Title: Winter’s Chill
Author: J D Savage
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: January 18, 2025
Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: 61 pages
Source: I received a free copy from the author.
Rating: 3 Stars
Blurb:
Melinda Wilson receives news that her mother has died by suicide. Not believing that her mother committed suicide, she returns to her childhood home along with her best friend Greg Creston. As she digs into her mother’s death, strange things to start happen. As Melinda digs deeper to find the truth she finds her father’s diary. Inside she finds information that would destroy the family name and rock the town to its core. As things get dangerous who will survive winter?
Content Warning: Death. Discussion of suicide as a possible cause of death. Murder. Brief references to blood.
Review:
Winter is full of frights.
The atmosphere was well done. There’s something about old houses that can be a little eerie even if they don’t have anything malevolent hiding in the corner, and this only becomes a stronger feeling when reading about homes that do have a paranormal presence. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the cold areas of the house as that could have easily been explained away by the fact that historical buildings can often be cold and drafty during the winter. To encourage the reader to continue to believe there was a less ordinary explanation for that was a smart decision and one that kept me reading.
This story would have benefited from another round of editing in my opinion. One of the characters was introduced with a last name but later referred to by a completely different last name. Had he been earlier shown to be a liar, I would have assumed that this was yet another example of him misleading others. He was always written as a truthful person, though, so I can only assume this was an error and not a hint about his moral character. There were some punctuation errors sprinkled through it as well that I found distracting. As much as I would have liked to choose a higher rating, I wasn’t able to do so due to these issues.
Not everyone is lucky enough to come from an upstanding family, especially when one digs more deeply into their heritage. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored Melinda’s feelings about the information she discovered about the past and how it could destroy the good name her family had in the community. No one should be held personally responsible for the actions of their ancestors, of course, but there is also something to be said for seeking out the truth and making amends as much as one possible can once they know what really happened.
Winter’s Chill was a scary read for a snowy night.