34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than just a sequel, March 25, 2003
I think that Stephen King tried to do this in "It," and I think he and Peter Straub tried it again in "Black House." Whether this is true or not, neither book succeeds in the way that "A Winter Haunting" succeeds. Here, Simmons gives us what we so rarely see in horror fiction - the psychological and emotional aftermath of a horrific experience.
Simmons also takes the standard genre elements and turns them on their collective head, all the while telling a good story that keeps you reading. "A Winter Haunting" is an admirable novel, and I can't imagine a more fitting continuation of its predecessor, "Summer of Night."
I re-read "Summer of Night" just prior to this book, to have the story fresh in my head. I don't think that it's strictly necessary to read the older book to appreciate "A Winter Haunting," but I would have to say that knowing what happens in "Summer of Night" definitely adds several important perspectives to the events of the later book.
Dan Simmons has made a career out of writing excellent novels in multiple genres, and "Summer of Night" was no exception; one of the great modern horror novels. As in most such books, the story ends when the evil is defeated. "A Winter Haunting" reminds us that, in real life, the story never really ends there. Those who endure after suffering loss and trauma have to live with what has happened, have to deal with it as best they can.
Dale Stewart, in "A Winter Haunting," has dealt with the horrific events of his childhood by not dealing with them - by shutting them out, by refusing to even remember them. A writer now, as well as a college professor, Dale is also the survivor of a failed marriage and a failed affair with one of his students. The books he has written thus far are formulaic adventure stories. He is visiting the town where he grew up, living in the house of his friend who died in the summer of 1960, in order to try and gain something intangible that he feels he has lost, and to write a new sort of story about that long-lost summer that he cannot remember.
In returning to Elm Haven, the town where he grew up, Dale confronts a few of his old childhood fears as well as many of his new, "adult," ones. What is really interesting about this is that we come to see that many of the troubles he has suffered as an adult are at least partially a result of that terrible summer in 1960, which he has never faced and dealt with directly. In "A Winter Haunting" we get to see what most horror novels never show us: we see what happens to someone who confronts evil and lives to tell the tale. There are no pat conclusions or pithy observations in "A Winter Haunting" - just an implied truth that sometimes memories are too terrible to be relived, and that some stories take a long time to tell.
Though "A Winter Haunting" is a sequel to "Summer of Night," as I read it I got more of a feeling of remembrance from the book. It builds upon the events of the earlier story, but it also deviates from them quite dramatically in tone and theme. It's not a nostalgic novel at all. In fact, it's almost anti-nostalgia. As Dale tries desperately hard to create memories of a summer he can't remember, even as he confronts new terrors both real and spiritual, we are led to the conclusion that some things simply cannot - or should not - be recalled with fondness.
In "A Winter Haunting" we are reminded that horrible events have consequences beyond the events themselves. They can exact a psychological toll that can take a lifetime or more to overcome. Once again Simmons has given me a pleasant surprise; not because he has written yet another fine novel (that's an expectation by now), but because he has explored original territory in the horror genre. And he has staked his claim well.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Summer of Night becomes chilling Winter of mind games., January 21, 2003
Forty years, a failed marriage, 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. Unlike some reviewers, I love what 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 without breaking or denying them. Simmons has both Dale Stewart and the reader wondering about Dale's sanity. What exactly does Dale's failed affair with Clare Two Hearts have to do with the events at the farmhouse? Is Dale leaving himself notes? Is any of this really happening at all? And just who is haunting who? Questions a pedestrian and special effects laden spook story would not have the reader asking as the events unfold. 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. Highly recommended.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Winter of Discontent, May 16, 2003
Winter Haunting is an interesting take on the horror genre. It takes your standard ghost story and injects a dose academia, it's just the dose is more than is healthy given the anemic page count. There are simply too many offset quotes and not enough scariness and suspense.
Dale is not exactly cut from the most sympathy-inducing length of cloth. Yes, he's losing his grip and his happy family but he's also a pretentious, obssesive adulterer who has brought most of his problems on himself. It's also hard to believe that someone who references so many literary and historical quotes and facts is only capable of writing a series of cliched and inaccurate western novels. Most professors are required to be published in academic periodicals and the ones that do write mainstream stuff usually choose something nonfiction in their chosen field.
So much time is spent talking and vaguely reminiscing about Dale's '60s childhood and the book he's trying to write about it that it really gets to the point where you want to ask the author why he didn't just tell that story instead of this one; it sounds much more interesting. But of course Simmons already has and it was called Summer of Night; the problem, is nowhere on the covers or the interiors is there any mention that is in any way related to another novel. The only reason I know was because after I'd finished it I came here and read it in other reviews. So many things might make so much more sense if these were read in order, not to mention the space he could have used to enhance this plot rather then rehashing stuff from the old one.
In Simmon's defense, he finds a pretty ingenious way to switch back and forth from first to third person in having the narrator be the spiritual remains of Duane hovering around. Duane occasionally injects his own opinions but for the most part tells the story as it happens while he watches. Being a 'ghost' he can also read Dale's thoughts and serve as a fully omniscient narrator.
The ending really comes off as something the author came up with out of boredom, having pretty much written himself into a corner; it explains very little of what's been happening and what ends are tied up leave more questions then they answer. This is not necessarily a bad thing as Dale is obviously becoming increasingly unhinged by the day and what's real and what's just in his head is debateable but the wrap-up muddies the issue with the fact that he receives physical injuries and is able to touch things that later turn out not to have existed.
Which is not to say that there aren't some disconcerting scares to be had; the empty radios that continue to broadcast, mysterious scrabblings in the basement, faces that push against the plastic of the closed off second floor and a black bulldog that gradually increases in both size and number provide some much-needed chills and mystery to what is initially just Dale's pity party. But none of these phenomenon are really explained and since Dale isn't the only witness he can't be imagining everything; there is too much mystery and not enough resolution.
This book resides squarely in the middle of the Amazon scale, it's not so good as some horror or supernatural novels I've read but it does make me want to give Summer of Night a try.
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