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Book: “Snow Drowned” by Jennifer D. Lyle
Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, November 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: There’s a saying on Fall Island: if you’re not careful, the snow will get you.
Gracie Hutchinson has lived on Fall Island her whole life and knows there’s some truth to those words. Fall’s snowstorms have a spooky way of claiming people, making them disappear without a trace or driving them mad. Now, with a hundred-year-storm approaching, most of Fall’s residents have fled to the mainland. But not Gracie. Left behind her with physician father, she braces for landfall.
Gracie’s not the only one left behind. Her classmate Joseph Wescott, descendant of the legendary pioneer who founded Fall Island, has stayed, too. After a chance encounter, the two stumble across something more unsettling than the snow: a ritually mutilated corpse. By night, as the snow begins to fall, it becomes clear that whoever (or whatever) murdered the man they found has their sights set on Gracie.
Seeking refuge at Wescott Manor, Gracie feels safe surrounded by dozens of locals hunkered down in the huge house. But as the storm assaults the island, Gracie discovers secrets that have been kept since Fall was settled. If she can’t uncover the hidden history and terrifying truth about Fall Island before the storm’s end, she’ll be the next to disappear into the snow.
Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an ARC of this novel!
Being a Minnesota girl, I know a thing or two about snowstorms. I actually kind of enjoy a nice hardcore blizzard, assuming that I’ve had enough time to prepare for it (i.e. stock up on comfort food, wine, and a bunch of books or movies/TV shows) and that I don’t have to drive in it. It’s probably no surprise, then, that I really like wintery horror stories, so of course I really wanted to read “Snow Drowned” by Jennifer D. Lyle. The description had me thinking of Stephen King’s amazing miniseries “Storm of the Century”, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. But I was wrong, and wrong in a good way.
Unfortunately I can’t really tell you WHY I was wrong because of spoilers, so I will give you other reasons as to why this book worked pretty well for me. The first is that I genuinely enjoyed the slow burn build of the horror and mystery at the heart of Fall Island as a monumental snow storm is approaching. We follow Gracie, a teenager whose family has been on Fall Island for generations, and who has been a bit isolated at home as she and the rest of the island awaits for a huge storm to hit. But when she and Joseph Wescott, the heir apparent to the devout founding family of the town centuries ago, find a body that seems to have been ritually murdered, things start to spiral out of control. I liked seeing Gracie hole up with the Wescotts in their mansion, and how Lyle slowly unfolds that this well regarded and deeply religious family has some dark secrets, and that Gracie is, unfortunately, about to play a key role. The Gothic vibes of the island were well done and the family was unsettling and sinister, and it had me turning the pages looking for more.
In an attempt to avoid spoilers but talk a little about other things that worked, I can say that “Storm of the Century” is accurate, but you have to throw in some folk horror and a family conspiracy edge that harkens to “Ready or Not” and other privileged wealthy antagonists. Lyle holds these things pretty close to the vest, and I was genuinely caught off guard a few times as I read this book. Lyle lays out the clues, and she does it in a way that make perfect sense but still kept me guessing at least part of the time. I also really loved the swerve that we took right before the climax of this action, as I was expecting one kind of sub genre and then got something all the more interesting that had a GREAT pay off. There was a bit of a quibble I had that kind of knocked some points off, and that was the ending wrap up had another swerve moment that made me groan, and then set up for a potential sequel. Would I read the sequel? Possibly! But the initial ending was so satisfying that I wish we hadn’t even laid the groundwork at the last moment.
Winter is coming, folks, and “Snow Drowned” is going to be a perfect horror read for a snowy dark night. A YA horror winner in a genre that sometimes gets a bit rocky in that age group, which I’m always happy to see.
Rating 7: A YA horror that had some solid surprises and scares, though the ending was a bit of a disappointment.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Snow Drowned” isn’t on many Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Horror Novels Set (largely) in Winter/Snow”.
The Library Ladies 