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friarzero's review against another edition
2.0
Utterly bland. A triumph of mediocrity. It's a by the numbers horror story with broad pastiches of midwerstern middle class white people. There's a token swipe at religious zealotry but it's toothless and quickly passed over. There's no central message, theme, or even attitude. You don't get the reflection on crowds and panic you might get from a Stephen King story. There's no great metaphor being played out here. It's the protein bar of horror stories. Sure, it'll keep you alive but it tastes like so much cardboard.
Also, Malfi really seems to hate fat people and have some suspect views on women.
Also, Malfi really seems to hate fat people and have some suspect views on women.
jyan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Read during Slowpocalypse 2021
andrewcull's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
prettyinpapercuts's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.5
lauriereadslohf's review against another edition
Snow is about a guy and a gal who first meet at an airport. They end up stranded when their flights are cancelled due to a snowstorm. They, very unwisely if you ask me, decide to rent a car and drive to their destinations instead. During a blizzard.
Bad and bloody things happen because more than snow has come rolling in with the blizzard. It has a lot of gore, action and even a religious wingnut BUT . . .
I am sad to say that this one was a DNF. The writing was good, there was attention to atmosphere and to character but I just didn’t love it and found myself daydreaming. The characters and their plight did not move me. After the fifth attempt at getting it done, I put it aside for the final time at the 50% mark. It could be my mood (probably), or the fact that I sort of recently read a similar book and didn’t love that one either ([b:Chills|28502853|Chills|Mary SanGiovanni|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454377374s/28502853.jpg|48656187]) but whatever the reason I tired of the struggle and pulled the plug.
It has lots of fantastic reviews by many of my trusted friends but alas it wasn’t meant for me.
Bad and bloody things happen because more than snow has come rolling in with the blizzard. It has a lot of gore, action and even a religious wingnut BUT . . .
I am sad to say that this one was a DNF. The writing was good, there was attention to atmosphere and to character but I just didn’t love it and found myself daydreaming. The characters and their plight did not move me. After the fifth attempt at getting it done, I put it aside for the final time at the 50% mark. It could be my mood (probably), or the fact that I sort of recently read a similar book and didn’t love that one either ([b:Chills|28502853|Chills|Mary SanGiovanni|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454377374s/28502853.jpg|48656187]) but whatever the reason I tired of the struggle and pulled the plug.
It has lots of fantastic reviews by many of my trusted friends but alas it wasn’t meant for me.
pestocks's review against another edition
5.0
I love reading a book where the season is opposite of the one I am in. Obviously this book is set in the dead of winter and it is summer and 100 degrees outside. What a great read from the very start with no let up throughout the book. The characters are well thought out and real facing an unbelievable threat. If you are looking for a good summer read to coo you down and are not adverse to a horror story, give this one a try. What a fun ride that was!
xterminal's review against another edition
Ronald Malfi, Snow (Leisure, 2010)
I had Snow, Malfi's most recent novel, on my list of stuff to read in 2011. Then I found a copy at a library book sale, in good enough shape for me, but not for the library. (It had suffered some water damage.) Considering this providence, I bought it for a quarter, took it home, and then tried to resist reading it until 2011. As I'm writing this on October 1, 2010, you can see how well that worked out. I've been hearing Malfi's name around and about for a few years now, but had never checked out any of his fiction before; while it does suffer from a few of the shortcomings common to the genre, that won't stop me from checking out his stuff again in the future.
Snow starts in one of the places in the world that, when you consider horror novels, is the least scary, but when you consider real life, is terrifying—O'Hare Airport. It is Christmas Eve, and a number of passengers headed for Des Moines (actually, all points) are stuck in a snowstorm. Todd Curry, the book's protagonist, attempts to rent a car capable of making it to Iowa in a snowstorm, but finds out the last four-wheel-drive was just rented by Kate, a perky redhead he'd just met in the airport bar. She offers to give him a ride, along with Fred and Nan Wilkinson, an elderly couple similarly stranded, and the four of them head off into the night. Things don't get odd until they get into Iowa, but then they come upon a guy stumbling around in the snow. He says he's looking for his daughter, and our intrepid crew decide to help. But there are things about both his story and his demeanor that don't add up...
I didn't really grasp it until I started writing this review, but there's one monster plot hole in this book that drove me up the wall; after I'd finished the book, I knew there was something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it till just now. Since it involves both the very beginning and the very end of the book, it's impossible to talk about in a review without giving away a major spoiler, but if you do notice it, it'll probably drive you up the wall, too. Which is not at all what I was going to say in the third paragraph. Consider this a diversion.
I've noticed over the years that genre fiction, especially genre horror, is far more plot- than character-based. Having read Snow, I think I'm going to add a third category to this, the pace-based book (think Douglas Winter's Run or the novels of Jack Priest, for example), because while Snow is a plot-driven book indeed, and some of the subplots suddenly disappearing will drive you to distraction, Malfi at least tries to give you three-dimensional characters here, far more so than a Winter or a Priest (or for that matter, the modern master of the cardboard character, Brian Keene—though I rush to add his books are the best guilty pleasures you can get your hands on these days). He doesn't always succeed, and every once in a while you'll run across a character with “kill me” tattooed on his forehead (what Star Trek fans call redshirts), and those tend to be transparent. But put all that aside and what you've got is a fun little horror novel with a pretty durned nifty monster; it's fun, if shallow, and worth a read for genre horror fans. ***
I had Snow, Malfi's most recent novel, on my list of stuff to read in 2011. Then I found a copy at a library book sale, in good enough shape for me, but not for the library. (It had suffered some water damage.) Considering this providence, I bought it for a quarter, took it home, and then tried to resist reading it until 2011. As I'm writing this on October 1, 2010, you can see how well that worked out. I've been hearing Malfi's name around and about for a few years now, but had never checked out any of his fiction before; while it does suffer from a few of the shortcomings common to the genre, that won't stop me from checking out his stuff again in the future.
Snow starts in one of the places in the world that, when you consider horror novels, is the least scary, but when you consider real life, is terrifying—O'Hare Airport. It is Christmas Eve, and a number of passengers headed for Des Moines (actually, all points) are stuck in a snowstorm. Todd Curry, the book's protagonist, attempts to rent a car capable of making it to Iowa in a snowstorm, but finds out the last four-wheel-drive was just rented by Kate, a perky redhead he'd just met in the airport bar. She offers to give him a ride, along with Fred and Nan Wilkinson, an elderly couple similarly stranded, and the four of them head off into the night. Things don't get odd until they get into Iowa, but then they come upon a guy stumbling around in the snow. He says he's looking for his daughter, and our intrepid crew decide to help. But there are things about both his story and his demeanor that don't add up...
I didn't really grasp it until I started writing this review, but there's one monster plot hole in this book that drove me up the wall; after I'd finished the book, I knew there was something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it till just now. Since it involves both the very beginning and the very end of the book, it's impossible to talk about in a review without giving away a major spoiler, but if you do notice it, it'll probably drive you up the wall, too. Which is not at all what I was going to say in the third paragraph. Consider this a diversion.
I've noticed over the years that genre fiction, especially genre horror, is far more plot- than character-based. Having read Snow, I think I'm going to add a third category to this, the pace-based book (think Douglas Winter's Run or the novels of Jack Priest, for example), because while Snow is a plot-driven book indeed, and some of the subplots suddenly disappearing will drive you to distraction, Malfi at least tries to give you three-dimensional characters here, far more so than a Winter or a Priest (or for that matter, the modern master of the cardboard character, Brian Keene—though I rush to add his books are the best guilty pleasures you can get your hands on these days). He doesn't always succeed, and every once in a while you'll run across a character with “kill me” tattooed on his forehead (what Star Trek fans call redshirts), and those tend to be transparent. But put all that aside and what you've got is a fun little horror novel with a pretty durned nifty monster; it's fun, if shallow, and worth a read for genre horror fans. ***
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