A review by breeski
When Winter Comes by V. a. Shannon

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I had a tough time rating this. I want to rate it 5 stars but there were a few shortfalls. One is the amount of characters...it's so difficult to keep track of who is who, especially when the groups get divided. There was a lot less tough decision making and cannibalism than I expected, I think the author tried to be respectful of the original party and opted to keep it to a minimum since there were so many false stories and speculations, which I understand. I really enjoyed reading the story of the made up character of the Donner party, but the character wasn't even *with* the donners during the winter, they separated and stayed with a different group...which is why there was less cannibalism. I would hide that as a spoiler but I feel like the premise is very misleading because of that, I felt let down and lied to almost?
The character development was great, I enjoyed the main group of characters, and the flashes to current day were fun to read. Overall I really enjoyed this story once I got over the fact it didn't actually closely follow the Donner party.