A Winter Haunting

A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
4 ★'s

Forty years, a failed marriage, an affair, and suicide attempt later, Dale Stewart returns to his hometown and rents out the farm where of his childhood friend Duane had lived. He hopes to write a novel about the mysterious events of the almost forgotten summer of 1960, when Duane died. But strange and disturbing phenomenon, black dogs, neo-nazis, and old friends and enemies continually distract him. Someone is trying to tell him something but is it a friend...or something else?

I love what Dan Simmons has done in A Winter Haunting, which is write a classic, literate ghost story that both plays by the rules while intellectually reinventing them. He has both Dale Stewart and the reader wondering show more about Dale's sanity. What exactly does Dale's failed affair have to do with the events at the farmhouse? Is Dale leaving himself notes? Is any of this really happening at all? Just who is haunting who? A Winter Haunting is a classic chiller that expands on the psychological complexity of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House with stunning power.

Before reading this book you should first read Summer of Night so you will understand Dales journey back 41 years. show less

Dale Stewart is at the end of his rope. Risking his job as a professor, he started a relationship with a student only to lose his wife and kids to divorce. Worse, after his family life is shattered the new girlfriend leaves him for a younger guy. After a botched suicide attempt involving a shotgun and a misfired bullet, Dale decides it's time to get away.

Against his psychiatrist wishes he decides to visit his hometown and stay the winter in the farmhouse of his childhood friend, who died in a horrific farming accident at the age of 11, to write a novel. Dale isn't taking his medication and he is losing track of time. He's having weird dreams, waking up in weird places, and being followed by a pack of black dogs. As the incidents get show more odder and the ghosts of Dale's past (both living and dead) come roiling to the surface, the reader is left wondering whether he is having a mental breakdown or if the house is haunted by the ghost of his dead friend.

It is, as you might say, derivative as hell.

That didn't stop me from liking it though. Far from it, I found A Winter Haunting to be quite enjoyable. I was a little hesitant at first because I was afraid of a predictable plot, but Dan Simmons managed to keep me on my toes most of the way through the novel. There were some very funny one-liners to be found and I rather liked his commentary on writing and literature (the main character is an author, remember.) The book didn't blow my mind, but as far as horror novels about haunted houses go, it's rather good. 3 stars. show less

I read the first half of this alone in the house. I got to the part where a strange, small black dog follows him around the farm, and he notices that the dog' smile is off, like maybe the dog has human teeth, and I threw the book up in the air and watched Tomb Raider until Chris got home. I haven't freaked myself out like that for years. Excellent, subtly scary stuff!

I listened to the audiobook--kudos to Bronson Pinchot for the work on Middle English, Middle German, and all of the other crazy language stuff here. Very smoothly rendered.

I would have liked the end to have blended more smoothly, so that if the question about Dale's sanity or haunting were the big twist, then the narrative did not seem to just be confused. I listened to the end three times, trying to figure out what I missed before realizing that this seems to have been intended as a twist: the possession. I don't need to necessarily understand the logistics of the possession, but I do need to know that it happened a little more certainly: a change in the voice beyond the shift from third to first person. And: did Dale want to become show more possessed? To give control over to his old friend? Was this just because he no longer was interested in controlling his own life? Like I said, the end lost me a bit here.

All that said, lots of intriguing concepts: love the nod to Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, the ambiguity of the language, even the references to the dogs...the concept of a dog with human teeth is unspeakably creepy. Nice touch. Enjoyable on the whole. show less

A disappointing follow up. Simmons couldn't seem to make up his mind if he wanted to write a book about the supernatural or the horrors of real life. He dipped his pen into supernatural ink, but it refused to cooperate with him.

The book was well written and had some strong characters overall, but far too many were one-dimensional villains for the sort of balancing act he was trying to pull off.

It was a fun read in the end, but Summer of Night could have ended with no sequel.

A non-sequel sequel that will sadly have less readership than it would if it weren't billed as a sequel. Summer of Night is a fine book - frequently compared with It by Stephen King (but assuredly not based on, inspired by, or otherwise related to the actual book It). I liked it, but not as well as A Winter Haunting, which is really just this wonderful stretch of atmosphere and mystery that's full of self-referential clues and misdirection, unreliable (or is it?) narration, and... sadly - some painful schlock.
There is also a lot of window dressing that doesn't add to the story, necessarily - Dan Simmons likes to write a long book - but, that ends up feeling like atmosphere that works (like so much of the unnecessary atmospheric work in show more 70's horror movies, that makes them so wonderful today - because of how their subtlety is enhanced).
It's just plain fun to be the reader of this book. You're totally being told a tale, and it's being told to you in ways that will honestly have you listening to the sounds around you after you've shut off the light to go to sleep. I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of deer walking across the ice of my yard after a night of reading this book - the sound was amplified by the coating of ice over everything that night, and it was singularly spooky.
I want to point out the schlocky bits - but at that point this description becomes a spoiler, so I'll hold off. Don't worry, they shouldn't ruin it for you - don't let them put you off from reading through. This is a great winter's night read, especially poignant for a middle-age male reader, and there's very good reason that Stephen King and Dan Simmons (the more literary of the two, if not as skilled with voice) exchange drafts with one another before publishing books - and for SK to refer to DS as a genius. show less

A lukewarm 3 stars.

This really felt like a Stephen King novel, if Stephen wrote well. So much if fact that while reading it, many times I thought "Oh well, look at Stephen go, I misjudged him, this is actually pretty okay."
The similarities are more than just the main fact that a troubled writer faces ghosts and his past while in a small town. There are random descriptions of nipples, violent teens, and an obsession with describing fat people as disgusting and vile, while having at least one sympathetic character being also fat so we can pretend to be "PC an OKAY!".

No likeable characters here, all women feel weird, like they're all specters of how good and bad women ought to be. The writer constantly weeps about "political correctness" show more in a way that makes it obvious he's uneducated about it.
Meh.

The horror part is good, the writing is good, and the atmosphere is creepy.
Had it not the previously mentioned faults, along with the rape phantasies and backstory, I would have loved it.
But male writers man, they just can't keep themselves from inserting sexual violence everywhere.
Hadn’t read the previous books in the series, and I think this made the story even more interesting. There wasn’t much exposition so the world felt rich and real. I’m intrigued as to what happened back when these characters were kids, and even though this book may have spoiled it for me, I think I’ll go back and read about them too. show less