A Winter Haunting

I'm not a huge fan of horror, but I am a fan of Dan Simmons. _Hyperion_ is one of my favorite sci-fi novels; _Hardcase_ and _Hard Freeze_ are wonderful, by-the-book "hard"-boiled detective novels. I just happened to be in an airport needing a book to read, saw this, and thought it must be the same Dan Simmons, author of all genres. I read it in one sitting, which is perhaps not saying much because the book's fairly short, at least for Simmons, and the flight was international. As much as I like movies, I don't even think I glanced up to see what was playing. When I read this book, I didn't realize it was the second part of a story of which _Summer of Night_ was the first. It stands on its own. In fact, I liked it better than the first book, which I went out and found as soon as I got home. That may have been because I formed strong images of the characters as children from this book, whereas the more explicit rendering of them didn't quite match my expectations. This is first and foremost a psychological horror story, not a gory monster story. It's told from the perspective of a minor academic and pulp Western author trying to resolve his confusing past. (Note to the author: If you write a Western, I'll read that, too.) In fact, it's even more psychological than Simmons's own _Carrion Comfort_, which I also quite enjoyed. This book is scary because you wind up deep inside the mind of the main character, with all of his pre-occupations and uncertainty about what's real. Simmons's novels are all about the characterization, much like many independent, off-beat, or "foreign" movies. If you're looking for Hollywood-style special effects and big bad monsters, turn to the master of that genre, Steven King (not to knock King's characterizations, which are also superlative). Some of the scariest bits are run-ins with ordinary characters from his childhood. In the end, I can't give this a better review than to recapitulate my title: it still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

I think that Stephen King tried to do this in "It," and I think he and Peter Straub tried it again in "Black House." Whether this is true or not, neither book succeeds in the way that "A Winter Haunting" succeeds. Here, Simmons gives us what we so rarely see in horror fiction - the psychological and emotional aftermath of a horrific experience.Simmons also takes the standard genre elements and turns them on their collective head, all the while telling a good story that keeps you reading. "A Winter Haunting" is an admirable novel, and I can't imagine a more fitting continuation of its predecessor, "Summer of Night." I re-read "Summer of Night" just prior to this book, to have the story fresh in my head. I don't think that it's strictly necessary to read the older book to appreciate "A Winter Haunting," but I would have to say that knowing what happens in "Summer of Night" definitely adds several important perspectives to the events of the later book.Dan Simmons has made a career out of writing excellent novels in multiple genres, and "Summer of Night" was no exception; one of the great modern horror novels. As in most such books, the story ends when the evil is defeated. "A Winter Haunting" reminds us that, in real life, the story never really ends there. Those who endure after suffering loss and trauma have to live with what has happened, have to deal with it as best they can. Dale Stewart, in "A Winter Haunting," has dealt with the horrific events of his childhood by not dealing with them - by shutting them out, by refusing to even remember them. A writer now, as well as a college professor, Dale is also the survivor of a failed marriage and a failed affair with one of his students. The books he has written thus far are formulaic adventure stories. He is visiting the town where he grew up, living in the house of his friend who died in the summer of 1960, in order to try and gain something intangible that he feels he has lost, and to write a new sort of story about that long-lost summer that he cannot remember.In returning to Elm Haven, the town where he grew up, Dale confronts a few of his old childhood fears as well as many of his new, "adult," ones. What is really interesting about this is that we come to see that many of the troubles he has suffered as an adult are at least partially a result of that terrible summer in 1960, which he has never faced and dealt with directly. In "A Winter Haunting" we get to see what most horror novels never show us: we see what happens to someone who confronts evil and lives to tell the tale. There are no pat conclusions or pithy observations in "A Winter Haunting" - just an implied truth that sometimes memories are too terrible to be relived, and that some stories take a long time to tell.Though "A Winter Haunting" is a sequel to "Summer of Night," as I read it I got more of a feeling of remembrance from the book. It builds upon the events of the earlier story, but it also deviates from them quite dramatica

"Summer of Night" was impressive as a horror novel because of the quality of scene after scene after scene that accentuated a single nightmare or horrific situation (the old woman on the second floor of Harlen's house when it should be empty, the thing pushing back on the closet door when Dale tries to shut it, and on and on). It's weakest parts to me were the use of the phrase "the Master" and the whole Borgia Bell concept which didn't live up to the incredible events leading to the book's conclusion. "A Winter Haunting" has very few faults, if any, and is a brilliant almost non-sequel to the earlier novel. I re-read "Summer of Night" immediately prior to reading this one and there is an incredible poignancy to reacquainting myself with Dale and his friends in 1960 and reading about what is happening to him now. This unsung hero of the previous book has suppressed (lost?) his memories of that earlier time and now, in his fifties, his life is a mess and he finds that he may actually be insane; we wonder along with him. Like Hugo Wilcken's "The Execution," the unwinding of the main character's mind, especially a person who was so strong and able in the earlier book, is absorbing to the utmost. There are no wrong notes here. This is a wonderful book and reminds me more of Simmons's "Phases of Gravity" more than any of his other books. While I'm sure everyone won't get what the book's truly about, read it and find out if you do. Books like this are what we're hoping for every time we pick up something new to read.

Overcoming the nightmare of his childhood (see SUMMER OF NIGHT), Dale Stewart became a successful literature professor and novelist, though his Jim Bridge: Mountain Man books do not attain the literary standard he desires. However, he threw away a loving family life with a cherished wife and daughters for an affair with a student that ended badly. Filled with self-recrimination, Dale takes a sabbatical from the University of Montana and flees Missoula to stay at the farmhouse of his deceased childhood friend Duane McBride to write his first real novel. While battling with guilt, Dale writes Internet articles exposing the Big Sky neo-Nazi skinheads, which brings him to the attention of their Illinois brethren. As he settles in the McBride farmhouse, he begins to fall further apart and begins to realize that more than a bunch of extremists want his skin peeled. There are forces turning the screws, but is it inside his head or outside his head's understanding? The sequel to the scary SUMMER OF NIGHT (to be re-released shortly), A WINTER HAUNTING, is a great tale that keeps the reader wondering if the plot is a psychological thriller or a modern day Turn of the Screw. The story line starts off in an eerie manner as the long dead Duane begins the narration of seeing Montana through Dale's eyes though he never left Illinois. Dan Simmons is at his most frightening best guiding his audience into deciding whether middle aged Dale is breaking down or haunted. This novel and its previous tale are winners and worth reading by fans relishing psychological thrillers or haunting stories because the plots play on multiple levels.Harriet Klausner