By: Sydney Andre
If you enjoy a good, suspenseful novel and being slightly scared by it, then The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon is for you. The book centers on the town of West Hall, Vermont, a small town full of old legends involving an old house and the Devil’s Hand, a rock formation just behind the house. The use of these legends and history is extremely important in this novel as the main plot revolves around the 1908 diary of Sara Harrison Shea, a local who was found dead shortly after the death of her daughter. The story flips between the diary and present day with two different narrators- Ruthie and Katherine. Ruthie is a girl who lives in the same house as Sara and whose mom mysteriously goes missing. Katherine is a woman who has recently lost her husband and is searching for answers in the town that her husband spent his final moments in. While all of these narrators are searching for different things, the author connects all of these moving parts in a very fluid way.
This story revolves around a strong theme of the dead and what lengths people will go to in order to see their loved ones again. Sara has found a way to bring back the dead, but only for a short time. In her diary, she does not recount the way to bring them back but does mention that the instructions are hidden in various parts of the house. Driven by selfish desire, different characters search for these instructions while Ruthie still searches for her mother.
Overall, I thought this was a very good book, but I did think that it left some things hanging at the end. It was a very suspenseful read that kept me flipping the pages until the very end. Yet, the ending did not seem to wrap up the whole story, only parts. I encourage everyone to pick it up as it is truly an immersive tale with a lot of moving parts that keep you guessing until the very end.
13th Floor Magazine 
I really liked this book. I got it in the Audio format and the readers were astonishing. Very much worth your time to read or listen to this mystery.