The first thing Charlie does after a breakup is buy a charming farmhouse, even though it’s next to a cemetery and an abandoned abbey. But when she moves in, strange things start happening: A pale balloon floating in her driveway, messages from disembodied voices, and scratching sounds as if a squirrel is in her house. As a medical caseworker, she goes to see her patients during the day, but hesitates to return home—scared of what’ll pop up at night. When some of her patients mention a legend about the death-bot, a nebulous AI named Aidric that can predict people’s deaths and only show itself when it’s time, Charlie wonders if the strange events in her new home are connected to it and whether she needs to be afraid of her house (or if the haunting itself is warning her of what’s to come).
Rhya Tenney’s WINTER is a mystery with a haunted house set during the fall, delivering a great balance of spooks and coziness. Amidst the foliage and chilly weather are vivid descriptions of a specter walking through the house, a floating candle following Charlie up the stairs, and a pale balloon “drifting over the gravel, twisting and turning.” The tension and dread from these moments tighten until they pull readers to the edge of their seats, as they eagerly wait to find out what new horrors await nighttime at the farmhouse. What will happen when Charlie finally opens the door to a voice calling out to her?
As climactic as WINTER largely is, it has a slow start. Charlie and Aidric’s dual perspectives—told in third person—initially complicate the story because Aidric’s point of view starts in the past and Charlie’s is in the present. Also, Charlie’s point of view starts with an abrupt pivot; we jump into a story in which she brings up her ex a lot, yet he rarely makes an appearance. Fortunately, the rest of the characters are more fleshed out throughout the story, creating a wholesome community that offers missing pieces to the puzzle that is Charlie’s house: her patients (who share urban legends), ghost hunters, and new friends who help her come up with solutions to save herself. There’s even the death-bot, who displays a rare form of “humanity” as he holds the burden of knowing when people will die but not how to stop it. This shows how inescapable our fates can be and how the choices we make eventually lead to the very thing we were trying to avoid, whether it’s in life or with ghostly phenomena.
While it requires some suspension of disbelief to see the way Charlie and the other characters just accept the hauntings and Aidric’s presence instead of running for their lives, it doesn’t really take away from how satisfying the twist is at the end.
Rhya Tenney’s WINTER is an eerie but ultimately enthralling and introspective blend of supernatural elements and fantasy, with compelling displays of tension, emotion, and chills. The dread in the story culminates into a unique twist that leaves readers wanting more from this magical universe.
~K. Nesa for Indie Reader