A Winter Haunting

As a follow-on to “The Summer of Night”, this is a great book. Knowing a little about the first book really helps set the stage for this one. Mr. Simmons continues the saga begun in the first. If you can countenance a little supernatural goings on, the writing is great.

This is an EXCELLENT horror follow up to 1991's Summer of Night. Genius in that it delves into the psychological scars that remain after a horrifying childhood memory becomes repressed and unopressed in time. While not the masterpiece of literature that the first book is, this sort of follow up to the first tale is not lacking in many regards. It's quite good on its own, and even better in a few small ways.Having recently finished Summer of NIght, I was extremely happy to stumble upon the fact that this book even existed. The only other Dan Simmons book I had read was Flashback, which I also found to be quite brilliant and entertaining. But not being too familiar with the author's work, it wasn't until a few years after reading Summer that I discovered A Winter's Haunting.I could go on and on about how good this book is but I won't. I'll just say that I'm very happy with it, and I found the ending satisfying as well. Stop reading here if you don't want any minor spoilers but I will list a few things I wish the book would have done differently:1. Brought more of the old bike gang into the tale. I understand the importance of this being Dale's story, but the other major characters from the first book are only mentioned in passing. I was expecting a reunion of sorts and that never happened. I guess the other didn't want to make this into a certifiable sequel, but you do end up missing Mike's character quite a bit if you recently read the 1st book as he plays a main role in it, sometimes larger than Dale's2. Mentioned or even acknowledged certain things from Summer. I was expecting Dale to remember more. You would think things would come flooding back eventually but he only really has a few hazy memories of important things that happened. No real mention of that final battle at the school or those who were involved. No mention of the Rendering truck or it's creepy driver. No mention of the weird holes in the ground caused by the killing worms (other than the one in the end of this book which seems like it is Almost retconned to merely exist as a bootlegger's escape tunnel).3. Dale seriously doesn't remember that they actually DID find the bootlegger's cave and covered it back up in the end of the last book? I can imagine from my own childhood how little memories remain from when I was 11, but still when you have life altering events happen you usually remember them. As certain memories become unrepressed in this book, you kind of nod your head and go uh huh, you're glad he's remembering and then you just have to shake your head at the end of the book when there is still so much that has gone unacknowledged and still unrecalled by Dale himself4. The soldier that haunted Mike's family is still "alive" so to speak and haunting the graveyard. In the first book this soldier was one of the demonic entities that actively pursued the kids and not merely an inactive ghost as he is represented here. I HOPE against hope that there will be a 3rd book and since this is more of one of Mike's loose ends it will be tied up in a story centered around him. Congden was Dale's arch nemesis more than Mike's or anyone else's so it makes sense that he appeared here when Dale returned. Now if Mike comes back to the town I can only imagine the soldier taking a personal interest in him just as Congden was invested in Dale's story5. There's just gotta be a 3rd story. I really actually wish the author would have placed this story in the 80's or 90's when the characters aren't in their 50's. He could bring ALL of the remaining gang back to the town at once to deal with the evil entities once and for all until they are wiped out. Mike possibly being a priest and all, I could see him taking a vested interest in the paranormal activity now that Dale can confirm it is still active there. This book was centered around 1999-2000 as I understand it, so if he wrote a true sequel in 2014 the characters would be in their 60's and running and physically fighting ghastly creatures would be beyond most of their capabilities. I never finished the first book and said "There has to be a sequel." But now that I know there is one, and I've read it - it just makes me think about all the loose ends that are still left undone...Mike's story now anyone?

Simmons wows again with ever-growing horror! This is the story of Dale, a writer of so-so, pays-the-rent novels and literature professor. Down on his luck after life kicks him in the balls one too many times, he takes a sabbatical to return to his childhood home where he hasn't been in over forty years. This is a sequel to Simmons' _Summer of Night_ (another awesome book), so he is headed back there as an adult to take on... something...started then. You don't need to have read the other book to 100% understand and enjoy that book, but it will give you a fun extra layer if you have.Dale returns to Elm Haven, Illinois to live at the farmhouse his childhood friend Dwayne called home. The friend who was murdered. The friend whose murder--or that whole fateful summer of 1960 (the plot of _Summer of Night_)--he cannot really recall. And so begins a wonderful tale of mounting dread.Simmons starts slow, so stick with it, and you will be richly rewarded in mounting fear and dread and delightful storytelling. Simmons' horror is one of mounting tension, of brick stacked on brick stacked on slow brick, until we find we've been walled away to rot entombed. In other words, he starts out pretty slow, and I was tempted to set the book aside. DON'T. The details mount with each wonderfully written description, and the floor begins to give way. When the floor finally drops out from under us, flesh has been crawling for chapters and chapters. I could not put this book down and read it all in one sitting.I won't need to sleep with the lights on tonight...but I don't think I'll be going up to the second floor of my house anytime soon. Bravo, Dan Simmons.

A Winter Haunting is a sequel to the masterful horror novel Summer of Night (easily one of the best coming-of-age horror books of all time). Dale Stewart, one of the main characters from the first novel, is now a very troubled 51 year old college professor and novelist who returns to his old hometown Elm Haven, Illinois seeking isolation and perhaps find answers as to why his life seems to be falling apart. He rents out the old, broken-down farmhouse where his childhood friend Duane used to live when they were children, the place where his friend was tragically killed in a horrific farming "accident" the summer of 1960. As Dale settles into the old house, winter is beginning to lay it's cold, icy grip over the isolated little town, and in short order, very strange things begin to happen. As Dale begins to lose his grip on reality, the reader is never really sure what events are being manufactured in his mind and what is actually happening.There are some creepy scenes in the novel (I won't spoil it for you), but for me, the story gets mired down and sidetracked too much in all of the past events leading up to the present situation Dale finds himself in, along with all of the research he must do to figure out some cryptic messages he is receiving, and those lengthy sidetracks seemed to take some of the tension and thrill out of the story. Whereas the first novel, Summer of Night, was such a masterpiece of horror and intensely frightening, A Winter Haunting is a little more tame in comparison. Please don't get me wrong - this book is indeed a very clever horror story, superbly written, and definitely worth reading. I just wish it had a little more bite and a little less bark. Still, this is Dan Simmons we're talking about here, a master of horror, so you know anything he writes is great stuff. I highly recommend it, but if you haven't yet read the first book, Summer of Night, I strongly suggest you read that first before starting this one. You will LOVE it.

Excellent haunting tale that kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed it!

Una interesante historia de terror, mezcla entre historia de fantasmas y terror psicológico. Si hay partes de la historia un poco lenta, pero en lo general el libro se disfruta.

Of late, I have been gravitating towards horror fiction from my usual staple of literary fiction. I am enjoying this deviation immensely; can't say that I am not. Dan Simmons's "A Winter Haunting" is not that scary but offers a good read and is quite a page-turner. Although there are some really scary moments in the book but the likability factor of it is its inherent literary structure and detailed portrayal of the main character. Read this book you will truly enjoy it.

While this is not the best book from Dan Simmons, it is still incredibly captivating. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in psychological thrillers.

Great sequel very scary