Snowblind: A Novel Hardcover – January 21, 2014

Twelve years before, the small New England town of Conventry experienced a snow storm that left dozens of people dead. These individuals died, not because of the extreme weather conditions, but by what was inside the snow…creatures that flew in the wind and kamikazed unsuspecting individuals by grabbing them, lifting them high into the sky, and then dropping them to their deaths. Some of the people, however, disappeared into the snow, never to be seen again.Then, twelve years later, another snow storm approaches the town. Those who lost a loved one before must now fight for their lives, because the creatures are back. But even more astounding, the people who disappeared into the snow over a decade before are now back, hoping to escape the things that are after them.What Christopher Golden has done with the horror genre is to create a new, exciting, and utterly terrifying ice creature that comes during a heavy snow and kills those it can get its hands on. Suffice it to say, that the beginning of Snowblind is a frenzy of death as is the ending. I wish the novel had been longer with the last third running an extra fifty-to-sixty pages. Though the middle was good, it seemed to drag in parts, especially with regards to the robbery sequence. A longer ending would have balanced this out.One thing that ranks Mr. Golden with the top writers of today is his sheer brilliance with the written word. His style of writing is simple; yet, poignant. It would appear to be easy to emulate, but is actually quite difficult and takes years to master. This is a gifted writer at work. He should already be on The New York Times Top 10 Bestseller List. He’s that good!Great story development, fantastic characters, and bloody frightening creatures that are the stuff nightmares are born of. Get Snowblind and read it during the next blizzard if you can stand the branches knocking against your window at night. Who knows…maybe it’s not the branches at all.

I don't understand why anyone would give this book 5 stars.Unless of course, you are the author's family or friends. I believe 3 stars for this book is generous. I believe the author's writing was good but the actual story and characters fell flat for me. This book was not scary at all. I absolutely could not grasp what these monster/ghost/alien things, (I still don't know what they are) look like or what they were supposed to be. Furthermore, what was their purpose and why did they come back to this town? Why were they there in the first place? After the first visit were they seen in other towns? Were they EVER seen in other towns? What were they? Where did they come from? Additionally, I was unable to establish any connection with the characters so I could care less if they lived or died. For example, what did they look like? What type of personalities did they have? We got little, tiny snippets of each character, but far from enough to know who I'm looking at. Personally, I like a good descriptive book, but this was way over the top, and not in a good way. I found myself saying blah, blah, blah and jumping to the end of the paragraph, in search of some "meat" in the story. Something that is going to help me move along. Also, all that bickering and tension between that husband and wife became annoying. Just more filler scenes. How about telling me what's gong on. Set up the scene and make me feel like I'm there. That's why I read. I want to feel like I'm there. Stop re-visiting points that you already got across earlier in the book. We got it, they don't get along. To be honest, I couldn't wait for this book to be over. The only reason why I finished it, is because it cost so much money. As I said, the author's writing skills are very good, but this story is nonsensical and I found it to be a waste of time to read.

I saw the cover in a Barnes and Noble and saw the quote from Stephen King and knew I had to read it. I am a HUGE King fan and will read anything he recommends. Came home, bought it on my Kindle and started. LOVED it, couldn't put it down. I was so intrigued about what was causing the deaths and I loved the characters of Ella and TJ and Jake. And then I got to around 70% and the book drastically changed for me. I no longer wanted to keep reading it, it seemed to go on forever. The story line got too much for me to believe. When the ghost of Neiko appeared and everyone could see him, I was done. I would blame it on the writing and not making it believable to me because w/ King, I believe a car can kill you. I believe a clown can kill you. I believe in the Green Mile and the idea of burying your child and having it come back as a demon. It all made sense to me, Stephen King made me believe. Mr. Golden lost me at the most important part of his book and turned it into a non believable story that I had to force myself to finish. It clearly sets you up for a sequel which I will not be buying as the last 30% of this book was so disappointing. I felt almost like he was in a hurry to finish the book that he just rushed through it. How else do you explain 70% of a book being amazing and brilliant and then the last 30% being dull, not believable and hard to read. I feel let down as I wanted to love the entire book and I couldn't.

Great writing and an original story. A slow ticker, but definitely a sequel on the way.

Brilliant read, loved it

More like a fairy story than a Stephen King type horror story. Well written but the content left a lot to be desired.

Released earlier this month, Christopher Golden’s new Snowblind is my first ‘proper’ horror of the year, and my first for a long time. The horror starts early in this book, but quickly falls into mediocre about midway through. It’s not a bad book, really, just not a good one, either.We begin in the small town of Coventry, somewhere in New England, where a snow storm is coming. We are introduced to quite a few characters in quick succession, all bolting down for the oncoming blizzard, as well as those alone, waiting for their loved ones to return home. Within fifty pages, we see some of these characters forced out into the storm, and taken by something out there.First, the wife of Don Manning, a mechanic who, having just been fired from his job, doesn’t want to go home is looking for her dog. Then, TJ, a musician who decides to spend the night with the owner of the restaurant he plays at, Ella Santos, instead of going to home to his mother. His mother later receives a knock at the door, and vanishes. Rookie policeman Joe Kennan fails to save a boy in a sledging accident, and then watches the father of that boy disappear into the storm. Finally, the Schapiro family loses not just Isaac, Allie’s youngest son, to the storm, but also her new lover, Nico – a loss for his daughter, Miri.As you can see, there are a lot of characters to keep track of here – at least seven of which are kept as point of view characters, and a few other characters get one or two POV parts. It’s a headache to even try to remember most of their names (and I had to check for quite a few, including Ellie, despite really enjoying her as a character). The voices are not quite distinct enough to be separated easily, especially since point of view changes frequently within chapters. The characters are, broadly, easy to sympathise with, and likeable, with the exception, perhaps, to be made for Doug, who can be frustrating at times.The main story takes place 12 years after the above described storm, with a new storm coming, to which Coventry does not take kindly to, after memories of their last. Doug is taking the opportunity to rob houses, now that, without his wife Cherie, he has no moral compass (apparently), until his ex-girlfriend Angela (also the ex-wife of Nico and the mother of Miri – phew!) arrives on his doorstep, acting strangely. Allie is alone, and still mourning for her dead lover – though she could have sworn she saw his ghost outside her window…Joe Kennan, now a detective, is investigating a young boy who is missing from a car accident in the local lake, and one of his constables, Torres is acting strangely. But that’s nothing, when when of the other policemen – oh, god, I absolutely can’t remember his name now – starts becoming suspicious of Jake Schapiro (the brother of the dead Isaac – are you guys still following me?!), the police photographer. And TJ and Ellie’s daughter has been acting very strangely later.See what I mean? I like a bit of interconnectivity among characters, but this was a bit too much. I feel like I regret not taking notes on this damn thing, because there are more links I’m sure I’m missing.Character confusion aside, the build up is great in this. Coventry is overcome with some ominous creature that we don’t really see in action until about half way through this book. It’s all very creepy, and kept me gripped – until we start seeing them properly. They are ice men. And that’s what the characters call them too – ice men. Seriously? With huge ice claws and terrible eyes etc. etc. The felt more suited to a fairy tale that an adult horror book. Ice monsters just felt silly.There were no psychological elements either. The characters were scared, and anxious about them getting in…and that was it. As soon as the main plot started kicking in, I stopped caring because none of the character’s believably reacted to these horrors. There were no clever twists, either, nothing that had me excited. It was just a straight “race against time” story most of the time. Meh pretty much sums it up – one big, sputtering sparkler of a book, instead of a firework.However, the book did have potential, and I did care enough about the characters to carry on reading. But mostly because I wanted to see how Ellie and TJ ended up, and if Joe’s wife would ever actual turn up (she was like Columbo’s wife – spoken about, but always mysteriously off-screen). I also slogged on to see if it would be saved before the end. (Hint: it wasn’t.)I may read more by this author, if he comes out with anything new, because the writing was solid, but this was not in any way an impressive piece of work. It doesn’t do anything for the horror genre, and was generally just not very good.

I bought the mass paperback version.. the book is a bit small.. i wish they had the paperback version... Nevertheless the book is excellent.. Received in excellent condition, great packaging and all..