Thriller, Mystery, Ghost Story, Suspense, Horror Fiction, Occult Fiction, Paranormal Fiction
The Winter People
(2015)
by Jennifer McMahon
Book cover description: West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter, Gertie. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that suddenly proves perilous when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished without a trace. Searching for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara's fate, she discovers that she's not the only person who's desperately looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.
"The dead never really leave us."
"What if" are two words with a dark meaning in this book that takes place in the fictional town of West Hall, Vermont. What if you could bring back the dead? What would you do for a little more time with the ones you loved and lost?
The Winter People is a story told going back and forth between the past, when in 1908 Sara lost her beloved daughter, Gertie, and the present when 19 year old Ruthie and her younger sister Fawn wake up one morning to find their mother has disappeared.
Sara's 1908 story is the main attention getter in this book, focusing on the legend (and diary) of a woman that went crazy after the death of her daughter, Gertie, the farm they live on and the land just beyond the woods behind their house. It's an eery ghost story where the town is infamous for strange deaths and disappearances, and both the past and the present are found in a rock formation called The Devil's Hand. There are lots of moving parts in this book and other characters that pull you in, as well.
This book is worth reading if you enjoy a good ghost story. It was my first book by Jennifer McMahon and I found myself forgetting daily tasks because I couldn't put it down!
