Mixed feelings on this one for sure. A fever dream of a short story that examines the muddled thoughts and the deteriorating sanity of a family in grief, this is a story that loses itself a bit in the confusion it creates. Ultimately I just found the story more difficult to follow than I would have liked. Ryan does a good job at punctuating the present timeline with jarring intrusive memories regarding the main death in the novel, You are never quite allowed to settle in your surroundings, but rather than unease I more felt feelings of bafflement and eventually disillusionment. It's possible that I just didn't quite understand what the story was going for, and for such a short story I don't regret reading it, but this one just wasn't for me.

I want to start with a Trigger warning for cat death/animal abuse and general gore. As we know I love horror but for some reason I draw the line at animal abuse for seemingly no reason. Unfortunately for me Ryan’s use of animal abuse seemed bordering on unnecessary, particularly given the ending of the novella. I almost did not finish this one due to it but with arcs or book tours I always try my hardest to finish the book and give an honest review.

As such I will say unfortunately this one was not for me. I will say I did enjoy the set up at the start and the writing. It did seem a bit awkward but I think that was a brilliant way to give insight the relationship between Christine and her son. I did get alarm bells when they were taking a cat to a cabin in the middle of the mountains but I digress.

The plot I think generally has a great premises but I feel like maybe it needed to be longer to fully explore it. The ending just seemed too quick and a little too open ended. I appreciate at the heart it’s exploring grief and coping with that but I felt that the ending just didn’t really tie up anything.

Despite the writing being interesting and the general plot having potential this one just wasn’t for me. Especially when you throw in such graphic descriptions of animal murder with no real explanation to why. I know this is annoyingly a bit of a trope in horror that I do have to deal with but at least not so viscerally.

As always thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for my copy. My review is always honest, truthful and freely given.

Trigger warning: animal death in a pretty gruesome way.

If that isn't enough to stop you from picking up this fever dream of a novella, maybe the fact that it isn't cohesive and ends in an odd way will. The idea was there and, at first, intriguing. Grief is powerful and I was interested to see where the author would go blending grief and horror. But the execution just fell flat for me.

Not only did the main character do things that made zero sense, the plot line was hard to follow. Was she hallucinating? Was it real? Was it a maybe moose, an actual moose, or something else?

Also, the cat's death was traumatizing if you hate animal abuse/death/torture. If I had known that would happen, I would not have picked this book up.

1.5 stars rounded up to 2 for goodreads.

This was a great horror novella that had me gripped from the very beginning and I couldn't put it down. Recommend if you're looking for a short wintery horror story.

Cold Snap is a horror novella following a mother and son who go away during Christmas to stay at a remote cabin in the woods. The father tragically died a few weeks prior, and the mother just wants to escape reality for a little while with her son. The story deals with loss and grief. I was hoping this would be more of a creature horror type of book, but the main focus is on the mother’s guilt and grief. There is a creature, but you don’t come across it until the end. The ending confused me and the story ended very abruptly. I really enjoyed Lindy Ryan’s previous book, but this one fell short for me.

CW: death of cat

Thank you to the publisher for providing an eARC of this book via NetGalley for review.

*2.5 stars

This novella was really hard to follow. I think the premise of a grieving family spending Christmas in a remote cabin and letting spooky stuff unfold was interesting, but the way this story was written had me rereading sentences, paragraphs, PAGES to see if I’d missed something. It felt choppy and disjointed, and I unfortunately wasn’t a fan…

Thanks to NetGalley & Titan Books for providing an eARC.

This is definitely a weird one. Following the sudden death of her husband, Christina and her 15yo head out on a preplanned vacation in a very remote part of the woods. Things very quickly go awry.

Ryan does a fantastic job at portraying grief and also an individual who is possibly disassociating with reality. Christina is stuck in a loop where she seems to constantly be reliving her husband’s death. She’s not the most likable protagonist. From the first page she makes questionable decisions and struggles with basic tasks. Billy, her son, is a standard sullen teenager but with the added weight of immense loss. He’s a sympathetic character but we don’t get as much of him as I’d have liked.

I really feel like this could have been an easy five star read had it been about a hundred pages longer. The ending was abrupt and I definitely didn’t fully understand it. There’s so many loose threads that Ryan could’ve resolved for a more dimensional book. I still absolutely could not put it down and loved the vibe of the book. The writing was fantastic and extremely evocative. While I wish this one had been longer and just a touch more direct, I would absolutely check out other work from Ryan in the future. This book is already seeing polarizing reviews and I understand that. But if creepy vibed books with unreliable narrators and ambiguous endings are your jam then give this one a try. It’s one you’ll be pondering later to figure out what you just read,

Please check tw if sensitive to certain content because there is a particularly rough scene in there.

While I think the story has potential, it's unfortunately a bit of a miss for me. It does a great job illustrating the grief and PTSD that comes with witnessing a loved one die. Some aspects of it were jarring and took me out of the story. I do appreciate what the author was trying to do.

I wanted to like "Cold Snap," but I found it more confusing than satisfying. Referencing Stephen King's "Cujo" was a clever way to say "Yes, I understand there's a similarity between King's novel and my own story of a mother-son duo being attacked by a large animal." The thing is, I never doubted King's rabid St. Bernard was actually real.

And that's my big problem with "Cold Snap." I was invested in the story of Christine and her son Billy working through their grief at losing a husband and father. The stilted conversations and Christine's constant PTSD flashbacks to the moment of her husband's death felt appropriate and natural.

Where the story lost me is when Christine starts seeing what I call Metaphor Moose™ because I never knew if it was real or a demon or just a PTSD-induced hallucination. It checked me out of the story and frustrated me to no end.

I'm giving it three stars, but only because 2.5 isn't an option. It was a promising start but ultimately failed to stick the landing.

It's time to dive into my thoughts on Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan. I received this book as an e-arc thanks to NetGalley.
The book follows Christine as she tries to work through the death of her husband. He tragically fell to his death while hanging up Christmas lights on the roof. He had originally booked them a snowy Christmas in the mountains of Pennsylvania, so Christine decides to take her son to the cabin. She needs to get out of the house.

When they get to the cabin, they're warned of the moose in the area. And Christine sees one. Or at least she thinks it's a moose. That is until it starts calling her name with her husband's voice...

This book is a super quick read, sitting at just a little over 100 pages. It's got a great isolated atmosphere. This one was compared to The Shining and The Babadook and I think that's a great comparison. It has the psychological and isolated feel of The Shining mixed with the emotional grief of The Babadook.

I think this book portrayed a great example of grief and ptsd. Christine is still processing her husband's death. She blames herself for not being able to save him. Throughout the book she has constant flashbacks of the incident.
My biggest complaint with this one was the ending. I left with more questions than answers. I wanted to know more. To me it felt like the book ended mid chapter.
Also be warned that there is a gruesome animal death in this one. So if you're sensitive to that you may avoid this one!

⭐️⭐️
Unfortunately, Cold Snap was a big miss for me. It had such potential, and it started off so strong! But there were too many flashbacks—often the same one repeated—which felt excessive for such a short story. They happened so frequently that it became hard to distinguish between the flashbacks and reality. I did enjoy the horror-meets-Christmas concept, but that’s about it. Christine consistently made the worst decisions, and her son seriously needs a lesson in empathy. I think both the story and the author have potential, but they’re not there yet. Still, I’m very grateful to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC of Cold Snap—it just wasn’t for me. Maybe it was the Christmas aspect too. I love Christmas but I have yet to enjoy a single Christmas book. I was hoping horror Christmas change things for me, but I guess I’m only meant to enjoy the holiday and not read about it.

Cold Snap was like reading a story while having a fever, it was a little surreal.
The story had some similarities with Cujo, and the book is referenced in the story.
Although the book is well written, I had difficulties getting invested in the characters story and I was glad it was not a full length book.

My thanks to the wonderful publicity team at Titan Books for my gifted review copy of ‘Cold Snap’ which is published in October 2024, wherever good books are sold.

From the very title, you get this impression of the environment you are about to enter-it’s a very hard set of syllables in two one syllable words which echo, and replay over and over as you read this book.

It’s a disconnection-wife, to widow, child to fatherless child, safe to insecure-related to an attempt to reconnect a trio of people when only two sides of that triangle are still in this plane of existence.

In the attempt to create a Christmas-y atmosphere, lights were being hung around the outside of Christine and Derek’s house, a pure accident leads to Derek’s untimely demise, and from then, mired in anger , grief and despair, Christine takes their son, Billy , and their cat, Haiku, to the cabin in the woods which Derek had booked for them.

Each acts in their own, wounded way about a situation that no one could have done anything about, which is what makes this death so painful. It was a normal thing to be doing, for a family which loved the holiday season, and each Christmas coming afterwards will be forever connected with Derek’s demise.

The foreshadowing of potential disaster is set up when they book in to the cabin, with Armentia, the owner. As the laws are laid down, the friction and uneasiness between Billy and Christine is evident, with mum desperately pretending that if she puts in the work, they can enjoy a sort of Christmas as a farewell event, whilst Billy is under no illusion his dad is gone and will not return.

The cabin is remote, disconnected and soon to be cut off by snow, and the looming sense of unease grows by the page as shadows move,voices are heard and things are glimpsed which could not be there.

Is it the imaginings of a bereaved mind that conjures the voice of the dead, or is it wish fulfilment taken to its ultimate fruition?

There are so many elements in this beautifully constructed novella, that when you turn the final page AND realise it is the final page, you feel the ground has been pulled from under you. And yet, it was there the entire time. You , well I, felt it was so alarming yet satisfying, creepy, grotesque and yet entirely understandable. She does so much in such a short space of pages yet creates this vivid and striking environment and atmosphere that you cannot help but admire even as you emotionally recoil from what Christine and Billy are going through.

Lindy Ryan is so very good at what she does, it put me in mind of ‘The Only Good Indians’ by Stephen Graham Jones, one of my all time favourite novels, for the effect it has on your emotions. It lingers as a story so much, I could not stop thinking about the almost mythological construct of the creature which is both here, and not.

It is perfect to read over the days which are getting shorter, colder and approach Halloween, then winter proper. It is a gem of a book , one which I believe you will want to press onto those who have not read Lindy’s work before, as an introductory piece.

Big cover love for this one! Clearly a great book to read during these upcoming colder months. It’s just a short read that takes place on a snowy mountain during Christmas but with the added bonus of a scary monster so if you’re looking for a more isolated horror that you could probably read in one sitting, and really want to get into the holiday spirits, check out Cold Snap. Sure I had some minor problems but I enjoyed my time with the story overall.

This was an interesting one for sure. I adored Lindy Ryan’s writing style, she absolutely has a talent for selecting word choice that builds atmosphere, very show-not-tell and I liked it a lot.

The horror was alright, I didn’t find the creature particularly terrifying. As most other reviews have mentioned, there is an animal death, but personally I didn’t find it unreadable. Definitely uncomfortable though - and you SHOULD feel uncomfortable.

I just wish this story had been a tad longer. I feel like it rushed to a close just as things were starting to get interesting. I wanted to know more!

Still, I really did enjoy this one, and I love bite-sized horror. I would recommend this one as a quick spooky winter read.

Poor kitty. If you can't handle animal death couple with spousal death then definitely read up on the triggers for this. The MC suffers from PTSD and frequent flashbacks after the sudden death of her husband and the author captured the feelings of immense grief, guilt, and worry about being a single parent very well. This book was dark and creepy and I liked the atmosphere of a remote vacation cabin in the woods at Christmas time. I think this one is eerie and a good strange and scary quick read.

Whew I was not prepared for this book. If you're drawn to stories where grief manifests as monsters, then this novella is an absolute must-read. Grief horror is a genre that delves deep into the human psyche, exploring the many ways loss can twist reality, and this story hits that mark with chilling precision.

The plot centers on a woman reeling from the sudden loss of her husband in a tragic accident. To salvage her relationship with her fifteen-year-old son, she takes him on a Christmas trip to a remote cabin her husband had already booked. The son is withdrawn and resentful, and the mother, desperate to reconnect, hopes this secluded getaway will help them heal.

But the isolation of the cabin isn't the escape she hoped for. When she begins to see and hear something monstrous lurking in the woods, the story spirals into a nightmarish descent from grief into pure terror. What makes this novella so powerful is how it captures the suffocating weight of guilt and sorrow. The mother is consumed by the belief that her husband's death was somehow her fault, a conviction that only deepens as she senses her son's silent blame. This emotional burden is more than just psychological—it becomes something terrifyingly real, a force that threatens to tear them apart, both emotionally and physically.

The Lindy masterfully intertwines the emotional devastation of grief with the visceral horror of survival against an unimaginable threat. The tension builds relentlessly, making you feel every heartbeat of fear and every pang of sorrow. This isn't just a story about surviving a monstrous presence—it's about the monstrous ways grief can consume us, turning love and loss into something far more terrifying than we could ever imagine. If you crave stories that blend raw emotion with intense horror, this novella delivers in every way. It's heartbreaking, terrifying, and impossible to put down.

I adore the cover of this book and think it encompasses the story well.
I enjoyed this story but I do wish it was a bit longer. I enjoyed the ending a lot but wish more happened in the first half. I did like the themes explored such as loss
And the horror aspect. This was a quick and easy read and perfect for a train ride.

I loved the cover of this book,

This was a short a brutal look at grief and all the horror that encompasses it.

Christine and her teen son Billy are celebrating Christmas in a remote cabin in the woods.,Spotty WiFi and just each other and their cat Haiku. Christine’s husband suffered a tragic fall hanging Christmas lights. The entire holiday is shrouded in anger and grief.

The story is a little disjointed, but I feel that was the atmosphere of the grief and isolation. Christine begins hearing her husband’s voice and sees a strange ethereal moose. Is it a moose? Monster?

Trigger warning for animal hurt.

This one wasn’t for me. Honestly, I felt confused the entire time and it was so repetetive. This story didn’t really give me anything unfortunately.