A Winter Haunting (Seasons of Horror Book 2)

This is another really enjoyable novel by Dan Simmons in my opinion, it isn't my favourite but it is very good. As ever, I find the prose to be excellent and his characters are three dimensional and realistic. The novel even contains some action sequences, which I didn't expect to come across in this book and those were done with Dan's very own panache. This book is considered to be a sequel of sorts to Dan's horror novel 'Summer Of Night'. While I think that this book can be read without reading 'Summer of Night', I honestly would urge a potential reader of A Winter Haunting to read 'Summer Of Night' first.
If I were able, I'd give the book 3.5 stars, it isn't a long book and find myself still thinking about it after finishing it last night. Simmons is a master storyteller and he has written a creepy & effective ghost story with this novel, that is worth reading.

One of my favorite horror books was Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. This one didn't quite reach that level because what I loved about Summer of Night was the lost innocence of the kids and their neighborhood bike gang unraveling the mystery of the ghosts in town, and this book, while using some of the same characters (was it only one?), did not elicit the same feel. Our one remaining character is in his forties, is depressed following a divorce and end of the affair that caused it, and is struggling to work on his book.

The character work is very good, I just didn't love the characters as much as I did in Summer of Night. The mystery is just as strong, though a little less extended as SoN, but the ending had one of the best creative turns that I've seen in a horror novel. I certainly didn't see that coming. The narration is high quality, though it does have many portions where the narrator obviously inserted recordings from separate sessions, which was odd, and felt like they were mailing it in to not make those additions seamless.

4.5/5 stars

Dan Simmons might have topped his absolutely excellent Summer of Night (a book that needs to be read by anyone who likes McCammon's Boy's Life or Kings It/The Body)with this chilling novel. This book is so superbly crafted that the reader really feels as if they are physically inside of an actual person's head, and not just some character in a book. I would say I'm not huge on either ghost stories or psychological stories, and yet this book is exactly those two things, and it is one of the best books I've read in a while. The spooks are scattered through this tale of a man already losing his will to live, and that's before the lines become blurred, and what is and isn't happening to him isn't really clear. Also, Dale Stewart has almost lost all memory of that traumatic summer of 1960, but bits and pieces start coming back to him.
Sometimes I have one of these types of books that I've been eyeing up for a while and know that I'll read it someday, and then all of a sudden I hold it in my hands and turn to page one and am just excited beyond belief, and this was one of those books. I just knew this was gonna be a great read, and I was right. Combined with Summer of Night, A Winter Haunting is a creepy (my eyes literally went wide twice while reading this book) story that in my opinion is good enough to have won a Bram Stoker award.
I would highly recommend you read Summer of Night and A Winter Haunting both. Either one can be enjoyed by itself, but the effect of reading both is incredible. If anyone has read Summer of Night and enjoyed it, please do yourself a favor and pick this one up. I know we're not quite two months into 2015, but A Winter Haunting is my favorite book this year. I have to echo Stephen King here and admit that I too "Am in awe of Dan Simmons."

I suppose it's appropriate that I'm reviewing this today but it turns out it's just a coincidence.

When it comes to sequels, Dan Simmons clearly seems to have people like me in mind. Because instead of writing a book that requires you to go back and refresh your memory on what happened in the first book, he makes the main character much like me in the fact that he can't much of what happened in that book either. Fortunately, this one can be read pretty much on its own, although it gains some extra resonance when seen as a continuation of what happened the first time around in "Summer of Night".

That novel was a slightly nostalgic, idyllic look at growing up in a small Illinois town in the 1960s just before a whole host of horrifying supernatural events occurred, traumatizing pretty much everyone involved that lived through it (and not everyone did). Fifty or so years later, professor and famous hack writer Dale Stewart decides to come back to his old hometown to write his novel about growing up in his old town. He rents the old farmhouse where an old friend once lived before he died young and prepares himself to hunker down for the winter to produce his masterpiece.

The only problem is that he's currently on anti-depressants, has recently attempted to commit suicide and is suffering through the breakup of both his marriage and his affair, leaving his mental state in a somewhat fragile condition. Which is fine because the weird black dogs he keeps seeing will probably help him. Or the messages typed out on his laptop could be useful. Or maybe he should just go upstairs into the sealed off second floor of the house, just, you know, to clear his head. All of this bodes well.

Simmons is given credit for writing essentially a post-horror novel, basically what happens once the demons are vanquished but the scars still linger. Being unable to reference the events from the first novel gives Dale the aura of someone who is actually cracking up under a fair amount of strain (although I don't know if you can blame the decision to have an affair on demons so much as poor judgement), and his attempts to struggle through it make you wonder if the weirdness is all in his head when it does start happening. And if it is in his head, what kind of danger is that to everyone around him?

Frankly, the novel reads quick but isn't exactly riveting, coming off in several parts as Simmons on basically auto-pilot. The opening scenes help to set the mood but they are so blatantly there to set the mood that you find yourself checking off the boxes on the "Burgeoning Horror" checklist as he starts to see and experience strange things. Simmons does take the unique tactic of having portions of the story be narrated by the kid who died young in the last novel, although its not quite clear what it's supposed to add to the proceedings other than to ground the creepiness in something that isn't "crazy man going crazy". The dead voice still gets the best line (the one about regrets and "King Lear"). But Dale himself isn't that compelling early on, while I feel for him because of his depression, it's not entirely clear why I have to care what happens to him, especially if it seems he's going nuts (I suppose I'm to wonder if it is all in his head and wait for the moment when it becomes actual ghostapalooza or he just snaps but again that's more "watching car accident" than actually caring).

SImmons does manage to turn up the creepy factor as the book goes along, as he makes friends (or fails to) both old and new, and all the odd events start to stack up. The book probably would have worked better if it had just gone for a psychological analysis of someone on the edge after experiencing terrible and unexplainable events that he hadn't quite recovered from, as for all the references to Henry James, it never becomes quite as high-minded as all that. He gets several decent scares out of the proceedings however and the atmosphere of inherent dread becomes palpable as the book winds toward a conclusion that I'm pretty sure I didn't see coming. Still, a lot of the extra stuff feels like padding (the flashbacks to his affair with one of his college students, an admittedly fantastic chase scene with a bunch of skinheads) and after a while it wasn't that I was invested as much as I hated seeing the ghosts win (if ghosts they were). The psychological horror never seems to go nearly as deep as it needs to and while Dale does some token "I'm on the edge" type things, I never got a sense of the desperation of a man in his mental state would probably have. Yeah, he's stressed because of the giant black dogs but I would be too. You never really have the sense that he's unraveling out of control, but the ghosts never feels absolutely terrifying, which means the book exists in a kind of middle ground. Oddly enough, action is what carries the day and when things start happening quickly, it pretty much carries you to the end of the novel in one swoop (I read the last two hundred some odd pages in a great late night burst). Which speaks highly to its readability but it doesn't leave as much to linger over. Simmons gets a lot of leeway from me (writing "Hyperion" means he had me for life and most of his horror stuff has been pretty interesting) but I feel like in a year I'll remember less of this than I remember of "Summer of Night" ten years on.

Dan Simmons is one of the most versatile writers around, as well as prolific: it always seems he has a new one ready for you, before you can even blink. How he does that is a mystery in itself, but his various enthusiasms propel his versatility.

A Winter Haunting is ghost territory for him, and he takes the hackneyed notion of the solo protagonist in an isolated old house and twists it the way we have come to expect from him. It's a sequel of sorts to Summer of Night, 40 years after that book's narrative, but really more of a follow up on one of the characters. It's not a ghost story as Stephen King or Robert McCammon would tell it, but more in the Henry James / Shirley Jackson tradition, and he does something unique with one of the characters that I will not spill.

Compared with his latter novels, this book seems tighter, more spare in the prose, subtle and clever in ways you realize at the end. Maybe not one of his major works, but like Shadow of a Doubt from Alfred Hitchcock, the confined narrative makes it linger in the memory more than some of his bigger mainstream novels.

After an attempted suicide, Dale Stewart leaves his teaching position, taking a nine month sabbatical to write his new novel and figure some things out. He's chosen to return to Elm Haven, renting the old farmhouse his friend Duane McBride used to live in. Rumor has it the house is haunted and Duane's aunt kept the place almost exactly as it was back in 1960, the only time Dale ever stepped foot in the home. The second floor has been closed off for four decades and even Duane's and his father's things are still in their old places. The longer Dale stays in the house, the more strange things he begins to experience. But is Dale going mad or is the house truly inhabited by something inhuman?

Though this book is a sequel in some sense to Summer of Night, it's not exactly. Dale Stewart returns, as do a few other characters. It takes place in Elm Haven, on Duane McBride's old farm, and there are some references to the events of the summer of 1960, but Dale actually doesn't remember what happened so if you haven't read Summer, you can still read Winter all on its own. Though I'd suggest making time for them both 'cause Simmons is amazing!

I loved returning to Elm Haven. I know, it's kind of a creepy little dying town, especially considering the events of both books, but I love the idea of the two stories being tied together by a common place and characters even if they do stand alone on their own. One of my favorite things about Simmons's work is his careful attention to the setting and atmosphere. The plot development is so well structured and I love his pacing. It really gives you a chance to meet the characters and settle in alongside them as the creepiness factor seeps into the story.

To put it simply, Simmons has an incredible way with words. It has horror, suspense, psychological suspense, and fantastic character growth. I would rank him right up there with Stephen King. This novel does not disappoint and takes you on a suspenseful journey into the main character inner demons that are threatening to spill out. The flashbacks/glimpses we are given into the past are help propel the story forward and add to the overall quality of novel. Some books that delve into the past fail horribly and crash and burn, but this one does it with ease. Finished this book in one sitting. The descriptions and detail are so precise; it felt like I was literally in the scenes with these characters. I will be buying more of this authors work.

After reading this book I am really curious about the first book, "Summer of Night." I stumbled upon this book looking for something spooky to read for October and immediately found myself enthralled with the story of both of the main narrators.

This was an interesting book where you are never quite sure what is reality and what is not. Even the main character doesn't seem to know for sure, which added an extra element of creepiness to the story.

I expected this to be a classic sort of ghost story where nothing much happened other than a few spectres and things going bump in the night, but it was not that way at all. This was an exciting book with a lot of unexpected twists.

I do have to say, I liked the current parts of the book much better than the flashbacks, which I often skimmed to get back to the main story. The author explained things a bit too much in some places and I was left with a few questions at the end, which I think was intentional on the part of the author. The ending could be interpreted a number of different ways.

Overall this was a good horror novel and clearly a very talented and creative author. Recommended.

Dan Simmons is an author who is capable of greatness, and he has written some great novels in the past, most notably SUMMER OF NIGHT and HYPERION. This novel, a sequel of sorts to SUMMER OF NIGHT, is not in that league.

This is essentially a ghost story about a clinically depressed middle-aged man taking a winter sabattical in his childhood town. He's renting the house of an old childhood friend, who experienced an untimely death in SUMMER OF NIGHT. Needless to say, spooky things start to happen, and the main character begins to question his sanity as the novel progresses.

A WINTER HAUNTING is a decent read, but Simmons doesn't tread a lot of new territory here. The main character is an English professor suffering from a mid-life crisis, and much of his conduct is unsympathetic and predictable (especially his love affair with an unbelievably smart and self-assured young student). Simmons, who is a rather intellectual author, sprinkles in a lot of allusions to classical literature (Beowulf, Milton, Proust) but they don't add much to the story that is meaningful. While Simmons does a good job building up tension as the novel moves forward, it all leads up to an ending that ultimately falls flat.

Still, like everything Simmons writes, A WINTER HAUNTING is well written and intelligent. Simmons does a fine job creating a spooky, claustrophobic atmosphere as the main character grapples with his depression and the strange events happening around him. Certain scenes in this book are quite chilling, while others are very humorous (the conversations that the main character has with his dim, narrow-minded real estate agent are brilliantly done). If you like horror stories, you could do far worse than this effort, which reminded me quite a bit of the movie THE SIXTH SENSE.

But if you're new to Simmons, my advice is to first read SUMMER OF NIGHT. It is ultimately a much more satisfying book, and it will provide some much needed context that will make A WINTER HAUNTING more meaningful.

Dan Simmons offers a classic ghost story in "A Winter Haunting", the chilling sequel to "Summer of Night". Relying on artful plotting and pin-point suspense, Simmons writes superbly in his continuation of Elm Haven and its horrors. A scary and nostalgic novel, it bears testament to the importance of self-forgiveness, and the power true friendship has beyond the grave.

Once, Dale Stewart was a respected professor and novelist, but those days are gone. Mired in depression after destroying his career and marriage, Dale has returned to Elm Haven in a desperate bid to salvage his life. Moving into the empty farmhouse of a childhood friend who died during an awful summer accident years ago, Dale hopes to write about that time, and exorcise his demons.

It's not long before the darkness falls and Dale starts doubting his sanity. Memories of that strange summer re-surface, as his hold on reality weakens. Something dwells in the old farmhouse's walls, and it wants Dale. Strange, formless black dogs stalk him, a ghostly presence possibly friend or foe manifests on his laptop...and the snow falls in earnest, closing roads, further isolating him from the living world.

"A Winter Haunting" is to be praised not only for its chills, but also for its soulful characterization and engrossing storyline. By the novel's end, we're questioning our sanity as much as Dale, wondering just how far down "the rabbit's hole" Simmons will lead. A resounding work offering great, scary treats, make sure to slip it in your Halloween bag this year.

A Winter Haunting is a sequel to Summer of Night. I never read that one by A Winter Haunting seemed perfect for this time of year and I was loving Dan Simmons after reading Drood.

Dale Stewart returns to his childhood town in Illinois as his life in Montana has gone to hell. His job as a professor was in jeopardy, his young lover has left him, he has lost his wife and children due to the affair, then fails at a suicide attempt. He decides to take a sabbatical, and when he returns to Illinois, he rents the home of his childhood friend that died a violent death (the plot of the first novel).

Dale begins to see black dogs that no one else sees, plus he gets messages on his computer, but he's not hooked up to the internet. Dale begins to wonder about his sanity. Also, he is being harassed by some Neo-Nazi punks based on some articles that he wrote.

my review: This was a pretty good read, lots of paranormal and plot twists. Some I saw coming, some I didn't. I might have suspected more if I'd read the first book, but I don't think it matters.

It was a bit like watching a horror movie, when you are yelling at the person to not walk into the basement. I would have hightailed it out of that town the minute anything happened, but I guess that would not have made for a good story.

Sometimes the story dragged a bit, but I was still intrigued. Luckily this was not one of Simmon's doorstop books, or I may have felt differently. All in all, not too bad.

my rating 3.5/5

I loved the creepiness of the Jolly Corner, the house where Dale Stewart goes to write his novel and lick his wounds after his life comes tumbling down. I liked how you don't know what's real (and who's real) so in general I enjoyed the plot. Problem is... I listened to the audiobook version and that was my biggest issue: the way that Bronson Pinchot performs female characters makes them all sound bored or drugged. So I will give this novel three stars because it is well written and kept me entertained, even if it was sometimes a little too weird for me.

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.

Dan Simmons is back. Forget the trysts with Science Fiction, Dan is back where he belongs, in the horror genre. And he comes back with a "sequel" to "Summer of Night", his epitaph to growing up spooky in 1960 Illinois. It isn't necessary to have read the earlier novel and that's what makes this such a delight.
In a novel reminiscent of "The Shining" by another noted horror writer, Simmons takes us back to Elm Haven, Illinois, where (now) Professor Dale Stewart, former best friend of the now departed Duane McBride, returns to Duane's midwest farmhouse to spend the winter and to exorcize past demons of a since gone south love affair with one of his former students at the University of Montana. Clair Hart nee Two Hearts is now at the ivy covered confines of Princeton and Dale has taken a sabbatical to return to his former home town (he can't go back home in Missoula because his wife and daughters have given him the boot as well) to try his hand at the Great American Novel, cicrca 1960, and locks himself away (or tries to) for the winter in the farmhouse. The only problem is the demons in his head - and we get plenty of playback with Clair and skinwalkers and other neat stuff - these demons become all too real as he slips into his winter haunting.
Who's real and who's memorex? Michelle, the former 6th grade cutie-patootie? C.J. Congden, former tormentor and now (?) local sheriff? Sandy Whitaker, who rents him Duane's old place? And how does that olde english wind up on his lap top? Questions come and go as we flip from first person narrative to third. In the end, we're not sure just who we are rooting for. Dan Simmons delivers the kind of stuff you don't want to read without the lights on. And, whatever you do, don't go upstairs! Brrrr.

Overcoming the nightmare of his childhood (see SUMMER OF NIGHT), Dale Stewart became a successful literature professor and novelist, though his Jim Bridge: Mountain Man books do not attain the literary standard he desires. However, he threw away a loving family life with a cherished wife and daughters for an affair with a student that ended badly. Filled with self-recrimination, Dale takes a sabbatical from the University of Montana and flees Missoula to stay at the farmhouse of his deceased childhood friend Duane McBride to write his first real novel.

While battling with guilt, Dale writes Internet articles exposing the Big Sky neo-Nazi skinheads, which brings him to the attention of their Illinois brethren. As he settles in the McBride farmhouse, he begins to fall further apart and begins to realize that more than a bunch of extremists want his skin peeled. There are forces turning the screws, but is it inside his head or outside his head's understanding?

The sequel to the scary SUMMER OF NIGHT (to be re-released shortly), A WINTER HAUNTING, is a great tale that keeps the reader wondering if the plot is a psychological thriller or a modern day Turn of the Screw. The story line starts off in an eerie manner as the long dead Duane begins the narration of seeing Montana through Dale's eyes though he never left Illinois. Dan Simmons is at his most frightening best guiding his audience into deciding whether middle aged Dale is breaking down or haunted. This novel and its previous tale are winners and worth reading by fans relishing psychological thrillers or haunting stories because the plots play on multiple levels.

Harriet Klausner

Dan Simmons had returned back to the horror realm wonderfully. A Winter Haunting is the sequel to Summer of Night. The title seems to be a play on words with each other. "Summer of Night" is about youngsters surviving a horror and "A Winter Haunting" is about dealing with the aftermath later in life.
The protagonist, Dale Stewart, returns to his childhood home to try and rebuild his life and renew his writing. He has survived a failed marriage and a disasterous love affair that had left him taking medication for depression. Stewart rents the home of a friend that had died during the first book. Soon after his arrival, Stewart begins to have visitations from supernatural dogs, ghosts, and neo-Nazis. Most of the book leaves the reader thinking he is finally going over the edge of sanity. The narrarator's voice is the only proof the Dale is not crazy. The story is told by the voice of his dead childhood friend.
What develops is an intense book about coming to terms with the past. Simmons has explored similar phenomenon before in other books (Phases of Gravity & Hyperion). The shattered Stewart confronts his past and remembers. As all of Simmon's horror and sci-fi books, this is highly reccommended.

"Summer of Night" was impressive as a horror novel because of the quality of scene after scene after scene that accentuated a single nightmare or horrific situation (the old woman on the second floor of Harlen's house when it should be empty, the thing pushing back on the closet door when Dale tries to shut it, and on and on). It's weakest parts to me were the use of the phrase "the Master" and the whole Borgia Bell concept which didn't live up to the incredible events leading to the book's conclusion.
"A Winter Haunting" has very few faults, if any, and is a brilliant almost non-sequel to the earlier novel. I re-read "Summer of Night" immediately prior to reading this one and there is an incredible poignancy to reacquainting myself with Dale and his friends in 1960 and reading about what is happening to him now. This unsung hero of the previous book has suppressed (lost?) his memories of that earlier time and now, in his fifties, his life is a mess and he finds that he may actually be insane; we wonder along with him. Like Hugo Wilcken's "The Execution," the unwinding of the main character's mind, especially a person who was so strong and able in the earlier book, is absorbing to the utmost.
There are no wrong notes here. This is a wonderful book and reminds me more of Simmons's "Phases of Gravity" more than any of his other books. While I'm sure everyone won't get what the book's truly about, read it and find out if you do.
Books like this are what we're hoping for every time we pick up something new to read.

Subtlety is something missing in a lot of modern horror novels. Personally, I think what you don't see is scarier than what you do see--and, evidently, so does Dan Simmons. Because "A Winter Haunting" is one of the scariest books I have ever read...and reaches an over-the-top level only at the climax of the book, which is the best place for it.

Dale is returning to Elm Haven, where in the summer of 1960, he and his friends encountered a strange horror. The memory of this summer has been blocked from Dale's head. Dale's about to experience it all over again, however. He is a credited proffessor, and an author of mediocre novels--until he leaves his wife for one of his students, who in turn leaves him for someone her own age. After a failed suicide attempt--itself shrouded in mystery--Dale heads out to Illinois, to the village of his childhood, to his old friend Duane's house. Duane died, that awful summer--but he did not leave. He is still here...and so is something else.

As winter sets in, and a terrible snowstorm makes its way towards Elm Haven, Dale will enounter figures from his past, both dead and alive--the old bully, now a sheriff; the sixth-grade sex bomb, now a failed actress; someone typing mysterious messages on his laptop, in Old English; an a pack of black hounds, that seem larger and more menacing each time Dale encounters this. This is going to be very long winter for Dale Stewart...or a murderously short one.

"A Winter Haunting" is one of the best examples of horror fiction I have come across in a long time, and I am a fan of the genre. Dan Simmons is a brilliant author, and has shown his talents repeatedly. This book is supposedly a sequal; I did not know that until half-way through it (when I found out via reviews on this website), and I have never read "Summer of Night", though I intend to. This book stands on its own as a great example of how three-hundred-plus pages can be terrifying as hell.

Dan Simmons's A Winter Haunting is a classic ghost story which is set in the very near future. A man - failed writer, husband and father- goes back to the old farm of his deceased friend in his hometown (a place he hasn't see in over forty years) in order to write a book about his childhood. But the farmhouse he moves into is less than invinting at times; strange things seem to occur on a regular basis. His laptop turns on by itself and leaves him cryptic messages, an old radio plays by itself, strange dogs that seem to grow with furious rapidity roam around the house and voices are heard during the night.
Simmons brings back many of the characters from his novel Summer Of Night, one of the best horror novels ever written. But this time, we can never be certain on who's real and who's not, who's good and who's not. This is not a sequel per se, more of a follow-up.
The pace of this book - which is short, clocking at a very trim 325 pages - is very rapid and very suspenseful. This is mostly a one man show as there is basically only one main character, but the novel never offers a dull moment. And there are some very creepy moments that will make the hair at the back of your neck stand and that will cover your entire body with shivers. And let me tell you right now that the finale is a killer! An amazing end to an amazing story.
I am pleased that Simmons finally wrote a sequel to Summer Of Night. This is one book that will not displease fans of the author and new readers alike. The book is scary, extremely well written and, as most Simmons book, often funny. Simmons proves once again that he is a master storyteller worthy of the best seller charts. He is the literary world's best kept secret. Do not let this one pass you by!

I gave the prequel to this book, "Summer of Nights", a great review and I am a fan of Dan Simmons, but this book was not as good. Don't get me wrong, it was still a good read, but Mr Simmons has set the bar quite high for himself by now. The main problem with this book is that it's aimless. In "Summer of Nights" there's a clear threat, the supernatural occurrences happen for a reason, which is that threat (the "bad guy" if you wish). In "Winter Haunting" things just happen, without a common thread and without a clear reason. Don't get me wrong, these supernatural incidents are very creepy and make for an entertaining read, but the reader doesn't get satisfaction. They look like pieces of a puzzle, but the puzzle never comes together and we are left without a final picture.

... waiting for the bus, on the bus, in my lunchbreak, I just couldn't put it down. Ten years after Summer of Night, Dan Simmons returns with a sequel which is (IMO anyway) a distinct improvement on the original. When I first read Summer of Night I felt it was a rip-off of 'IT' and a disappointment from the author of Hyperion. However I feel that I should warn Summer of Night fans that AWH is NOT really a sequel at all - there is hardly any connection with the events of the first book though a few characters do reappear. What really impressed is that unlike some authors I could mention (step forward Mr Stephen King and Mr Dean Koontz) Simmon's writing style has matured with the years and he has avoided the trap of over-writing which so many have fallen into - instead this is a slim volume of around 200 pages in which not a single word is wasted.

This review is intended primarily to dissuade readers who enjoyed "Summer of Night," this book's prequel, from buying "A Winter Haunting."
I'm a Simmons fan, having loved that book, "Carrion Comfort," and all four of the "Hyperion" books, but "A Winter Haunting" reads like it was thrown together from scraps of ideas he had kicking around the office.
The good:
-- Evokes the same creepy and growing dread as "Summer of Night."
-- Engagingly written. Simmons knows how to put a paragraph together, and that shows through.
-- Brings back some of the same cast we grew to love in the prequel.
-- One extremely neat plot twist at the climax.
But there's much more to say about the bad. First of all, Simmons shoves much more of himself into the hero, Bike-Patrol-champion-turned-writer Dale Stewart, than he should have. We get digressions into one of Stewart's book tours, wink-wink jokes about reviewers and the ignominy of writing horror novels, and an extended (and almost pointless) fantasy about the hero writer having an affair with a beautiful grad student. It's too much of Simmons writing for himself, rather than the people who've plunked down money to read his book.
Dale even discusses with another character how frustrating it is, in cheap slasher flicks, when the main characters don't do the smart thing and flee when things start to go really bad. This comes immediately after the point when events in "A Winter Haunting" go from odd to scary.
Stewart's sticking around is partially explained by the fact that he's coming unhinged, which is fair enough but unsatisfying. That's also the only possible explanation for much of the rest of his behaviour, including falling fast asleep at tense moments, uncovering odd things in his dead friend Duane McBride's house that he never examines more carefully in the months he lives there.
Flashbacks to his dalliance with his grad student are detailed -- they form a whole second thread to the plot, as substantial as the main "haunting" in Elm Haven -- but appear to serve almost no purpose. Neither Stewart, nor his grad student Clare, comes off as sympathetic, so the material, about one-third the book, isn't emotionally affecting. An apparent shocking twist in the proceedings turns out to be a red herring, and the two plot threads never really merge.
We get several new (and unsatisfying) interpretations deposited atop events that seemed clearly defined in "Summer of Night," which actually damages the wonderful previous book retroactively. This despite Dale's maddening determination not to remember most of the summer of 1960. Also, one of the more frightening manifestations of the evil in "Summer of Night" is brought back for cheap chills, but how it returned is never resolved, and neither is what happens to it after "A Winter Haunting" ends.
Furthermore, Simmons' use of several brand names, especially Toyota, HP, and IBM, is so obtrustive I can only imagine the companies paid him for it.
"A Winter Haunting" is self-indulgent and weakly plotted, featuring characters who acknowledge the irrationality of their own actions in the text. It might work as a pulp thriller on its own, but if you loved "Summer of Night," stay away from "A Winter Haunting," or you'll be deeply disappointed in the new book and freshly disillusioned about the original.

"A Haunted Winter" will grip you from the first page till the last. For members of the baby boom generation, especially for those from the midwest, the novel will evoke childhood memories of another, sunnier time. When Montana college professor Dale's life turns to shambles, and he lives through a failed suicide attempt, he decides to make a kind of pilgrimage back to the small Illinois town where he grew up, to the farm house of his friend, the astonishingly precocious Duane. Duane's early and mysterious death forty years ago once more haunts Dale as he struggles to write a novel and to piece his own life back together.
Despite some sex scenes and some violent encounters which, though well written, seem obligatory for the genre, Dan Simmons has produced an original and outstanding thriller.

This is an incredibly ambivalent novel, and I am not entirely sure I have completely worked out how I feel about it. Perhaps that is part of the point, since for the majority of the novel you are kept guessing -- is this a haunting or just a mentally disturbed hallucinating suicidal protaganist. Is it supernatural or just self-pitying dementia? Even the nature of this book--is it really a sequel to Summer of Night or just suggested by the events of Summer of Night--leave one a bit unsure of your footing or even sympathies. Do we like the protaganist, who has very little of the 10 year old Dale left in his late middle-aged self, or would we rather he just do us all the favor of getting it over with already?
I don't know if it is just the lingering bad taste I have from Darwin's Blade but I was very conscious of the prose in this book, although not the clunky amateurish voice that was Darwin's Blade this book definitely lacks the flow or beauty of the best of Simmon's other work. It didn't help that at one point we learn that Dale's brother is an insurance investigator (oh the horror of forcing connections to Darwin's Blade in my mind). I get the feeling that the editing process left some of this book on the cutting room floor without regard for the flow. This is most evident in references to a rather important "remembered killing" that is actually not remembered in the text. The flow of narrative time is disrupted quite jarringly. There is a Thanksgiving scene, the narrator goes to sleep and it seems it is Christmas Eve with no real indication of the passage of time (or perhaps it is more explicit and I was just confused). I very much resonant with an earlier reviewer who felt that perhaps the editor wanted this to be a different book.
At any rate, although not a home run this is a mildly diverting although somewhat self-indulgent effort by Simmons. I often got the sense that I was hearing not the voice of any of the characters but very strongly the voice of the author. There are some genuine chills and a particularly creeping dread that builds rather slowly, but it is unfortunately not sustained and not orchestrated very well. In short this is not the complete failure that was his most recent work but also not the must-read novels of his earlier horror and science fiction.

Dan Simmons in one of the most talented authors around today. I have read almost all of his books and some are perfect (Hyperion series, Song of Kali) and some are just okay (Children of the Night, Carrion Comfort) but in all of them one thing is consistant, his writing. This book goes in the former category. It is much better than the book that precluded it and once is much better than any suspense/ghost story/mystery that I have read in a while. The way Dale is written really made me feel like I was privy to Dale's thoughts and feeling of insanity. I felt like I was going crazy halfway through the story.

And the end.....I loved it. You'll know what I mean when you read it. Anyways, I give this five stars and I highly recommend it.

I started reading this book without knowing that it was a sequel. By the time I got halfway through it, I felt I was missing key points to the story, as key characters were never really developed or explained, and the traumatic experience that the main character experiences comes totally out of the blue. I think it's possible that I would have liked this book a lot more had I read the first one, but as a standalone, it was a bit confusing, and odd. I wouldn't recommend reading it without reading the first.

First off, Dan Simmons is one of my five favorite authors. I have every single one if his books in hardback and have read most of them multiple times. That being said, this was a good book, better than average even, but not up to Dan's usual extremely high standards. Yes, it was a ghost story in that it had ghosts in it, but I was never creeped out or scared at all. It was just a little too tame for me to call it a ghost story. It was more of a slightly unnerving psychological analysis. I read it straight through, it was enjoyable and kept a good pace and I was never bored and I do reccommend it, but if I was ranking all of Dan's books, this would be very close to the bottom.

Dan Simmons is a frustrating author. Some of his novels are the best I've ever read, full of a richness of prose, thoughts, beauty, and plot that is not often found. Some of his works are derivative, pointless, and feel like he threw them together in about 4 days. I've often wondered whether there are two writers out there both named Dan Simmons and somehow I've just gotten confused. This novel is unfortunately one of the latter, though not quite as bad as some of his lesser works. It follows the later life of a character from his "Summer of Night" that is actually one of my favorite novels ever, by any author. I'd have to say that this one is not worth the effort though.

After reading Summer of Night, a far superior story, I was glad to see a sequel. This book was interersting, and the ending made it worth sticking with - in fact the last chapter is probably the best part - actually the last two or three pages are. Often relentlessly deperssing, and the back story of Dale's young girlfriend Clare is a distraction and takes up far too much of the novel, becoming filler. At one point Simmon's character even muses on whether this is a badly written story or reality. So it may have been a deliberate experiment or joke. Whatever the case, worth reading, but not a classic like Summer of Night. There is also no resolution of Dale's experience in the previous novel, although that is hinted at by his "alter ego" at the end. I'll leave it for you to find out who that is.

I absolutely loved SUMMER OF NIGHT, and purchased A WINTER HAUNTING expecting more of the same from this "sequel." Granted, Simmons is a heck of a writer, but this was by far not his best book. Much smaller in scope than SUMMER OF NIGHT, A WINTER HAUNTING never really energized me. I finished the book more out of an obligation to the price I paid to purchase it rather than to find out how it ends. Not a great place to start for someone new to Simmons, especially is you're looking for Horror. Try SUMMER OF NIGHT or CARRION COMFORT.

Initially, it was exciting and interesting, but in the end, it did not even feel like it was written by the same author. Stylistically, it was vastly different than anything by Simmons that I have read before. It was short, and the plot came off rushed and weak. None of the details and setting were lifelike or vivid. There were even some minor discrepancies between it and _Summer of Night_. The flashbacks were more annoying than enriching to the plot or Dale's character.
Mostly the ghosts weren't satisfactorily explained in comparison to the first book. Also, Dale seemed one of the least likely boys to so conclusively forget the events of that fateful summer of 1960. I mean, his brother experience everything with him, so you would think that they would have at least talked about it... Part of my disappointment was because of how desperately I wanted to like it. And if it had not been marketed as a sequel, I think I may have enjoyed it more. I think the basic premise was interesting, but if would have been better served to have a whole new cast of characters and a whole new setting.

Although "A Winter Haunting" isn't quite as good as its "Summer of Night" predecessor, it still evokes a genuine sense of dread and terror. It is a mind game, and there are times when you really start wondering if Dale has lost his mind. There are several disturbing scenes with the black dogs, especially in how it starts out with one small dog and gravitates to several huge killers.
It's a good book for a cold winter night to read by the fireplace and look over your shoulders.
Simmons is an ace writer.

Being not a Simmons afficionado I can't fairly say that he is a bad writer; but if "A Winter Haunting" is any example of his writing, I must say that I won't be reading any more of his work. I thought "A Winter Haunting" lacked substance, and feeling. The main character goes back to a spooky abandoned farmhouse where his best friend, the brilliant Duane, was killed in a nasty farming accident. And this is all the pretense Simmons gives you. He messes around with some mysterious hounds, takes a lot of walks (Lord have mercy, does this character walk!), and finds himself attracted to a lesbian; gets his tires slashed, not once, but twice by a group of "belligerent youths", aka skinheads. All in all, I give this novel two thumbs down.

To be honest, I first bought this book because of its cover. I was in the mood for a good scary read and the old house covered in snow sitting on the front cover caught my attention and reminded me of home in Maine. This book has one of the scariest scenes that I have ever read and for those of you who have read this, you'll remember him cutting the plastic to gain acces to the second floor. If you love ghost stories or the adrenaline rush from being frightened then this is a MUST HAVE for your library!

The books main story started off creepy and i was really into it. As i got further along the story to me started to get more and more childish i thought, in witch case i lost interest a bit! I didnt care for the way it was written between two points of views.

Very good book, spooky, psychological, basically a haunting novel. Dale returns to the place where the horrors of the Summer of Night took place, to the house where his best friend lived, who died so horribly. Ghosts, friendly and evil, pay him visits as he himself must fight his innerself and his past demons. Great job by Dan Simmons. An excellent sequel.

This is a great novel! "A Winter Haunting" is everything a sequel to a classic like "Summer of Night" should be. It's dark, creepy and disturbing: And, it has enough subtle tie-ins to the original novel to make you smile with nostalgia, but, not so many tie-ins that you HAVE to read "Summer Of Night" before you read this book. Dean Koontz was right: Dan Simmons IS brilliant!

Reading A Winter Haunting after reading Summer of Night is like reading Endymion after Hyperion. You know that you should be grateful because it's a lot better than other works in the genre, but all you feel is disappointment because you know Simmons is capable of so much more.
I was scared to stop reading Summer of Night the first time I read it, scared to go to sleep before I got to the end and the resolution I hoped was coming. With A Winter Haunting, I instead found myself pondering the number of pages left to read and wondering if there was time for anything astonishing to happen.
I don't regret reading this but I certainly regret buying it, especially in hardcover.

Others here have adequately filled you in on enough of the plot of A Winter Haunting, so I won't rehash what's already been written. What I will say is this: if you are a true Summer of Night fan, if you've read it more than once and have enjoyed the other exploits of its characters as adults (Fires of Eden, for example)you may be sorely disappointed in this book, as I am. SPOILER .....
After all is said and done, this "update" on Dale leaves the reader with the sad possibility that none of the true horror elements of "Summer" ever happened, and that this it (Summer) was Dale's memoir which has been tweaked by the ghost of Duane to spin it into a horror tale.
Dan, oh Dan, say it isn't so!!

This book was a total page turner! I was actually afraid at some points. That hasn't happened since I read the "The Shining" back in the dark ages. My favorite thing about Simmon's writing is his ability to create characters with depth, people that are realistic and three-dimensional. His stories are always very tight and believable rather than fantastical, which is hard to pull off when you're talking about ghosts and the supernatural. Gotta respect that.

I love Dan Simmons (especially the Hyperion books), but this one didn't work for me. He's a talented writer, and the book moves, but the whole haunting thing has been done soooooo many times that it really takes a fresh idea to make it worthwhile to read another book like this. This ain't it. I admire him for trying to write about a thoroughly damaged (and unsympathetic) main character. At the same time, I didn't like the character at all, which makes it hard to like a book like this. Full disclosure: I read Summer of Night, and didn't particularly like that either.