Reading this makes me shiver. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise, and it was quite uncomfortable.

The eerie atmosphere added to the unsettling feeling within me. And what happened to the cat—Haiku. OMG. I don’t even want to go there. That alone made me close the book and breathe for a while. It was suffocating.

If you’re not brave enough to read about animal mutilation, don’t even bother picking this up. I had to stop reading at that point. Nope! I can handle anything—the darkest, most disturbing thriller, the dirtiest, bloodiest Splatterpunk—but not this. No, sir.

To Titan Books & Netgalley: Thanks for the ARC. I tried to finish it, but I failed. Miserably.

thank you net galley for the arc copy. this is about christina who is dealing with the death of her husband. this story was good, just left me wondering if she was really losing ,or if these thing are really happing.

Christine and her son Billy are going up to an isolated cabin in the mountains that her husband booked before he died suddenly. Christine and Billy debate on canceling the cabin rental, but Christine needs time away from home, the place where her husband died, to clear her head. Throughout the story, she’s reliving the incident and everything serves as a reminder. She tries to be the parent her son needs, but she has survivor’s guilt and feels that it would’ve been better if she died in place of her husband. Christine, sees a creature in the woods that resembles a moose and then strange and terrible things start to happen around them. Christine and Billy are miles away from another human, snowed in with a vehicle that isn’t equipped for traveling in snow.

This story depicts a good picture of PTSD from a recent trauma. Some things seem repetitive at first, but then you realize it’s an example of how everything makes you think about the event that changed your life. The sayings Christine repeats in her head begin to take on deeper meanings throughout the book. While reading this it’s difficult to tell if it’s an unreliable narrator-type story or if the creature is real.

I enjoyed this book, I can see why some people might not like it. I’m not much of a horror reader, but I love weird books and this was quite creepy and weird. There is also some gore and other triggers to be aware of. As a mother and someone who lives in an area that gets great amounts of snow and has moose, I connected with the story. The ending was one that left you saying “What? Seriously, that’s how it ends!?” which you either love or hate. I personally, liked the ending. This would be a great story to have for a book club to have conversations about how everyone interpreted the ending.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the tropes. I think this book would be fun to discuss with others who’ve read it and can discuss the spoilers. I look forward to finding more works by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for allowing me to read this book early for an honest review.

Oh wow! I was hooked by the end of the first paragraph and could completely imagine being Christine on that cold winter night.
Overall, the description made me feel like I could see and hear everything I read, totally absorbing me into the story. An eerie setting in the middle of the woods was perfect for building tension.
I particularly liked the Stephen King references but previous knowledge of any of his stories is not essential to enjoy this novella.

The constant references to the tragedy at the start of the book and the snapping in and out of reality created quite an unsettling atmosphere which I thought worked really well. Great to read by the fire on a cold dark night!

This was one of the most unnerving stores I’ve read in a long time. From beginning to end there was a sense of creeping dread that never goes away.

I read the whole thing in a single sitting.

I really appreciated the message the author was conveying in the Novella Cold Snap about grief and loss but the writing style and the way the second half of the story went just didn’t do it for me.

This was interesting, albeit a confusing read. I didn’t really know what was happening but I still felt uneasy reading it. The entire book conveyed a feeling of being watched. The writing itself was easy to digest, it’s more the plot I struggled with. A mixed bag for sure!

This novella sadly didn’t really work for me. It had a lot of elements that I love in horror (Christmas, isolation, a snowy mountain, a strange creature) but it didn’t all come together. I did love the setting and atmosphere, but the plot felt confusing.

Christine repeatedly revisits the death of her husband in her mind and while I assume the point of these sentences spliced into the narrative was to show how grief tends to forcefully inject itself, I did just find it a bit repetitive after a while. Then when the spooky things started happening I often found myself confused by what was actually going on. I don’t mind a story where the reader is left unsure about whether something is real or all in a character’s head, but the execution here left me confused about what was supposed to be happening (whether real or imagined).

But this might work for anyone who's after a snowy setting and a fever dream feeling ending!

I really enjoyed this novella and it would be perfect to read during the holidays. The author did a great job of making this book chilling and at times I was genuinely scared. I felt this book was very unique and I loved the setting taking place In a remote cabin in Pennsylvania. I want to read this again around Christmas time.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
I love stories dealing with isolation. Snow is not a must, but it really adds something to the atmosphere. The blurb said it was for fans of The Babadook among other titles, so I was very intrigued.
Sadly, I cannot say I would recommend this book. It feels very dragged (which is odd, as it is only 85 pages long) and very repetitive (I do understand what the writer is trying to do with those repetitions, but in my opinion, they do not work at all). I found myself rereading paragraphs more than once, trying to understand if I missed something: I was very lost at times, trying to connect with characters that were not likable. In the end, I closed the book (in the figurative sense) and I realized that, even if it was a quick reading, it seemed to take a toll in me. And not in the good sense.

The first half was so intriguing… I love “isolated” horrors, especially in winter - but then the second half read like a fever dream and the story was lost to me. Also could have done without the animal mutilation…

*Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital ARC of this one!*

How much do I sound like a broken record, when I mention that I love books that are set in the snow and involve creatures? Have you heard me say that before? If you haven’t, this must be the first review of mine that you’ve read! Because that’s every other book I read and every other book I write, ha!

And for those reasons, that’s precisely why I jumped at requesting this one on Netgalley and was super excited when I was actually approved! I’ve not read much of Lindy’s work, so I was looking forward to seeing what she’d conjured for this story of loss, coldness and isolation.

What I liked: The story follows Christine, and her fifteen-year-old son following the unexpected death of her husband, as they head to an isolated cabin. Her husband had booked the cabin for them for Christmas, prior to his death and Christine decides that they should still go there, and try to put some distance between them and the death and the house that no longer feels like home.

Ryan does a solid job of setting up the sorrow the duo feels, the trauma response Christine is having and just how remote and isolated the cabin is. She also sets up the guilt that Christine has coupled with the divide growing between her and her son perfectly. Christine believes her son hates her, and that he wished she’d died instead. And because of that, Christine plays the last moment of her husband’s life – before he slipped and fell from their roof – over and over in her head.

It takes a bit for the creature to appear, and when it does, Ryan takes a maybe it’s real, maybe it’s not approach. It makes for a very unnerving shadow aspect, one that you look forward to seeing again, and when the ending arrives, the true machination of its why is horribly revealed.

What I didn’t like: I’m firmly in the minority category on this one, but this novella says its for fans of The Babadook, and I actually didn’t mind the kid in that movie. I’m probably one of only a dozen in the world who can say that. So, when this story was linked to that one, I knew there’d be a similar aspect and in this case, it’s the fifteen-year-old. And while I didn’t mind that kid, the teenager here drove me bonkers with his constant grunts and non-responses. I know that it how many of them are – literally – but it made this reader scratch there head over why it needed to be so excessive.

As well, the ‘is she-isn’t she’ losing her mind aspect became a distraction quickly. Often it left me confused and wondering if something was actually happening or if Christine was imagining it, but not in a good way. In a way that had me constantly having to go back and reread the section previous, which completely reduced the propulsive story Ryan was trying to deliver.

And lastly, with this being marketed as a creature-feature, the actually page count featuring the creature was excruciatingly low, even considering this novella wasn’t a large page count to begin with.

Why you should buy this: Overall, I had fun with this one, but struggled to connect with it and have it hit home with me and I think part of that was the inability for the book to make up its mind whether it was a pure trauma response and grief exploration, or if it was, in fact, a creature-feature set in a snowy, isolated location. Ryan’s writing was great throughout, but the story didn’t feel as fleshed out as I was hoping for.

If you’re looking for a quick, solid blast of winter misery, this’ll be right up your alley.

This book is short and concise.
If you have ever watched the Babadook, it has very similar themes of grief and ptsd.

The mother and son are estranged from one another and the mom is trying to feebly attempt to have a good Christmases with her nonchalant son and somewhat disliked pet cat.

I found the writing a bit repetitive, but I think it is suppose to mimic intrusive thoughts of ptsd and how grief just seeps in constantly.

"Time moves different when your world stop turning." -Christine

"Just the three of us and the trees" -Christine

In my honest opinion, this book was very confusing to follow, but first for the good parts...I very much enjoyed having the pictures, so well described, that I could see them. I also liked that it was a pretty quick read.

Now on to the things that weren't so good. I was severely confused on why Christine kept repeating "Derek's slips" and "Snapped" because, yes I get PTSD, but it really had no relevance to the story. I'm also still trying to figure out why in the world the antagonist in the story was a moose. Yes I get that they are strong and very powerful creatures, but what significance does it hold to her struggles or even her deceased husband? Now these are all MY thoughts about this book and maybe I just didn't understand it, but it's how I felt.

So, in conclusion, this book wasn't a bad book to read, but it may not be for everyone.

There’s a cat named Haiku. You know he’s going to end oddly. I made that up myself. I definitely see a huge future for me in comedy, right?!?!?!

This book is eighty-five pages long. My synopsis might be longer. It will probably be less stupid. And that gives it a lot of room to be dumb.

Two weeks ago Derek Sinclaire died when he fell off the roof of his family home while hanging Christmas lights, so probably the best thing to do is take your young son (and your cat) and isolate for Christmas. Or maybe it is. What do I know, I don’t have kids?

Anyway, now widow Christine, fifteen year old Billy and cat, Haiku are headed to a cabin deep in the Pennsylvania woods. They haven’t been there long when Christine starts to hear strange noises in the forest and this is the problem with nature. I would be long gone at this point and in a nice Hilton, with a bar.

So, out of the last four books I have read, three of them have mentioned Stephen King. Either a character is reading one of his books or his name just comes up. Can you imagine looming that large in the culture?

This story is ridiculous. Every move Christine makes is the wrong one. I only finished the book because it was so short. No one would do what this woman does. I won’t spoil it, I guess, in case you care.

Cold Snap is a short and powerful novella about death, loss and grief in which a mother and son are haunted by a strange creature when they escape to a remote forest while dealing with the recent death of their husband/father.
Clocking in at just 120-odd pages, it's a story that packs a wallop of a punch despite its short length and is full of haunting visuals and melancholy and a powerful ending .
A memorable if sombre read.

I wanted more from this intriguing plot. More twists and turns. More suspense. More scare. More characterization. Instead, I got a lot of repetitive writing. Disappointing.

My gosh. What a powerful grief horror novella. Lindy Ryan perfectly captures the agonizing and distracted feelings of mourning a loved one’s traumatic death.

The novella opens with Christine and teenage Billy trying to create a Christmas celebration in a secluded cabin, without Derek, her husband and Billy’s father.

But there is a monstrous moose in the forest. This monster appears to be a manifestation of the overwhelming grief, guilt and simmering anger between mother and son and toward the missing Derek.

A well-written, heartrending and horrifying example of a grief horror novella.

I had to stop at 51% through because of (spoiler, but also trigger warning for those who can't handle it, like me) the brutal death of a cat, so my rating is for what took place prior to that. I love snowy isolation horror, but this didn't quite hit the mark for me. It's already such a short story, but the sentence "Derek's foot slipping" and it's variants took up a good portion of what little there is, and the rest edges on overwritten. I was pushing myself to finish, since it's so short, but after the horrific death of the cat, I just couldn't make it happen.

Christine, a woman riddled with grief and guilt after the loss of her husband, decides to pack up her 15 year old son to head off to a cabin getaway in the woods of Pennsylvania. Obviously suffering with the pain of losing her spouse, Christine starts to see strange things in the woods surrounding their cabin, but chalks it up to the moose the cabin owner warns her about. That is until she starts to hear it call her name to the sound of her late husband’s voice. Cold Snap examines the impact of guilt and grief through a haunting story of dark spirits lurking in the woods.

What I think the author did well with this novella is showing what grief looks and feels like through Christine’s and Billy’s interactions. There was an overall feeling of dread and tenseness throughout the book, and I felt like I could feel those heavy emotions. There was plenty of brutality and gruesome imagery through the flashbacks of Derek’s death and the death of Haiku, trigger warning for animal deaths. With that being said, this felt unfinished to me. It felt like it finished in the middle of a chapter and we were left questioning the purpose of this spirit stalking Christine. I also kept wondering if Christine was just falling down left and right or if she was blacking out kind of randomly because the scenes would jump so quickly from one to the next. Overall, I think this is a great, fast-paced novella that does a good job exploring grief. I could’ve used another 20-50 pages to wrap things up a little more, but thought it was great.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC copy of this to review with my honest opinions.