Book Review: Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke

Mind of Winter: What it is about

From the publishers: “On a snowy Christmas morning, Holly Judge awakens with the fragments of a nightmare floating on the edge of her consciousness. Something followed them from Russia. Thirteen years ago, she and her husband Eric adopted baby Tatty, their pretty, black-haired Rapunzel, from the Pokrovka Orphanage #2. Now, at fifteen, Tatiana is more beautiful than ever—and disturbingly erratic.

As a blizzard rages outside, Holly and Tatiana are alone. With each passing hour, Tatiana’s mood darkens, and her behavior becomes increasingly frightening . . . until Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.”

Mind of Winter: What I thought

This was a really spooky novel, although not really a thriller. It starts more or less with Holly waking and thinking, Something followed them from Russia. She wants to write this down but she doesn’t have the time. It’s Christmas morning and she overslept. Her husband is picking up his parents from the airport and Holly is at home with their teenage daughter.

The weather soon turns from a bit of snow into a dangerous blizzard. It seems… strange. No snow was even forecast! And then there is something with Tatiana, her daughter. She keeps changing her outfit and her mood. One moment she’s nice, the next she is a terrible teenager. I got a bit frightened by Tatiana, who turns up behind Holly a few times at moments when Holly thinks she’s sulking in her bedroom.

Tatiana was adopted from a Siberian orphanage but what could it be that followed them home from Russia thirteen years ago? Why didn’t they notice before and why is Holly even thinking this?

The book describes just one Christmas mid-morning and afternoon but is never slow. There are a lot of flashbacks to the orphanage and Holly and her husband’s vists there before they took Tatiana home. At first, it isn’t clear why the reader needs all the information about the orphanage but that becomes quite clear towards the end of the book. Don’t read the last page first, it reveals a lot!

I loved this spooky read. If you like a literary novel with some suspense, this is a great read.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (very good)

Number of pages: 288

First published: 2014

I got this: from the publishers, Harper

Genre: contemporary fiction