Supernatural Friday-Review of Dead of Winter

Review: Dead of Winter by Kealan Patrick Burke

Dead of Winter by Kealan Patrick Burke is a novella length book of five short stories set during the winter and all dark in tone. The tales contain a combination of eeriness, depression and horror. The title fits the theme of this book perfectly, for this book does contain the pure freezing cold of terror.

"Snowmen" is a story about a boy who feels that the snowmen in his yard are coming for him. It’s when he discovers what these snowmen really are, that the true horror begins for him.

"Doomsday Father Christmas” is about what Santa Claus really is. Instead of the cheery old elf as children we knew, we get a depressed Kris Kringle over the way the world has changed since the beginning for him and how in the end it spells doom for us."Black Static” tells a flash fiction of an apparent adult caregiver whose obviously has responsibility of father who has become a chore not of love and what this caregiver does to free himself or herself and even the father.

"They Know" reminded me a bit of Stephen King, in that it was more than a scary story, but about people in a small town, and how snow falling can affect them, especially for the main character, Jake Dodds. He will learn though that the snowstorm brings more than snow, but something else. Something terribly else.

"Visitation Rights" tells of a father with visitation rights who picks up his daughters after a year of not seeing them to spend the weekend with him. There’s a creepy twist at the end that may shock you.

Read this collection of short stories right now during winter time—I dare you. Just be sure the doors are all locked and the window shades pulled down. And if something scratches at the front door, it’s nothing but your imagination brought on by these tales. Or is it?


Buy it on Kindle at AMAZON