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theremightbecupcakes's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
nerdyunicorn716's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
chigangrel's review against another edition
4.0
Others compared this book to [b:Phantoms|32435|Phantoms|Dean Koontz|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925458s/32435.jpg|1762777], and I have to say that's an apt comparison. Honestly, the big reason I chose to read this book was because of that comparison, because I loved Phantoms. The idea stumbling upon a creepy ghost town in the middle of winter is one of my favorite story set-ups and one I always find creepy-- maybe because I live in a very similar setting?
Snow, even with its similarities, is good enough to stand on its own, however. I started it yesterday without the intention of reading it in one sitting but that's what I wound up doing. It was a quick read but not because it was simple, but because it was exciting. The action and suspense and horror built up at a good pace and kept up for a large portion of the book, which impressed me. The writing was very good, with excellent descriptions of the weather and the town and the creepy monsters, all of which really pulled me into the story.
So why 4 stars and not 5? I'm chalking that up to some of the characters. The main characters of Todd and Kate were alright, though a bit annoying at times, for example Todd kept fighting off an erection around Kate... while they were in the middle of fighting for their lives. Granted, I'm not a man, but that just seemed silly because he was otherwise quite a capable lead. Then there were the stereotypical characters one always finds in this type of story: the religious fanatic, the stupid children (who were supposed to be like 9-ish but came off more around the age of 2, which made me wonder if Malfi has interacted with any children since he was one himself), the stupid woman who refuses to accept the situation, etc. These characters are tiresome and overplayed and Malfi writes them in a very OTT way, making the use of them even more unbearable. Luckily they don't take up much space in the story, but they took up enough to annoy me into removing a star.
Overall though I really enjoyed the story. It had a cinematic feeling to it I loved because it really helped me to picture everything. There was no real resolution -you don't learn what these monsters are- but that's not a bad thing in my book. A little mystery keeps the horror alive. It's fast-paced and an easy read. I'd recommend it to fans of Stephan King and Dean Koontz.
eta: I wanted to add an addendum here after reading some of the reviews that are 1 or 2 star. I think those reviews are understandable and deserved. Snow is enjoyable but it's not a very original tale and, as I mentioned above, Malfi sticks to the old trieds and trues of the genre, even when they're annoying. Personally, I don't mind that so much because there's a sort of comfort in experiencing the familiar (on occasion). Perhaps on another day I'd have give Snow a lesser rating but today, being buring in the snow myself, I was feeling it. I guess what I want to say is, it's a book for certain people at certain times. Take that for what you will!
Snow, even with its similarities, is good enough to stand on its own, however. I started it yesterday without the intention of reading it in one sitting but that's what I wound up doing. It was a quick read but not because it was simple, but because it was exciting. The action and suspense and horror built up at a good pace and kept up for a large portion of the book, which impressed me. The writing was very good, with excellent descriptions of the weather and the town and the creepy monsters, all of which really pulled me into the story.
So why 4 stars and not 5? I'm chalking that up to some of the characters. The main characters of Todd and Kate were alright, though a bit annoying at times, for example Todd kept fighting off an erection around Kate... while they were in the middle of fighting for their lives. Granted, I'm not a man, but that just seemed silly because he was otherwise quite a capable lead. Then there were the stereotypical characters one always finds in this type of story: the religious fanatic, the stupid children (who were supposed to be like 9-ish but came off more around the age of 2, which made me wonder if Malfi has interacted with any children since he was one himself), the stupid woman who refuses to accept the situation, etc. These characters are tiresome and overplayed and Malfi writes them in a very OTT way, making the use of them even more unbearable. Luckily they don't take up much space in the story, but they took up enough to annoy me into removing a star.
Overall though I really enjoyed the story. It had a cinematic feeling to it I loved because it really helped me to picture everything. There was no real resolution -you don't learn what these monsters are- but that's not a bad thing in my book. A little mystery keeps the horror alive. It's fast-paced and an easy read. I'd recommend it to fans of Stephan King and Dean Koontz.
eta: I wanted to add an addendum here after reading some of the reviews that are 1 or 2 star. I think those reviews are understandable and deserved. Snow is enjoyable but it's not a very original tale and, as I mentioned above, Malfi sticks to the old trieds and trues of the genre, even when they're annoying. Personally, I don't mind that so much because there's a sort of comfort in experiencing the familiar (on occasion). Perhaps on another day I'd have give Snow a lesser rating but today, being buring in the snow myself, I was feeling it. I guess what I want to say is, it's a book for certain people at certain times. Take that for what you will!
horrorghoul's review against another edition
4.0
TW: Fat shaming, parent abandonment, cancer, cheating, gore, abuse
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Todd Curry wants nothing more than to spend Christmas with his son. But when a brutal snowstorm cancels his flight from Chicago to Des Moines, Todd and a few other stranded passengers decide to rent a Jeep and make the trip on their own. During the drive, they pick up a man wandering through the snow, who claims to be searching for his lost daughter. He is disoriented and his story seems peculiar. Strangest of all are the mysterious slashes cut into the back of the man’s coat, straight down to the flesh… When they arrive at the nearest town, it appears deserted. Windows dark, car abandoned, fired burning unattended. But Todd and the rest of the travelers soon learn the town is far from deserted, and that they are being watched…
Release Date: 03/2010
Genre: Apocalyptic horror
Pages: 311
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
What I Liked:
• In this unrealistic book people do realistic things
• I like Kate
• The writing is so good
• Serious creepy moments
What I Didn't Like:
• Todd and Kate hating on overweight people
• The random pov's from different characters
• There's a ton of spelling errors
• Some parts felt repetitive
• The book didn't follow its own rules
Overall Thoughts: Starting out this book I was alarmed at how many times the main character kept bringing up the man's weight. It felt very cringe worthy and pointless. What did that offer in the way of plot?
So, from the start I hate Todd. He insults people's weight and he hasn't seen his child in a year.
Todd is an asshole. He gives Bree shit when she gets upset and tells him not to disappoint their child. She's been the one there for the child and he's been off living his life so who is he to act like she's being unreasonable.
Todd is super nice to attractive females.
Chapter nine is odd because out of the blue the narration changes and we get a perspective from Kate when so far it's been from Todd's pov.
I know that it's silly but one of my big pet peeves is that they go all day and never go pee or eat in books, but in this book they do both. The characters have to go pee and they find themselves starving so they go through someone's fridge and eat. Weird to me that it takes this unrealistic book for such a realistic moment to happen.
Some parts felt repetitive. They would go to a place they would find a survivor, then things would attack them, then those people would be killed off, then they would find another place to go and, then those people would be killed off and, so on and so on.
The rules were that batteries didn't work in this town because somehow the things were able to stop batteries from working. How did flashlights work? How did they plug the modem into a battery to work? I feel like the rules weren't followed to what the book said. If a big part of your plot is that something doesn't work you can't have it work sometimes when it fits a different purpose.
Final Thoughts: So I love in the North East and decided to start this book during a bad snow storm. It creeped me out at moments while I sat in the dark reading it on my phone. There are scenes that are described that made me scared and grossed out. The writing was absolutely wonderful. I had previously read another book by this author Come With Me and I wasn't too impressed. That book was more thriller than horror so I only have it 3.5 stars. I am happy I have the author another chance because this book was a special treat. I still hated Todd though. He's not a good person. He hates overweight people but is nice when people are attractive. He even judged the older couple that was with them by how fit they were. Overall I found this book creepy, weird, and just great writing.
IG|Blog
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Todd Curry wants nothing more than to spend Christmas with his son. But when a brutal snowstorm cancels his flight from Chicago to Des Moines, Todd and a few other stranded passengers decide to rent a Jeep and make the trip on their own. During the drive, they pick up a man wandering through the snow, who claims to be searching for his lost daughter. He is disoriented and his story seems peculiar. Strangest of all are the mysterious slashes cut into the back of the man’s coat, straight down to the flesh… When they arrive at the nearest town, it appears deserted. Windows dark, car abandoned, fired burning unattended. But Todd and the rest of the travelers soon learn the town is far from deserted, and that they are being watched…
Release Date: 03/2010
Genre: Apocalyptic horror
Pages: 311
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
What I Liked:
• In this unrealistic book people do realistic things
• I like Kate
• The writing is so good
• Serious creepy moments
What I Didn't Like:
• Todd and Kate hating on overweight people
• The random pov's from different characters
• There's a ton of spelling errors
• Some parts felt repetitive
• The book didn't follow its own rules
Overall Thoughts: Starting out this book I was alarmed at how many times the main character kept bringing up the man's weight. It felt very cringe worthy and pointless. What did that offer in the way of plot?
So, from the start I hate Todd. He insults people's weight and he hasn't seen his child in a year.
Todd is an asshole. He gives Bree shit when she gets upset and tells him not to disappoint their child. She's been the one there for the child and he's been off living his life so who is he to act like she's being unreasonable.
Todd is super nice to attractive females.
Chapter nine is odd because out of the blue the narration changes and we get a perspective from Kate when so far it's been from Todd's pov.
I know that it's silly but one of my big pet peeves is that they go all day and never go pee or eat in books, but in this book they do both. The characters have to go pee and they find themselves starving so they go through someone's fridge and eat. Weird to me that it takes this unrealistic book for such a realistic moment to happen.
Some parts felt repetitive. They would go to a place they would find a survivor, then things would attack them, then those people would be killed off, then they would find another place to go and, then those people would be killed off and, so on and so on.
The rules were that batteries didn't work in this town because somehow the things were able to stop batteries from working. How did flashlights work? How did they plug the modem into a battery to work? I feel like the rules weren't followed to what the book said. If a big part of your plot is that something doesn't work you can't have it work sometimes when it fits a different purpose.
Final Thoughts: So I love in the North East and decided to start this book during a bad snow storm. It creeped me out at moments while I sat in the dark reading it on my phone. There are scenes that are described that made me scared and grossed out. The writing was absolutely wonderful. I had previously read another book by this author Come With Me and I wasn't too impressed. That book was more thriller than horror so I only have it 3.5 stars. I am happy I have the author another chance because this book was a special treat. I still hated Todd though. He's not a good person. He hates overweight people but is nice when people are attractive. He even judged the older couple that was with them by how fit they were. Overall I found this book creepy, weird, and just great writing.
IG|Blog
stranger_sights's review against another edition
3.0
You can read my full review here.
I really wish that more attention had been paid to putting together this edition. The story I’d say was like 3.5 stars, but I feel like it’s also important to review the edition itself, so…yeah. I had some issues with it.
I really wish that more attention had been paid to putting together this edition. The story I’d say was like 3.5 stars, but I feel like it’s also important to review the edition itself, so…yeah. I had some issues with it.
lanternsjourney's review against another edition
DNF I didn't feel for the characters l, didn't think the "monsters" we're that scary and it just wasn't for me.
averystrawberry's review against another edition
2.0
The comment about "political correctness gone too far" at the beginning ruined what would otherwise be an average read at best for me
kaisu's review against another edition
3.0
3 oder 4 Sterne? Inhaltlich ist es typisch amerikanisch. Keine großen Überraschungen und dennoch unterhält das Buch echt gut!
couchnest's review
3.0
This book felt very long to me. It started out pretty strong, but seemed to just go on and on and on and on and on.
To be fair, unless it's like demonic possession, supernatural monsters don't interest me much. The premise of the story interested me, but I never cared much for any of the characters to feel invested in whether they lived or died. I set out to read this when I did because we finally had a decent snow where I live and I wanted to read some books that take place during snowstorms. This did fit that bill. And the idea of the monsters was pretty original, but IDK, I just kind of wish there was more explanation about where they came from, why they were there, what was their end goal, etc. Are they intelligent beings? I just never really got a good feel for them. I did like the creepiness of how they moved through the snow and were able to get into spaces as snow and then form into the whirlwinds that then could enter the humans.
I would probably recommend it if someone asked for a snowy horror book, but I would definitely say that for me, it was a very slow burn (probably from all the snow, ha ha).
To be fair, unless it's like demonic possession, supernatural monsters don't interest me much. The premise of the story interested me, but I never cared much for any of the characters to feel invested in whether they lived or died. I set out to read this when I did because we finally had a decent snow where I live and I wanted to read some books that take place during snowstorms. This did fit that bill. And the idea of the monsters was pretty original, but IDK, I just kind of wish there was more explanation about where they came from, why they were there, what was their end goal, etc. Are they intelligent beings? I just never really got a good feel for them. I did like the creepiness of how they moved through the snow and were able to get into spaces as snow and then form into the whirlwinds that then could enter the humans.
I would probably recommend it if someone asked for a snowy horror book, but I would definitely say that for me, it was a very slow burn (probably from all the snow, ha ha).