by @mob_writes, curator of HOWLS Book Club nominees for December 2023’s “Bleak Midwinter” category
An array of works underpinning the sharpness of deep winter—cold, bitter, and unforgiving. From a novella that inspired countless horror films to one of the goriest modern takes on vampires, these stories will set you shivering.
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision. (StoryGraph)
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Rice is a First Nations author, expert in weaving together pointed social critique with a deep understanding of the often-hostile environment of Canada’s deep north.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Leech by Hiron Ennes
In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies.
For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed.
In the frozen north, the Institute’s body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron’s castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again. (StoryGraph)
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Written in the style of traditional horror stories like Frankenstein or The Woman in White, this story offers a unique perspective and a host of Weird twists.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr.
“Who Goes There?”: The novella that formed the basis of “The Thing” is the John W. Campbell classic about an antarctic research camp that discovers and thaws the ancient, frozen body of a crash-landed alien. The creature revives with terrifying results, shape-shifting to assume the exact form of animal and man, alike. Paranoia ensues as a band of frightened men work to discern friend from foe, and destroy the menace before it challenges all of humanity. (StoryGraph)
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Despite the dated style of the prose, this story forms the underpinning of multiple horror films and games, alongside being the trope originator of several parts of the monster subgenre.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. (StoryGraph)
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Whilst not a winter in the seasonal sense… Bleak. Bleak. Also bleak.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
30 Days of Night by Steve Niles
In a sleepy, secluded Alaska town called Barrow, the sun sets and doesn’t rise for over thirty consecutive days and nights. From the darkness, across the frozen wasteland, an evil will come that will bring the residents of Barrow to their knees. The only hope for the town is the Sheriff and Deputy, husband and wife who are torn between their own survival and saving the town they love. (StoryGraph)
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On its adaptation as a film, this graphic novel made vampires scary again. Set in the winter night of the Arctic circle, a potent mix of gore and tragedy.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Near the Bone by Christina Henry
Mattie can’t remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all.
There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws.
When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry. (StoryGraph)
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Nominee for the Goodread’s Choice Award for Horror 2021, let’s discover what they saw in it.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
And The Winner Is…
Out of these six books, HOWLers voted to read Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. Discussion starts on December 18, and you can join in by joining the Discord!
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