Our Winter Monster by Dennis Mahoney

 

Unlike last night's novel, tonight's comes from a very genre place, very Horror, complete with barely explained snow monster and other oddments, but it ends up having a lot to say about real world things--the snow monster is basically a side effect of a cracking (but not broken) relationship, and it reflects in many ways the feeling of being in a relationship that's threatening to unravel after a shared traumatic experience, all trapped and frozen and brittle. There is some healing, at least for the couple at the center of the novel, though it takes another traumatic experience with a much more human monster to make the healing happen and work. There are some other characters who just get hosed, but that's kinda a thing in Horror. Well-written, nicely paced, the trauma at the heart of the monster-couple turns out to be achingly real. I get the feeling the author has recently shifted to Horror, can't say how long he'll stay, can't say whether anything else will be worth reading; this very definitely is.