Great haunted house book, centering on a middle-aged novelist who returns to his childhood town to work on a book and figure out his life, his loves, his work, his everything...

But then THINGS HAPPEN.

I enjoy Dan Simmon's writing, his way of waking things up and how he often twists things back upon themselves. In this one, (a sequel to Summer of Night), a man who left his past behind returns to find that past still quite alive. He moves into the house of a (deceased) childhood friend in order to write his new novel. But life, the present and all sorts of creepiness get in his way. (Like the second floor of the house being all sealed off. And messages which appear on his computer. And dogs which...)

You don't have to read the first book in order to understand this one. When the reader 'needs to know' something, Simmons just brings it up matter-of-factly. (No info-dumping here.) But if I hadn't read the first book already, I'd definitely go out and get it. Seriously, I find it hard to find a good haunted house with a great central character. So many just devolve into silly nonsense by the end. Not this one. I had been reading two other books at the same time as this, but put them aside for this one. When I do that - it's that good.

Five stars.

I've really enjoyed both of the Simmons books I've read so far, to the extent that I would call The Terror one of my favorite horror fantasies ever and Summer of Night certainly up there. I've been meaning to read more Simmons, but hadn't gotten the impression the Summer of Night sequels were the obvious choices. But I read a comment on reddit the other day saying that A Winter Haunting was as good if not better than Summer of Night, so I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately, that commenter was way off. This feels like a pale echo of the first book in nearly every way.

Where Summer had a big cast of characters with the power and immediacy of friendship and animosity and fear and desire that only kids can have, Winter focuses on a lone protagonist with no short or long term goals. And where Summer put those kids in contact with this sprawling, diverse collection of antagonists united into a unique horror phenomenon, Winter bothers Dale with an arbitrary mix of external threats, literary allusions, and ghosts. I kept waiting, thinking at the quarter mark, then the halfway mark, that nothing had happened yet but it still must be around the corner. It was only near the end that it became undeniable that Simmons simply thought that the collection of irrational teens, intimidating sheriffs, and black dogs was sufficient.

The best parts of the book are the flashbacks, in which Dale plants the seeds that destroy his life. He is proactive at least to some extent, and there are stakes and consequences to his actions, and Claire is by far the most interesting character in the book. The problem is that those flashbacks have almost no relevance to the story at hand, which focuses on a trivial sequence of acquiring groceries, making phone calls, etc. until certain pieces of information are revealed which reframe prior events but not in a particularly meaningful way.

The ending also leans on the mythology of Summer in a somewhat demystifying way, or at least one that felt demystifying when so little that happens here lives up to the first manifestation of what I guess is meant to be the same phenomenon?

Overall, Winter feels oddly like a John Langan novel written by someone without the literary chops of Langan himself. A middle-aged English professor who destroyed his family through adultery and fled to a haunted house, only to be taunted by progressive excerpts from literature, is exactly the sort of thing Langan has done several times. But he knows how to do a story about a middle-aged professor dealing with guilt and depression and loss and make it feel profound and compelling. Simmons doesn't quite seem to know what that would look like. He paints Dale as a fairly shallow person, or at least gives us a fairly shallow view into him, when digging deep seems like the whole point.

Great book.

Ehhhh. I wanted to give this 4 stars. I really did. But I just can’t. This is a 3-3.5 star book if I’m being as generous as I can possibly be.

First off-it didn’t suck. If you’ve read Summer of Night I think it is worth reading. If it were as long as SoN, maybe not, but it’s short and relatively tight, and does have some creepy moments and some psychological horror, which I did enjoy.

What I will remember more than anything about this book is just how bleak and depressing it was. The main character is miserable, the town is rundown and sad...it wasn’t near as much fun as Summer of Night, really in any way. Picking up with Dale and (Duane??) and going back to Elm Haven was not what I’d hoped it would be. Throw some awkward sexual moments in there too. I did appreciate the nerdy linguistic and literary call outs throughout though.

Also-wtf was up with the random 5 or 6 page long car chase scene out of nowhere?? We’re reading this reflective, moody, psychological horror book and all of a sudden we’re in The French Connection for 10 minutes. Felt extremely odd and out of place.

This is a well written book with some chilling scenes (the pack of dogs that increases that increase their body size with each spotting, and the fact that one's snarl revealed human teeth). I tended to get confused about why some of the ghosts have animosity towards him or why the even show up at all. But I feel that this is a unique and subtle sequel for a horror book in that it shows how the survivor of a haunting deals with life afterward.

ugh. I didn't bother finishing this. I just could not make myself care about the main character. I had already started skipping the bits with Clare when Michelle and Dale go upstairs and the thing he notices is the cold air making her nipples visible through her blouse - even before some "erotic presence" makes him want to rape her (his own words - mysteriously, when the police search the house, there doesn't seem to be a portion of the story where a bunch of men go into this room and get boners together and start uncontrollably pawing at one another, that would be gay); every single female is described mostly by either her fatness or the size of her breasts. I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be because Dale is a disgusting old loser, or if the author genuinely has no better way to characterize women. meanwhile, a ghost(?) starts sending him obscure messages from his ipad, yikes! and skinheads let the air out of his tires, whoa o h no! and the sheriff is a bully from high school, so he grew up to be a fatter, meaner bully! jeepers! I am just sh-sh-shaking in my boots. anyway, I didn't care about Dale, I wanted him to be completely ripped to shreds by whatever the haunting is - I flipped through the rest of the book and there just didn't seem to be anything actually worth reading. the only thing I can think is that this was written by someone who is so out of touch with modern media and culture that what seems scary or sexy to him is no longer interesting at all. as the whole story seems to be about, time moves on and leaves us behind. what a boring worthless waste of paper.

4-stars

This is was a bit of a slow burn, but it was definitely good. Dan Simmons is a total pro.

On a Halloween night, Dale is returning to his dying childhood town of Elm Haven, Illinois. Dale is a survivor of an unhappy marriage, that lead to divorce and a fail attempt to have an affair with one of his students. Dale also failed at trying to kill himself, the gun jammed. With all his problems, Dales is being treated for server depression. Dale is taking a sabbatical from the college that he is teaching at. Dale is also a writer and is looking for the right environment to write his new book. Dale is renting an old abandon farm on the outskirts of town. The farm once belong to the family of his best friend Duane. Duane was killed in a terrible farming accident, back in 1960. By visiting his old hometown, Dale hopes to recapture something that he feels that he had lost. Dale, runs into a few acquaintances from his past and a bully, that he remembers very well. The farmhouse is very strange! The entire second floor is covered in plastic . Dale, wants to journey to the second floor to see what is really behind the plastic. Could it be to insulate the house or to keep people away? Dale, lives in a haunted farmhouse and has a computer that leaves him cryptic messages. Dale must face some of his childhood demons, along with the demons who are haunting him now. Dale is about to take a ride on an emotional roller coaster and where it stop, no one knows. This is a creepy ghost story, that has many twist and turns. The story moved at a good pace and was hard to put down. This is the sequel to Summer Nights. It is hard to believe but this is the first book that I have read by Dan Simmons. I plan on checking out other works by this author. I highly recommend this book.

С хубава книга прекрачих в новото десетилетие, че и абсолютно тематична беше, щото някак не успях да усетя безснежните Коледа и Нова Година в Героична Враца, за сметка на което в романа на Дан Симънс през същия този календарен интервал доволно валя сняг.

Сюжетът: Четиресет години след събитията, описани в Лятото на страха, Дейл Стюарт, едно от хлапетата от Велопатрула, изправили се срещу древното Зло в Елм Хейвън, вече солиден университетски преподавател и бестселър писател, се връща в града, за да се опита да подреди тотално объркания си живот. Хареса ми, че Симънс не задълба в старата история, а само леко се плъзна по повърхността ѝ - в хода на повествованието стана ясно, че спомените за нея вече са тотално размити в ума на професора - и романът имаше доста по-различно звучене от предния - за себе си го определям по-скоро като мистерия / история за призраци, в най-добрите традиции на Шърли Джаксън и Хенри Джеймс, отколкото за чист хорър, без това по никакъв начин да ме разочарова. Тук територията на случващото се бе предимно в главата на главния герой, където реалност и фантазия постоянно се преплитаха, а бавното му полудяване бе представено по наистина майсторски начин. Същинският екшън се разрази във финалните двайсетина страници, даде отговорите на въпросите, отворени в началото и донесе един любопитен обрат. За пореден път останах изумен от ерудицията на Дан Симънс - в този сравнително кратък за него обем срещнах доста от традиционните му литературни препратки и получих един-два безплатни урока по архитектура и автомобилизъм :)

Dan Simmons is one of my favorite authors. I've been reading his work for many years and I have enjoyed every book. This is another story set in Elm Haven, Illinois with some cross over characters from a previous book, "Summer of Night." You needn't read the first to enjoy the second. "Summer of Night" takes place several decades previously when the storyline featured children. The crossover characters in "A Winter Haunting" are now in their 40's. Mr. Simmons once lived in southern Illinois where this takes place and he reminds me of Stephen King and his beloved town of Derry. They remind me of each other, a part from both being good writers, in other ways. They have a knack (talent/genius?) for making small town USA come alive with their idiosyncrasies, delights and detractions. Their pop culture references are spot on. The dialogue whether it is male or female, young or old, educated or not always sounds authentic to me. As usual, I found this story brimming with all the essence I've come to expect from Mr. Simmons. Nothing seems far-fetched or rings untrue and I love visiting with him every chance I get.

Maybe more of a 2-star "it was ok", but I can't bear to give Dan Simmons anything less than a 3.
It started out gang-busters -- unusual narrative perspective, spooky, portentous backstory. Then we meet Clare Two Hearts, and I'm pissed as hell to be spending time on her. And Duane's voice keeps shouldering in on the narrative -- clever in the beginning, disruptive by the middle. I get that device, in the end it makes a kind of sense, but Clare can go hang. If she's a red herring, too many words are wasted on her, and if there's more to her, I don't have the energy to parse it out.
Though I wasn't blown away by this one, I still recommend it to any Simmons fan. Regardless of the genre he chooses, he's a master at atmosphere and interior complexity. He pulls it off so much better in his more recent work -- Drood, Terror, but you can faintly see how he's honing his craft in this earlier work. His characterizations of Dale and all the Elm Haven citizens (except maybe Duane) are spot on and mesmerizing. Just Clare, what the f?

3.25/5