Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - A Killing Cold

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

54 reviews

kimveach's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious tense

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This chilling mystery kept me guessing until the end—an excellent winter thriller.

Content Warnings

booksandcoffeewithlexi's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

shriverle's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

novellearts's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Theodora and her fiancé Connor, leave to join his family on their winter retreat. As she arrives, she starts receiving messages warning her to stay away from Connor and his family yet she does not heed the warning. After arriving, she realizes that this place feels familiar to her but she can’t understand why. She soon starts to realize that there is more to Connor’s family than she originally thought and she becomes determined to find out their secrets after she discovers a photo of herself as a child on the premises.

A Killing Cold is a quick read and an interesting one at that. The suspense and mystery kept me intrigued from start to finish. While I enjoyed this book, I also felt that a variation (or a few variations) of this story have been done before. It wasn’t the most unique book I’ve read. The characters left a bit to be desired and I had trouble discerning between all of them at times. This led to me needing to double-back a few times to be sure that I was understanding correctly. I think this book was still worth reading and was an enjoyable story.

I received the audiobook and thought the narration was very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the audiobook in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Content Warnings

angiebradley's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

chaptersofchase's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Grab something warm and curl up with A Killing Cold! 🥶

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Format: 🎧📖

Pub Date: 2.4.2025

Pages: 304

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆.5

“Angry people do unpredictable things. We all have violence inside of us. It needs only the right fuel.”

Kate Alice Mitchell has done it again! Every year, I eagerly await her new releases, and A Killing Cold was no exception. As a fan of psychological thrillers, I love a story that keeps me on the edge of my seat, forcing me to question everyone and trust no one. This book was exactly that—packed with twists, turns, and a plot that kept me frantically flipping pages.

One of the things I absolutely adored about A Killing Cold was the protagonist, Theo. In a genre often filled with morally gray or unlikable characters, she was a refreshing change. Theo has faced unimaginable hardship in her short life, and I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. I wanted her to survive, to thrive—and I can’t say that about all the characters in the book!

As for triggers, I’ll share a full list below, but one important theme in A Killing Cold is hunting. There are graphic descriptions of hunting with a bow and arrow, as well as field dressing, which, while fitting to the story, were a bit too much for me at times. I found myself skipping over some of those paragraphs, but for readers who aren’t squeamish, it definitely adds to the atmosphere.

The way this story unraveled was so well done—it’s a slow burn, revealing pieces of the puzzle one at a time. Just when I thought I had it figured out, Mitchell threw in another twist. It was a thrilling ride from start to finish, and I know it’ll make my top favorites list for 2025.

Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, child abuse, miscarriage

Read if you enjoy:

❄️ Atmospheric

🎭 Family drama

📖 Short Chapters

🏔️ Isolated setting

🔀 Unexpected twists

I recommend reading A Killing Cold if you’re looking for the perfect winter thriller to keep you occupied!

______

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Content Warnings

astoriareader's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

SYNOPSIS

Connor and Theodora have had a whirlwind romance and are now engaged to be married.
Connor comes from an extremely wealthy family, while Theo, who was adopted, has no connection to her adoptive family or any information about her birth family.
The couple travels to Connor’s family’s remote winter retreat—an isolated, snow-covered estate cut off from the outside world.
Tensions rise as Theo meets Connor’s family, who are less than welcoming.
As secrets start to unravel, Theo realizes she may not know Connor—or his family—as well as she thought.

MY THOUGHTS

This is a classic locked-room mystery with an atmospheric setting that heightens the tension. No cell service, snow piling up outside, and a house full of secrets—what could possibly go wrong?
The dysfunctional family vibes are strong in this one. Everyone has something to hide, and the class divide between Theo and Connor’s wealthy family is obvious.
Be prepared for a cast of unlikeable characters. Outside of Theo, there aren’t many redeeming qualities among them, which might make it tough to root for anyone.
There are plenty of flashback moments and nightmares, which help fill in Theo’s mysterious past and add to the eerie atmosphere.
You’ll have to suspend a lot of belief to go along with some of the coincidences and twists, but if you can, it’s a fun ride.
The writing itself is solid—Kate Marshall knows how to build suspense and atmosphere, even if the story doesn’t feel all that unique.
The isolated setting works well for creating a claustrophobic, unsettling vibe, but some of the plot points feel a bit predictable.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫3.5 Stars. A suspenseful, atmospheric locked-room mystery with an icy, isolated setting and plenty of family drama. While the writing is solid and the tension builds nicely, the plot doesn’t feel particularly original, and the story isn’t really unique.

Thanks to Flatiron Books and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchanges for an honest review. This book will be published on February 4, 2025.

Content Warnings

dblue236's review against another edition

5.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I've bought several of this author's books since first reading What Lies in the Woods a couple of years ago, and not a single one of them has disappointed me yet, but this one is my favorite so far. I loved the setting since I'm always a sucker for a "cabin in the woods murder mystery" vibe, and while I didn't necessarily love most of the characters, that actually sort of added to my enjoyment of the story. There were several aspects of it that I did not manage to figure out before they were revealed, and this was just overall a really fun ensemble thriller that I didn't want to put down once I got started.

Content Warnings

shawnachristine's review against another edition

3.0

tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

From the second that you meet

Uncle Nick

in this story you should get a pretty good feeling that he's got something to do with everything. I don't understand WHY the author felt the need to give Theo some weird back story that was tragic but then also force her to lie to everyone? It didn't make sense, to me there was no motivation to lie about that. The author threw in some weird loop hole of a reason as to why but that then spiraling into Theo lying about EVERYTHING was insane and aggravating. She had no reason to constantly lie to Connor, and I get that it was supposed to be a twisty mystery but every time she would lie to Connor instead of telling him what was going on I would get a little aggravated because this absolutely would have worked as a shorter novel or a short story even and been much better. It's still a good story and there are a few characters who aren't so bad, but overall I think that it being a full length novel of nearly 400 pages was a disservice to the story itself and made it so it felt like it was dragging on and on.

I also am very tempted to drop the star level for the twists of "Oh it was Liam" and then "Oh it was Rose it must have been" and then "Oh no it was Alexis!" and then finally revealing "No we just let Alexis think she did it but it was actually Magnus!" It just felt really cheap and also kind of spits in this idea of always taking care of the family and protecting them considering they mention at least twice in that novel that Alexis was cutting herself over the guilt she felt. Like they could have made up any kind of story about what happened out there. It kind of spit in the face of EVERYTHING. Also Rose being left completely in the dark about every single thing. Like she didn't know a second of ANY of this. They just let her believe that her husband was cheating on her and accidentally fell to his death even though that man was such a good dude that he was trying to save his brothers girlfriend from abuse like damn

Content Warnings

briknecht's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was fine. Not terrible, but not exactly good either.

Felt much longer than 280 pages. Other than the big reveal at the end it didn’t seem like much actually happened. The writing and characters were super flat and not one of them was likable.

Overall a miss for me.

Content Warnings

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