I have mixed feelings about this novel. I like it because it hooked me right away and maintained a good level of suspense. It does not take long for the characters to see that mysterious man looking for his daughter in the middle of the road. Right away, something just seems wrong. From that point on, the action was fast paced and I was wondering what was going to happen next.
But, once I started to realize what was going on, I was a little disappointed. I’ve got to give this book some credit though; these monsters really seemed unique. It’s a nice change of pace to see a monster that stands out. However, I found it a bit difficult to believe in this monster. They were the snow and could materialize long enough to create blade like projections that they used to enter the human body so they could feed. When I first read that, I had to put the book down for a bit and return to it later. I just didn’t get it. I don’t know if it was because I wanted more information. What were they? Where did they come from? Why do they have to feed? If they’re just going to turn back into snow, do they really need to feed? And if what they fed on was so bloody, how do they so easily turn back into white snow? I don’t know why I had a problem with it, but I did.
Maybe not the best questions, but I couldn’t get past them. This made it very difficult to go along with these monsters. I loved the idea that they were in the snow because it was easy to have the monsters everywhere and anywhere. I just wasn’t completely impressed when they did appear. It also seemed like it might be really easy to beat them. Melt the snow. Big fires. Something.
The ending didn’t sit well with me either. There’s the suggestion of other worlds. The monsters leave. And there are multiple reports of these monsters across different parts of the country, all in small towns. It raised more unanswered questions for me.
There were several things I liked. I liked the characters. I liked the conflict. I liked the tension and suspense. I liked that these monsters seemed pretty original. I loved some of the description. The girl with no face at the beginning. The way the monsters didn’t “mix” with kids. More than anything else, I was able to enjoy the story because I was interested in the characters. Even though there were several things I didn’t like and even though part of the novel raised many unanswered questions, I liked the characters and I cared enough about them to see what was going to happen. I think that speaks well for the novel and the writing.
Another issue I had (not monster related) was the author’s use of some vocabulary. “The pain was like a thousand holocausts.” “[…] like a photo from some Nazi concentration camp, charred bodies littered the snow.” Those two lines threw me completely out of the story. I couldn’t help but think there would be better ways to describe something, other than holocaust references.
