COLD SNAP, A NOVELLA OCTOBER 15, 2024 | TITAN BOOKS
A grieving mother and son hope to survive Christmas in a remote mountain cabin, in this chilling novella of dread, isolation and sinister spirits lurking in the frozen woods. Perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians, The Shining, and The Babadook.
Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire’s husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn. Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they’d reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays.
It isn’t long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it’s just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they’d stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody’d find it ’til spring. But moose don’t walk upright like the shadowy figure does. They don’t call Christine’s name with her dead husband’s voice.
A haunting examination of the horrors of grief and the hunger of guilt, perfect for readers of Stephen King, Christina Henry, and Chuck Wendig.
"Ryan writes a haunting and affecting novella that portrays the wrenching nature of grief and guilt." –Library Journal
MORE PRAISE FOR COLD SNAP
“Ryan weaponizes the dread of grief suffered in isolation. Horrific and heartbreaking.” –Jamie Flanagan, screenwriter The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Fall of the House of Usher
"Cold Snap reads like a whiteout of blinding grief. The deeper you plunge into this haunting novella, the more you lose sight of your surroundings. Before long, you won't be able to tell where the pages end and reality begins. It's that immersive." –Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters
"A powerfully affecting study of bereavement, illuminated by a sense of the uncanny and mysterious that builds to vivid scenes of breathless nightmare terror." –Ramsey Campbell, World Fantasy Award-winning author
"Steals through your soul like a winter chill–a heart-rending, darkly humorous hymn to grief, guilt, and love. This is a perfect Christmas horror story that's so crisp and cool, it'll leave your fingers frostbitten." –Josh Winning, author of Heads Will Roll
"Cold Snap is an intrusive thought, an open wound. It will consume you." –Stephanie M. Wytovich, Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of Brothel
“Cold Snap is a well-observed study of trauma that doesn’t shy away from the high weirdness of fresh grief. A delirious horror with arresting images and powerful tension.” –Verity M. Holloway, author of The Others of Edenwell
“As uncomfortable as anxiety-induced insomnia. Cold Snap reminds us with icy precision how nothing should be taken for granted, especially family.” –Polly Hall, Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of The Taxidermist’s Lover
“Lindy Ryan takes old tropes and makes them fresh in this creepy and bizarre little book about grief.” –Ally Wilkes, Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of All the White Spaces