A haunting  tale of Christmas past and present told by an unreliable narrator.

• Scare factor:★★☆☆☆
• Psychological factor: ★★★★★
• Christmas factor: ★★★☆☆

Mind of Winter is a literary psychological horror told by an unreliable narrator who is haunted by her past and her present. With a foreboding feeling, symbolism and themes about family, trauma and identity, this intriguing novel hides a mystery and a shocking reveal. 

It consists of 276 pages. 

Plot

It’s Christmas Day and Holly and Eric have overslept. While Eric rushes out to pick up his parents Gin and Gramps from the airport, Holly lies in bed with one particular thought in her mind: Something followed them home from Russia. She used be a poet and has written poems but lately the poems haven’t come to her. When she wants to write down this thought her daughter Tatiana startles her. They have adopted Tatiana from the Prokovka Orphanage #2 in Siberia thirteen years ago when Tatty was only two years old. Now she’s a teenager of 15 and acting weird as a teenager should. 

As the day progresses a snowstorm has hit their town and everybody who was supposed to gather at their house for Christmas is cancelling because they can’t get through. Meanwhile Eric is at the hospital because his mother, Gin, was acting very strange and confused. So Holly and Tatty are home alone. 

While Holly is reminiscing the Christmas when they first met Tatty in Siberia and is also remembering her own childhood which wasn’t that great and all of the strange tragic things that have happened to their pets, like the hen and the cat, Tatty is acting out and Holly is feeling at a loss. Fearing losing the fragile connection she has with her daughter to completely disappear. Or is there something else going on? Something terribly wrong. Something that has to do with the first thought she had when she woke up. Something followed them from Russia. 

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Short Review

The story takes place during Christmas Day and is told by Holly, or better said, by her thoughts. It’s her stream of consciousness that we are following, which makes it a fast paced but also a very chaotic read. Intentionally chaotic, because we are in Holly’s mind, who jumps from her worries over Tatty now, the ruined Christmas, the tragic incidents with the pets, the time when they went to Siberia to meet Tatty and the second time when they went to pick her up and bring her home, Holly’s own childhood and also her friends are on her mind. 

While this seems chaotic, and it is indeed a writing style you have to adapt to, you have to be willing to immerse yourself into Holly’s character, it is intentionally chaotic. Holly’s thoughts are all over the place so it seems, but they lead up to an astounding twist. Her chaotic thoughts are a reflection of her personality. The more the story unfolds, the more complex her character reveals to be. She’s an unreliable narrator, she can be annoying and irritating and selfish and a bit off-world-ish, unlikeable even, but not without giving her a proper background that explains a lot of what is happening now. 

Her thoughts all have hidden symbolism in them. From the beginning there’s a foreboding feeling that something really bad is going to happen. All the signs are there but you just have to pick them up. There’s a constant mention of tragic incidents with pets, with their housekeeper, all in the past, her mother’s fine glass is broken and even Holly’s mind is playing tricks on her, rubbing away a mysterious black pool on the kitchen floor and a mysterious phone call. At the end all the signs and symbolism becomes clear. 

Although it’s not a scary story, it has a sense of dread. Something is very wrong, either with Holly or with Tatty, but what that exactly is remains hidden in Holly’s own subconsciousness until the end when she finally reveals the truth to herself, if only partially. 

Holly and Tatiana are completely alone, isolated from the outside world, while the snow covers them. Their relationship is strange and it feels like Holly does her best to be a good mother, but doesn’t know how to. Tatty is being an obnoxious teenager in Holly’s eyes, but there is much more to it than that. Tatty is acting strange and her behavior is becoming more and more disturbing. It therefore has a claustrophobic feel to it. Trapped inside without the help from others they are left to each other and Holly doesn’t seem to deal with that very well. 

The story has many themes like adoption, identity, repression, childhood trauma, the tricks of the mind and memory, hereditary. While it’s also a character study about Holly herself. While her thoughts are racing she’s also analyzing herself, the situation and eventually comes to the truth. It’s this journey we are following and the end might be as shocking for her as it will be for you, although there are some clues hidden in between her thoughts. 

Mind of Winter might not be for everyone but if you stick with it and find yourself intrigued, this really pays off. With a authentic writing style that reflects the main character and narrator, this novel will play tricks on the mind but with a satisfying ending that sticks with you.