Dennis Mahoney (2) (1974–)

Winter horror has a lot going for it—crushing isolation, the ever-present threat of frostbite, and the bleak existential dread that only a barren, snow-covered landscape can provide. It’s a subgenre that has given us classics like The Thing and The Terror, proving that the cold is just as capable of delivering terror as the deepest, darkest woods.

Dennis Mahoney’s Our Winter Monster sets out to join that tradition, tossing a broken couple, a snowstorm, and a mysterious, potentially show more supernatural beast into the icy abyss of Pinebuck, New York. On paper, it sounds like the kind of atmospheric horror that should be a surefire hit. Instead, the novel is an exhausting slog that lacks the originality, tension, or depth to justify its existence.

The novel revolves around Holly and Brian, a couple on the brink of collapse after a traumatic event that left their relationship in emotional shambles. Their solution? A cozy winter getaway in a remote ski town—a setting that could have been rife with tension but instead feels like a half-hearted attempt to wring depth from the same relationship woes horror fans have seen a million times before.

Brian is riddled with anxiety and paranoia, a man who sees threats in every shadow. Holly, meanwhile, is hardened and emotionally distant, throwing herself into work while drifting further from Brian. Their dynamic is supposed to provide the novel’s emotional backbone, but instead, it reads like a stretched-out, melodramatic therapy session.

Then there’s Kendra, the town’s sheriff, still reeling from the disappearance of another couple in the same area weeks prior. She’s a potentially interesting character, but rather than being the force of authority and agency the novel desperately needs, she’s stuck in an endless cycle of self-doubt and tragic backstory that goes nowhere.

And let’s not forget Tanner, the town’s obligatory creepy loner who plows the roads and serves as an exposition dump on legs. He has a past. He has secrets that are initially revealed in Chapter 30. And yet, somehow, he is the most forgettable thing in a book filled with forgettable things.

To be fair, Our Winter Monster starts strong. The couple’s tense drive into the storm, the eerie suggestion of something massive lurking just beyond visibility, the crushing weight of winter itself—it’s all effective. For about thirty pages. Then the novel settles into a painfully predictable rhythm:

Brian and Holly bicker.
Something big and scary moves in the distance.
A secondary character monologues about trauma.
The monster does…something (never particularly exciting).
Repeat.

It doesn’t help that the novel can’t decide what kind of horror it wants to be. At times, it flirts with supernatural terror, hinting at a creature born of the elements itself. At others, it leans into psychological horror, implying the monster is more metaphor than menace. And then, in an act of genre indecision that deflates all tension, it delivers a vague, half-hearted explanation that manages to be both underwhelming and nonsensical.

It’s clear that Mahoney is trying to say something about grief, trauma, and the monstrous weight of unresolved pain. The problem is that he says it in the most heavy-handed way possible. The creature, for all its supposed menace, is basically an emotional support cryptid, showing up whenever the characters are at their lowest. At one point, a character literally states, “We’re the monster. It’s you, and then it’s me.” Subtle, right? Horror works best when its themes lurk beneath the surface, when the audience is allowed to peel back layers of meaning on their own. Here, everything is spelled out.

Mahoney’s prose is serviceable but rarely engaging. The book’s best passages come when he focuses on the environment—the crushing weight of snow, the eerie silence of a blizzard, the isolation of Pinebuck. These moments shine, but they’re drowned in an avalanche of clunky dialogue and repetitive character introspection. The pacing is equally uneven. The novel moves in bursts—tense sequences of survival and dread punctuated by long, meandering stretches of melancholic navel-gazing.

Our Winter Monster isn’t the worst horror novel you’ll read this year, but it might be the most forgettable. It leans too heavily on tired tropes, fails to deliver on its intriguing setup, and mistakes surface-level angst for genuine emotional depth. If you’re desperate for a winter horror fix, there are far better options out there. show less

Some roughness at the beginning and a dark near-twist at the end keep the novel from feeling completely organic and well-formed - but for a debut novel, this is quite impressive. It doesn't aspire to much and, as a result, it delivers a magnificent reflection on (to coin a phrase....) our fellow mortals. The struggles, the hopes, the dreams, and the efforts that we all must make every day in order to live with one another. It's funny, it's romantic ( not ooooh, love, flowers, chocolates, show more etc. romance but rather the sort of romance you find 30 years into a marriage), it's sad - and most of all, it is honest. Makes you want to give thanks and rightly so.

Full review to post on Friday @ RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-Rp show less

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. There are several reasons starting with the fact that the characters were original and unique, with personalities that jump off the pages. The way the book mashes a bunch of different genres together including: adventure, romance, mystery, and fantasy. It is all done in a way that doesn't seem to over done or mushed together, it is done in a way that fits and creates a unique and beautiful stage for the characters to play in. Yet, the show more best part is the fact that it kept me guessing to the end. I didn't figure out everything 3 chapters into the book. The fact that it kept me guessing makes it 5 stars. There are a couple of things that I didn't agree with. Both involving a 6 year old girl commenting for almost a page about her Governess's breasts...which I doubt a child that age would ever do and when she is older it is implied that she went on a pretty frequent basis to watch the servants have sex with each other. It didn't fit the character and it didn't fit in the story to me so it made me wonder why it was in there in the first place. Yet, those are just 2 pages compared to the whole book so it isn't a big deal and is easy to over look. Overall, the story is enchanting and beautiful. If you want to read a mystery, history, fantasy novel then this is the book for you. show less

In the land of Floria and the town of Root, in the time of the regular flower flood, tavern owner Tom Orange rescues a woman desperately clinging to a branch in the Antler River. The woman is named Molly, but tells the townspeople that she is unable to remember anything else. The Florian’s wonder if she is the first victim of the Maimer’s attacks, a gang of masked marauders who take what they believe is most valuable to a person, whether it be an item, body part or life. As Molly show more recovers, she finds her place within Root; however the secrets and mystery of her past weigh on some of the townspeople, especially since trouble seems to follow wherever Molly goes.
First of all, I fell in love with the world that was created for Bell Weather. Similar to the American Colonies, but with a magical wonder within the natural world such as flowers that rise from the bottom of the riverbed, bears that awake only in winter, storms that glow, fog that consumes, ghosts that only appear once you have made them comfortable and crabs that fly. The land, weather and animals became as much of a character as the people. Speaking of people, Molly’s character grabbed me from her birth. Molly and her brother, Nicholas’ story bounces back and forth from present to their childhood as Molly’s mystery unravels. Molly is feisty, energetic, imaginative, adventurous, but most of all, she is full of heart. Her mischief often causes trouble, but she only causes it because she would never stand by idly while someone she loves gets hurt and would never let herself be a damsel in distress. On the flip side, her brother Nicholas is an enigma; his intellect and logic causes him to become manipulative and harsh, even though he cares for Molly very much. Overall, Bell Weather is a fun mix of fantasy, mystery, humor and adventure.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. show less