Winter People by Jennifer McMahon: a quiet and spooky horror story

I had kind of forgotten, but I love ghost stories—stories where things happen that are impossible. Unless… That’s why I decided to read Winter People after hearing someone recommend it. And it was definitely worth the read. The story is set in West Hall, Vermont, a cute little town but with a sinister side. Winter People is a quiet, slow-moving story that keeps you hooked.

Winter People

Winter People is the story of Sara Harrison Shea, who loses her little daughter Gertie. Sara can’t accept it. And the thing is: she doesn’t have to, because she knows a spell to bring someone back from the dead. People who are brought back from the dead are called “sleepers.”

Even though you can only bring someone back for seven days, Sara applies the spell, and indeed, Gertie comes back. But unfortunately, this is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.” Anyway, Sara left a diary that became a book called Visitors from the Other Side – The Secret Diary of Sara Harrison Shea.

Some pages of her diary went missing and are not part of her book. People are looking for those pages because they contain the information about where you have to go to bring someone back from the dead. Anyway, Sara did not have a happy ending because she was found dead and skinned! Yikes.

This book is also the story of nineteen-year-old Ruthie, who lives with her mom, Alice, and her little sister, Fawn, somewhere on a farm in the middle of nowhere. The farm is near a scary place, and people tell lots of horror stories about it. Sometimes people even disappear from the town where Ruthie lives. Then one day, Ruthie’s mom just disappears, and Ruthie and Fawn go out to search for her.

Two timelines – I hate that

Winter People has two timelines: one from Sara, somewhere around the 1800s—I can’t remember exactly, because I always forget dates. The other timeline, of Ruthie, is “now,” so modern times, I guess. I read Winter People on my e-reader and couldn’t easily go back to check the exact dates.

The fact that I kept on reading in spite of the two timelines just goes to show that this is a great story that really draws you in. I loved reading it, even though I was kind of scared when I had to go to bed. I had to make a big jump into my bed because I was scared of what might be under it.

The Book Trailer

Summing up

I really liked Winter People. If you like a good ghost story, this might be a great book for you to consider reading. On a scale of 1 to 10, I this book an 8. It could have been even better, I think, but still, a great read. You can find this book on Amazon.

On a personal note

This book is about a Mother’s grief, and how far she might go to see her child one more time. On August 10th I lost my daughter Lucy. This book made me think:

‘How far would I go to see my daughter Lucy again?’

But I wouldn’t want to put my daughter through that!

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