hunting (though Sara does it better)).

I loved this family. I saw the interactions as really genuine, and I applaud Jennifer McMahon for being able to make the reader connect to the characters so quickly.


And of course, it was heartbreaking for the reader and the family when Gertie dies, and even more so, when Sara decides to bring Gertie back (through instructions left by Auntie).


THE PRESENT

I loved these characters just as much. We have the current family living on Sara and Martin’s old farm. A mother and two daughters (the husband and father passing). Alice, the mother, is missing, and it’s up to her eldest daughter, Ruthie to not only try to find her, but to take care of her little sister Fawn.

She has help in the beginning with her boyfriend Buzz, but he kind of disappears midway through the novel (I guess to go to work), but I wish he was a part of this journey. He’s this adorkable guy who believes in UFOs, and he would have gotten such a kick out of the story. I wish he was able to.

Ruthie was our main heroine, and I liked her, but really I loved how she interacted with every other character, and how it felt like she wasn’t center stage in the story. Maybe a lot of people would prefer a main character where the story is only about her, but I liked how that wasn’t the case here. It made all the characters seem really important and necessary.


Then there was Katherine, a woman who comes to West Hall because her husband Gary, died on his way home from the town. He lied to her about where he was going, and as an artist, she was able to upend her life without too much trouble, so she did.

Her story is just as tragic as Sara’s, and I felt so much for her. She had lost her son (leukemia), and then to lose her husband, it was too much for Katherine. She needed answers, and she believed she would get them in West Hall.

In her investigation into her husband’s last day on earth, she meets Ruthie, Fawn and Candace and sees how all of them are connected.

Oh Candace, a sister of a man and his wife who were connected to Alice’s past. I really can’t give her story too much information without feeling like I’m spoiling parts of the story. But, she’s super important too, people. And crazy. Really batshit crazy.


THE WINTER PEOPLE was a book that I just couldn’t put down. The writing was phenomenal, and I felt like everything we learned was necessary. I didn’t think there were parts that could have been omitted without the story losing a lot of what made it special for me.

My only complaint was about Buzz. I liked him, but he really was (or seemed to be) the only secondary character. However, even his parts seemed pretty important, and I just wish that he had a bigger part to play. Although I understand why he didn’t.

At the end of the day, family was the heart of this story, and Buzz just wasn’t a part of these families.


I definitely recommend trying this novel out, and I know that I’m going to be checking out other works by Jennifer McMahon. I hope that her other novels hold up to this, because it was excellent.

THE WINTER PEOPLE may actually be my favorite FICTION novel of 2014. It’s bumped [b:The Night Circus|9361589|The Night Circus|Erin Morgenstern|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387124618s/9361589.jpg|14245059] out of that place.

I’m okay with that.

[cornerfolds]

DNF @ 15%

I may give this another shot in the future, but I just couldn't get into it for the read-a-thon.

[kimbacaffeinate]

The Winter People, shares a mystery that takes place on a small farm house in West Hall, Vermont. The journey to unlock the strange disappearance of a young mother named Alice reveals two stories. Those of Sara Harrison Shea, who was found dead behind her farm house in 1908 shortly after her daughter Gertie’s tragic death. The second story is present day and takes us into the lives of a recluse mother named Alice, and her two children, Ruthie and Fawn. Alice mysteriously disappears and her daughter, Ruthie begins searching for her. The answers she finds are disturbing and the tale that unfolds offers a suspenseful tale that leaves us deeply entangled in a macabre tale of love, loss and death.

The Winter People offers a clever tale about the bond between mother and daughter with dark paranormal twists. The author split our time between the present and past. Ruthie and her younger sister Fawn are searching for clues regarding the strange disappearance of their mother. Clues bring questions, and questions have them looking to the surrounding woods, strange disappearances and disturbing journal entries from Sara. The tale unfolded slowly with details surrounding both past and present. We know almost immediately what we are dealing with, and it only heightened the bone-chilling suspense. As the reader, I kept waiting for the boogie man to appear. This created a delicious, suspenseful feeling. I became so engrossed that wind and house noises made me gulp, and I shut closet doors before I continued. Usually I share my thoughts on the characters, but felt even my opinions of them might reveal things. Winter People reminded me of those tales whispered around the camp fire late at night. Those urban legends that gave you goosebumps and had you checking behind you shoulder. Within this creepy, bone-tingling horror tale there is a message or warning. Creep-tastic!

Copy received from publisher in exchange for unbiased review that originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer