Scan barcode
A review by vikingwolf
Snow by Ronald Malfi
4.0
Todd needs to get to the home of his ex-wife to see his son for Christmas but a snowstorm cancels his flight at Chicago. Against all common sense, he and three fellow travellers decide to hire a car and drive. They encounter a strange man looking for his missing child, causing their car to crash, forcing them to go into the nearby town. However the streets are empty and something has taken over the bodies of the people, hunting down the few survivors.
Todd is a good character. His gambling addiction cost him his wife but he is trying to salvage his relationship with his young son who wants to see him at Christmas. Scared of letting Justin down again, Todd takes the crazy decision to rent a car to drive through the deadly storm. I get his reasons but I'd have decided to wait the storm out in the comfort of the airport where there is heat, light, toilets, food etc rather than risking my neck out on icy roads with hardly any supplies if the car breaks down or crashes. Of course, even my wild imagination wouldn't be thinking 'alien snow monsters' but I'd never have risked that trip.
Kate is on her way home to her fiance and hires the last vehicle capable of making the journey but kindly offers to take Todd, and a married couple Fred and Nan, who are all heading the same way. I liked the four of them from the start and wanted to scream at them not to be so dumb but of course they weren't listening to me. Fred and Todd agree to share the driving and head off. Swerving to avoid a man on the road causes an accident that cripples the car. The strange man is adamant that he has lost his daughter in the snow but our four friends are rightly freaked out by him.
They decide to enter the town and things aren't right from the start. They encounter creepy faceless children, strange adults whose bodies have been taken over by monsters, blood and fire in the town square, vanishing animals and the never ending snow storm continues. Their phones are dead, cars won't start and the storm and what lives inside it is pinning them down and not allowing them to escape or call for help. The travellers are going to have to find a way to survive the danger and think of a plan to escape.
Being stranded by a storm is usually a fun scenario for a horror book and this proved to be the case. The puppet-master monsters are scary and very difficult to fight. The way they take over the human body and leave them wandering around like zombies is creepy and disturbing. The isolated, deserted town is an eerie setting and the difficulty of their situation is obvious. Even if they survive the monsters, the deep freezing storm with no power can be a killer on its own. I certainly found it a pretty tense book to read.
I liked the way the author wrote the book. He gave the main characters a bit of back story to let the reader find out enough about them to care what happens to them but didn't go into any unrequired details to pad the book out. He described what was needed for the story and just got on with it in a way that kept me reading it. A simple story done well with imagination shown for this kind of monster is exactly the kind of book I enjoy. It doesn't go mega gory as the skill in this story is about atmosphere and tension. The perfect horror to read on a cold winter day!
This is the first book of the author that I've read and I'll definitely be looking at more of his work soon. Highly recommended.
Todd is a good character. His gambling addiction cost him his wife but he is trying to salvage his relationship with his young son who wants to see him at Christmas. Scared of letting Justin down again, Todd takes the crazy decision to rent a car to drive through the deadly storm. I get his reasons but I'd have decided to wait the storm out in the comfort of the airport where there is heat, light, toilets, food etc rather than risking my neck out on icy roads with hardly any supplies if the car breaks down or crashes. Of course, even my wild imagination wouldn't be thinking 'alien snow monsters' but I'd never have risked that trip.
Kate is on her way home to her fiance and hires the last vehicle capable of making the journey but kindly offers to take Todd, and a married couple Fred and Nan, who are all heading the same way. I liked the four of them from the start and wanted to scream at them not to be so dumb but of course they weren't listening to me. Fred and Todd agree to share the driving and head off. Swerving to avoid a man on the road causes an accident that cripples the car. The strange man is adamant that he has lost his daughter in the snow but our four friends are rightly freaked out by him.
They decide to enter the town and things aren't right from the start. They encounter creepy faceless children, strange adults whose bodies have been taken over by monsters, blood and fire in the town square, vanishing animals and the never ending snow storm continues. Their phones are dead, cars won't start and the storm and what lives inside it is pinning them down and not allowing them to escape or call for help. The travellers are going to have to find a way to survive the danger and think of a plan to escape.
Being stranded by a storm is usually a fun scenario for a horror book and this proved to be the case. The puppet-master monsters are scary and very difficult to fight. The way they take over the human body and leave them wandering around like zombies is creepy and disturbing. The isolated, deserted town is an eerie setting and the difficulty of their situation is obvious. Even if they survive the monsters, the deep freezing storm with no power can be a killer on its own. I certainly found it a pretty tense book to read.
I liked the way the author wrote the book. He gave the main characters a bit of back story to let the reader find out enough about them to care what happens to them but didn't go into any unrequired details to pad the book out. He described what was needed for the story and just got on with it in a way that kept me reading it. A simple story done well with imagination shown for this kind of monster is exactly the kind of book I enjoy. It doesn't go mega gory as the skill in this story is about atmosphere and tension. The perfect horror to read on a cold winter day!
This is the first book of the author that I've read and I'll definitely be looking at more of his work soon. Highly recommended.