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The Snowman's Children: A Novel
The Snowman's Children is a poignant, psychologically intense first novel that tells the story of an incident from one man's childhood in the 1970s, when a serial killer called The Snowman stalked the streets of suburban Detroit. The incident, a result of good but woefully misguided juvenile intentions, forced his family to leave their home, and eventually forced him, at age twenty-nine, to return to his hometown in search of three old friends.
Reminiscent of both To Kill a Mockingbird in its touching portrait of childhood, and the beautifully written brand of suspense that calls to mind Smilla's Sense of Snow, The Snowman's Children is an unusually controlled and original novel that establishes Hirshberg as an important new voice in American literature.
Reminiscent of both To Kill a Mockingbird in its touching portrait of childhood, and the beautifully written brand of suspense that calls to mind Smilla's Sense of Snow, The Snowman's Children is an unusually controlled and original novel that establishes Hirshberg as an important new voice in American literature.
324 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2002
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457 people want to read
About the author
Glen Hirshberg
93 books151 followersThree-time International Horror Guild Award Winner Glen Hirshberg’s novels include The Snowman's Children, The Book of Bunk, the Motherless Children trilogy, and Infinity Dreams. He is also the author of four widely praised story collections: The Two Sams, American Morons, The Janus Tree, and The Ones Who Are Waving. A five-time World Fantasy Award finalist, he has won the Shirley Jackson Award for the novelette, “The Janus Tree”. He also publishes new fiction, critical writing, and creative nonfiction in his Substack newsletter, Happy in Our Own Ways (https://glenhirshberg.substack.com/), and offers classes and manuscript coaching and editing through his Drones Club West activities (dronesclubwest@outlook.com). He lives with his family and cats in the Pacific Northwest.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
February 10, 2015
2015 review:
A friend pointed me in the direction Glen Hirshberg’s first novel, “The Snowman’s Children,” several years ago, and it remains one of the best recommendations I’ve received. The book left a strong impression on me, and after a second read, it’s become one of my very favorites.
“Snowman’s Children” is, I suppose, what’s normally considered a coming-of-age story, though with shades of horror throughout. On the surface, it sounds like a thriller of some sort, the story of a child killer haunting the streets of the suburbs outside Detroit. But it’s about a serial killer the same way Spike Lee’s “Summer of Sam” is about a serial killer; the psycho kidnapping and murdering children isn’t quite background, but also isn’t the main purpose here.
The heart of Hirshberg’s book is childhood, the difficult, malleable nature of our younger years; how easily young lives can change, with little to no control on the part of the person being changed. It’s told from the perspective of a man looking back on the year that disrupted his life, and the lives of everyone he knew, that forced him to grow up at age eleven, and seemingly forever set itself in the way of any future happiness.
The author has a great gift for writing about childhood, from the perspective of an adult, but describing events from a child’s view, injected with observations the narrator wouldn’t have come by until later in life. The book is full of observations almost painful in their honesty, for example:
“I wasn’t near perceptive enough to recognize or comprehend the guilty bittersweet pleasure of discussing a friend who is falling apart while the friend isn’t there.”
Or:
“[I was] feeling proud that she could see me having a black friend and also embarrassed for feeling that way.”
The narrator, eighteen years separated from the defining year of his youth, looks back at his childhood, which should have been the perfect childhood every kid deserves, but was decidedly not.
Mattie Rhodes takes a trip from his home in Lexington to the town in which he spent his first eleven years, just outside of Detroit. He’s searching for answers regarding friends he left behind when his family suddenly moved. The reasons for their move become quite clear in the course of the story, which begins with tragedy—an unknown monster stalking the neighborhood, taking children who reappear days later, lives taken—and delves into deeper tragedy. Mattie’s friend Theresa Daughtry has been drifting from reality for some time, it’s unclear how long, but probably at least since she found her mother dead several years before. She’s sunk further and further into herself, and her father looks after her by ignoring this obviously troubling situation. As the town huddles around their TV sets each night for updates on the Snowman killings, Dr. Daughtry keeps his child from sight, unavailable to anyone, including, and especially her friends.
Mattie and his best friend, Spencer, come up with a plan to see Theresa. Mattie describes his plan, and the utter foolishness of it, the complete naiveté, hits the reader like a punch in the mouth. Along with the idea that of course this plan makes sense to these kids. Destined to fail, with foreseeably tragic implications—all of this is lost on a desperate child, frantic to see his friend again, certain he is the one who can bring her back from the brink on which her fragile mind hovers.
There are some frightening moments in this novel, a number of tragic scenes and events, and passages that, with their honesty and expertly worded observations, beg to be re-read again and again.
2007 review:
"Snowman's Children" immediately became one of my favorite novels as soon as I finished reading it. It's like a memoir of childhood, with some horrific overtones, genuinely creepy scenes, and shitloads of great dialogue. The story jumps back and forth between the late seventies and mid-nineties, as the narrator heads back to his hometown outside of Detroit, where his neighborhood was stalked by a child killer when he was eleven.
A friend pointed me in the direction Glen Hirshberg’s first novel, “The Snowman’s Children,” several years ago, and it remains one of the best recommendations I’ve received. The book left a strong impression on me, and after a second read, it’s become one of my very favorites.
“Snowman’s Children” is, I suppose, what’s normally considered a coming-of-age story, though with shades of horror throughout. On the surface, it sounds like a thriller of some sort, the story of a child killer haunting the streets of the suburbs outside Detroit. But it’s about a serial killer the same way Spike Lee’s “Summer of Sam” is about a serial killer; the psycho kidnapping and murdering children isn’t quite background, but also isn’t the main purpose here.
The heart of Hirshberg’s book is childhood, the difficult, malleable nature of our younger years; how easily young lives can change, with little to no control on the part of the person being changed. It’s told from the perspective of a man looking back on the year that disrupted his life, and the lives of everyone he knew, that forced him to grow up at age eleven, and seemingly forever set itself in the way of any future happiness.
The author has a great gift for writing about childhood, from the perspective of an adult, but describing events from a child’s view, injected with observations the narrator wouldn’t have come by until later in life. The book is full of observations almost painful in their honesty, for example:
“I wasn’t near perceptive enough to recognize or comprehend the guilty bittersweet pleasure of discussing a friend who is falling apart while the friend isn’t there.”
Or:
“[I was] feeling proud that she could see me having a black friend and also embarrassed for feeling that way.”
The narrator, eighteen years separated from the defining year of his youth, looks back at his childhood, which should have been the perfect childhood every kid deserves, but was decidedly not.
Mattie Rhodes takes a trip from his home in Lexington to the town in which he spent his first eleven years, just outside of Detroit. He’s searching for answers regarding friends he left behind when his family suddenly moved. The reasons for their move become quite clear in the course of the story, which begins with tragedy—an unknown monster stalking the neighborhood, taking children who reappear days later, lives taken—and delves into deeper tragedy. Mattie’s friend Theresa Daughtry has been drifting from reality for some time, it’s unclear how long, but probably at least since she found her mother dead several years before. She’s sunk further and further into herself, and her father looks after her by ignoring this obviously troubling situation. As the town huddles around their TV sets each night for updates on the Snowman killings, Dr. Daughtry keeps his child from sight, unavailable to anyone, including, and especially her friends.
Mattie and his best friend, Spencer, come up with a plan to see Theresa. Mattie describes his plan, and the utter foolishness of it, the complete naiveté, hits the reader like a punch in the mouth. Along with the idea that of course this plan makes sense to these kids. Destined to fail, with foreseeably tragic implications—all of this is lost on a desperate child, frantic to see his friend again, certain he is the one who can bring her back from the brink on which her fragile mind hovers.
There are some frightening moments in this novel, a number of tragic scenes and events, and passages that, with their honesty and expertly worded observations, beg to be re-read again and again.
2007 review:
"Snowman's Children" immediately became one of my favorite novels as soon as I finished reading it. It's like a memoir of childhood, with some horrific overtones, genuinely creepy scenes, and shitloads of great dialogue. The story jumps back and forth between the late seventies and mid-nineties, as the narrator heads back to his hometown outside of Detroit, where his neighborhood was stalked by a child killer when he was eleven.
May 12, 2020
Don't go into The Snowman's Children expecting a fast-paced thriller. This is not that book. Instead, it is much more along the lines of Lee Thomas's The German or Peter Straub's A Dark Matter; books that methodically breakdown the abrupt change from boy to man, from child to adult, and all the terrible consequences that come with it.
But that's not to say it isn't thrilling or scary. It's just that Glen Hirshberg is too good a writer to use cheap tricks. Instead, he drops you knee-deep in a Detroit past so distinct you can taste the dirty snow on your tongue, allowing the menace to build and build, leaving so much more inferred than outright stated on the page.
4.0 to 4.5 for this menacing read.
But that's not to say it isn't thrilling or scary. It's just that Glen Hirshberg is too good a writer to use cheap tricks. Instead, he drops you knee-deep in a Detroit past so distinct you can taste the dirty snow on your tongue, allowing the menace to build and build, leaving so much more inferred than outright stated on the page.
4.0 to 4.5 for this menacing read.
July 4, 2015
3.5 stars
This novel wasn’t so much a non-stop rollercoaster ride but a long meandering drive to the sea shore. There is a distinct division between the tone establishing first half rich with metaphor and the accelerated second half filled with the meat of the story. In the opening, our main character, Mattie Rhodes, seems a few shades tamer then Bart Simpson; he pulls pranks, but nothing horrible. The book shifts between his childhood, his college years, and the present day (mid 90’s Detroit) and establishes the story during the first half. You find yourself drawn in by intrigue. Towards the middle of this book you cross an invisible line and Hirshberg switches the narrative into high gear. At this point, the story loosens its grip. I never felt like giving up on the story, I wanted to know what happened, but I became less captivated.
The story does do a good job at keeping the horror on the peripherals, and presenting a tale in the way an adult would reminisce the worst days of his/her childhood. This comes across as the author’s best device: using metaphor in a way that tells a story through a child’s eyes. In the last few pages he wrote about being young, “Adolescence, I think, isn’t really about growing up. It’s like ferrying across the river Lethe. If you make it, all you retain of your childhood is a taste. And it tastes like hell, or it tastes like heaven, and either way you can never wash it out.”…and being younger, “Childhood becomes a myth for every single person who survives it. It’s not just somewhere we can’t revisit. It’s a fever dream, with very real monsters we can’t even recall, but that settle inside us. And when the fever breaks, we’re left with a handful of people whose importance in our lives is all out of proportion to our affection for them.”
The Snowman’s Children starts out strong, but towards the end you’re impatiently waiting to arrive at the shore.
This novel wasn’t so much a non-stop rollercoaster ride but a long meandering drive to the sea shore. There is a distinct division between the tone establishing first half rich with metaphor and the accelerated second half filled with the meat of the story. In the opening, our main character, Mattie Rhodes, seems a few shades tamer then Bart Simpson; he pulls pranks, but nothing horrible. The book shifts between his childhood, his college years, and the present day (mid 90’s Detroit) and establishes the story during the first half. You find yourself drawn in by intrigue. Towards the middle of this book you cross an invisible line and Hirshberg switches the narrative into high gear. At this point, the story loosens its grip. I never felt like giving up on the story, I wanted to know what happened, but I became less captivated.
The story does do a good job at keeping the horror on the peripherals, and presenting a tale in the way an adult would reminisce the worst days of his/her childhood. This comes across as the author’s best device: using metaphor in a way that tells a story through a child’s eyes. In the last few pages he wrote about being young, “Adolescence, I think, isn’t really about growing up. It’s like ferrying across the river Lethe. If you make it, all you retain of your childhood is a taste. And it tastes like hell, or it tastes like heaven, and either way you can never wash it out.”…and being younger, “Childhood becomes a myth for every single person who survives it. It’s not just somewhere we can’t revisit. It’s a fever dream, with very real monsters we can’t even recall, but that settle inside us. And when the fever breaks, we’re left with a handful of people whose importance in our lives is all out of proportion to our affection for them.”
The Snowman’s Children starts out strong, but towards the end you’re impatiently waiting to arrive at the shore.
December 17, 2023
Great coming of age story that tells the story of a group of friends in the 1970's when a serial killer is kidnapping children in their city. The story has more to do with the events that change the characters while growing up.
January 7, 2021
It is also a perfect ending to yet another major reading experience that Hirshberg has provided for me over the last few weeks and month
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its observations.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.
Above is one of its observations.
August 20, 2013
In a prior review, I mentioned my fascination with cold places, possibly due to spending my entire life in Florida. Places that receive serious snowfall seem silent, mysterious, and, honestly, pretty frightening. Maybe I’ve read too many stories of bodies hidden in snow and not found until spring—or an equal number of tales featuring a body trapped under ice. At any rate, I vaguely remember hearing about murders committed by a serial killer in Oakland County, Michigan. I was too young for anyone to share the full details with me but knew that the young victims were all left lying in snow. The condition of the bodies indicated that the murderer seemed to have treated his victims well—at least until he killed them. For this reason, some reporters called him the Babysitter, in addition to his bureaucratic sounding moniker of the Oakland County Child Killer.
Glen Hirshberg was born in Detroit in 1966, putting him close in age to the four known victims. His novel is a fictionalized account of becoming an adolescent in the shadow of a serial killer who preys on children. Hirshberg gives his unknown killer a more poetic name, the Snowman.
The book is narrated by 29 year old Matthew “Mattie” Rhodes. In 1970s Michigan, Mattie was a smart, slightly strange kid. Due to circumstances that make his parents and brother still appear resentful after twenty years, Mattie’s family moved from Michigan to Kentucky. He is treated like a pariah on returning to his home state, however; anyone who remembers him seems more offended by him than the serial killing Snowman. We know from the beginning that Mattie killed no one; his friends and family are still alive. Discovering the awful plan Mattie put in motion in an effort to help one of his best friends makes this novel a compulsive read.
In 1970s Michigan, Mattie’s best friends were Theresa Dougherty and Spencer Franklin. The three of them are the smartest in their class, and they become nearly obsessed with the Snowman. After the first couple of bodies, safety slogans are repeated like mantra: stay in groups, don’t talk to strangers.
Mattie and Spencer attempt to understand the abductions by playing a dangerous game—stepping into the victims’ shoes. They deliberately take risks, positive that they’ll spot the Snowman before he sees them. Meanwhile, Theresa seems to be receding into herself; she barely speaks, only produces odd diagrams and notes. Mattie becomes convinced that Theresa’s brilliant mind has deciphered the pattern to the Snowman’s kidnappings that the investigators have missed. His plan to get authorities to listen to Theresa will make him more infamous than the Snowman.
Even without the shadow of a serial killer, I would have loved this book. Everyone fetishizes their childhood to some degree; we just can’t resist. The Snowman’s Children brings all of my earliest memories of the 1970s to the forefront: riding bikes to the corner drugstore, sans helmet or any other safety measures; every window open (even in Florida, many in my neighborhood didn’t have air conditioning). The unbelievably dumb-assed stunts we did out of sight of parents—and with no cell phones or other means to alert anyone should something go wrong. Ted Bundy stayed for a month or so downtown; in the weeks until he was caught, every adult was on hyper alert. I don’t remember being particularly frightened of the then-unknown killer. All of us kids agreed, if someone tried to grab us, we’d scratch his eyes out! Then run like crazy. He wouldn’t catch us. We, like Mattie and Spencer, were always certain we’d be the ones to get away. Any adult reading this book will cringe at Mattie’s incredibly dangerous scheme—but not through worrying about him; we know he lives. We cringe because we know how lucky we are to have survived our own similar stupidity.
Glen Hirshberg was born in Detroit in 1966, putting him close in age to the four known victims. His novel is a fictionalized account of becoming an adolescent in the shadow of a serial killer who preys on children. Hirshberg gives his unknown killer a more poetic name, the Snowman.
The book is narrated by 29 year old Matthew “Mattie” Rhodes. In 1970s Michigan, Mattie was a smart, slightly strange kid. Due to circumstances that make his parents and brother still appear resentful after twenty years, Mattie’s family moved from Michigan to Kentucky. He is treated like a pariah on returning to his home state, however; anyone who remembers him seems more offended by him than the serial killing Snowman. We know from the beginning that Mattie killed no one; his friends and family are still alive. Discovering the awful plan Mattie put in motion in an effort to help one of his best friends makes this novel a compulsive read.
In 1970s Michigan, Mattie’s best friends were Theresa Dougherty and Spencer Franklin. The three of them are the smartest in their class, and they become nearly obsessed with the Snowman. After the first couple of bodies, safety slogans are repeated like mantra: stay in groups, don’t talk to strangers.
Mattie and Spencer attempt to understand the abductions by playing a dangerous game—stepping into the victims’ shoes. They deliberately take risks, positive that they’ll spot the Snowman before he sees them. Meanwhile, Theresa seems to be receding into herself; she barely speaks, only produces odd diagrams and notes. Mattie becomes convinced that Theresa’s brilliant mind has deciphered the pattern to the Snowman’s kidnappings that the investigators have missed. His plan to get authorities to listen to Theresa will make him more infamous than the Snowman.
Even without the shadow of a serial killer, I would have loved this book. Everyone fetishizes their childhood to some degree; we just can’t resist. The Snowman’s Children brings all of my earliest memories of the 1970s to the forefront: riding bikes to the corner drugstore, sans helmet or any other safety measures; every window open (even in Florida, many in my neighborhood didn’t have air conditioning). The unbelievably dumb-assed stunts we did out of sight of parents—and with no cell phones or other means to alert anyone should something go wrong. Ted Bundy stayed for a month or so downtown; in the weeks until he was caught, every adult was on hyper alert. I don’t remember being particularly frightened of the then-unknown killer. All of us kids agreed, if someone tried to grab us, we’d scratch his eyes out! Then run like crazy. He wouldn’t catch us. We, like Mattie and Spencer, were always certain we’d be the ones to get away. Any adult reading this book will cringe at Mattie’s incredibly dangerous scheme—but not through worrying about him; we know he lives. We cringe because we know how lucky we are to have survived our own similar stupidity.
May 24, 2017
A creepy psychological book. Goes between 1976 when the events happened and 1994 trying to find resolution for Mattie.
The winter of 1976 finds this Detroit suburb on alert to a “Snowman” who captures children that are later found dead, but apparently well cared for. Neighborhoods and family are thrown into a tizzy with curfews and lifestyle changes. Eleven-year-old Mattie, Theresa and Spencer and enthralled with this event and even go so far to fake a missing child. His family moves from the area shortly after the crisis. Years later Mattie is still haunted by this innocent and horrific time and his old neighborhood gang. He is an almost 30-year-old still feeling the hurt of his pre-teen years. There are a lot of emotions and actions in the storyline that the kids do not know how to process. Theresa is the one that holds the trio together and when she escapes into her own mixed up world the boys have trouble managing to live like children. Very intense reading.
The winter of 1976 finds this Detroit suburb on alert to a “Snowman” who captures children that are later found dead, but apparently well cared for. Neighborhoods and family are thrown into a tizzy with curfews and lifestyle changes. Eleven-year-old Mattie, Theresa and Spencer and enthralled with this event and even go so far to fake a missing child. His family moves from the area shortly after the crisis. Years later Mattie is still haunted by this innocent and horrific time and his old neighborhood gang. He is an almost 30-year-old still feeling the hurt of his pre-teen years. There are a lot of emotions and actions in the storyline that the kids do not know how to process. Theresa is the one that holds the trio together and when she escapes into her own mixed up world the boys have trouble managing to live like children. Very intense reading.
April 17, 2013
I love discovering authors who have the potential for becoming new favorites and whose progress I can enjoy following book by book. Occasionally, as with Jonathan Lethem, I get to be there when they go from obscure (Gun, With Occasional Music) to best selling and award winning (The Fortress of Solitude). Or to be there when a little known novel like Shoeless Joe becomes a blockbuster movie (Field of Dreams) and suuddenly everyone is talking about an author you've been faithfully following and quietly recommending for years.
A few months ago I discovered Glen Hirshberg when I read one of his anthologized horror stories. It wasn't the best ghost story I've ever read, but the quality of writing, the poetry of the tale, the subtlety of the symbolism, the stark beauty of the imagery tinged with psychological symbolism and foreboding clues was a strong contrast to the gruesome slasher stories that it was sandwiched between.
So I tracked Hirshberg down, found two obscure slim collections of horror tales (The Two Sams and American Morons), and concluded that I had found another Gene Wolfe: a writer with the ability to craft a subtle poetic tale with haunting imagery and atmospheric details that confidently lure the reader in. Most surprising was how varied the set pieces were: a shipwreck in Hawaii, a New England village, the autobahn in Germany, a southern gothic. I borrowed these books from the library, but I know I will want to return to them so I am certain I will be purchasing copies for my own library.
Having exhausted both anthologies, and still awaiting a third which won't be published until January, I next borrowed Hirshberg's only novel to date, the 2002 tale based upon an unsolved serial murder case concerning missing children in Detroit in the 1970's. It is so brilliantly rendered, so hauntingly told from the sad point of view of a misunderstood and troubled young boy, I cannot fathom how this novel lingered in relative obscurity while all kinds of overrated dreck claimed the best seller lists. This book, too, I must own, and I plan to reread a Kindle version so I can annotate and highlight favorite passages and bask in the language that held me spellbound and haunts me long after finishing the book and regrettably returning it to the library.
A few months ago I discovered Glen Hirshberg when I read one of his anthologized horror stories. It wasn't the best ghost story I've ever read, but the quality of writing, the poetry of the tale, the subtlety of the symbolism, the stark beauty of the imagery tinged with psychological symbolism and foreboding clues was a strong contrast to the gruesome slasher stories that it was sandwiched between.
So I tracked Hirshberg down, found two obscure slim collections of horror tales (The Two Sams and American Morons), and concluded that I had found another Gene Wolfe: a writer with the ability to craft a subtle poetic tale with haunting imagery and atmospheric details that confidently lure the reader in. Most surprising was how varied the set pieces were: a shipwreck in Hawaii, a New England village, the autobahn in Germany, a southern gothic. I borrowed these books from the library, but I know I will want to return to them so I am certain I will be purchasing copies for my own library.
Having exhausted both anthologies, and still awaiting a third which won't be published until January, I next borrowed Hirshberg's only novel to date, the 2002 tale based upon an unsolved serial murder case concerning missing children in Detroit in the 1970's. It is so brilliantly rendered, so hauntingly told from the sad point of view of a misunderstood and troubled young boy, I cannot fathom how this novel lingered in relative obscurity while all kinds of overrated dreck claimed the best seller lists. This book, too, I must own, and I plan to reread a Kindle version so I can annotate and highlight favorite passages and bask in the language that held me spellbound and haunts me long after finishing the book and regrettably returning it to the library.
February 27, 2014
This book is adult fiction, described as psychologically intense, and that is an apt description of how the story unfolds. In Detroit, in the 1970's, Mattie, Spencer and Theresa were in the "gifted" program at their school. At that same point in time, a serial killer known as "The Snowman" was picking and choosing young victims with impunity. How those horrific murders affected families, neighborhoods and these three "exceptional" children, both at that time, and thirty years later is the framework of this story. A bit slow in the first part of the book, the intensity picks up and the story and character connections unfold in interesting ways. The author's view represents a kind of backward domino effect where we see the grand crash first and then the intricately arranged pattern leading up to it.
Karen J. / Marathon County Public Library
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July 6, 2016This is copy 171 of 250 signed numbered copies of the leather bound slipcased edition signed by Glen Hirshberg.
Introduction by Elizabeth Hand
Afterword by Gary A. Braumbeec
Art by Alex McVey
Introduction by Elizabeth Hand
Afterword by Gary A. Braumbeec
Art by Alex McVey
August 25, 2019
A debut novel of psychological suspense features a trio of tweens, Mattie, Spencer, and Theresa. The novel flips back and forth between 1976 and 1994 as Mattie is still trying to make amends for his actions seventeen years earlier.
It is all set in Detroit, and much of the background action occurs through a series of serial killings of children. There are twists and turns in the process to discover exactly what happened in 1976.
It is all set in Detroit, and much of the background action occurs through a series of serial killings of children. There are twists and turns in the process to discover exactly what happened in 1976.
October 23, 2014
I read this book about 8 months ago and earlier today, I was staring off at nothing thinking about it. This book has done this to me periodically ever since I finished the last page. Today, I thought I should write about it.
Disclaimer: I was a fan of Glen Hirshberg's before ever picking up this book. I was only familiar with his short and medium length fiction at the time and was firmly enthralled by everything I had read so far. All that to say my expectations could not have been set any higher for this novel. I was on board with the premise and very excited to see where he would take it. Children living through a serial killer haunting their world, the adults they became. Sign me up.
I loved this book even though I don't think that anyone should "Love" this story. It is an uncomfortable one and very hard to swallow. Not that it is implausible but that it is at times so challenging to sit idly by as a reader when you see the very human mistakes coming a mile away. This novel, in all its rich characterization, is supposed to make you shake your head in disbelief. A lot has been said about how effective it is that the serial killer is not the focus of the novel, but an ever present threat that drives it. I would go one further and say that the threats that are more blatantly presented are so haunting that they almost make you forget "The Snowman" has any power over this story. And the fact that we get to see two eras of cause and effect, the ideas are fully explored without losing their subtlety.
Let me put it this way, I look forward to the day where I can say Glen Hirshberg and have everyone around me know exactly who I'm talking about. Mark my words, it will happen. Until that happens, I'll keep recommending him to anyone who'll listen.
Disclaimer: I was a fan of Glen Hirshberg's before ever picking up this book. I was only familiar with his short and medium length fiction at the time and was firmly enthralled by everything I had read so far. All that to say my expectations could not have been set any higher for this novel. I was on board with the premise and very excited to see where he would take it. Children living through a serial killer haunting their world, the adults they became. Sign me up.
I loved this book even though I don't think that anyone should "Love" this story. It is an uncomfortable one and very hard to swallow. Not that it is implausible but that it is at times so challenging to sit idly by as a reader when you see the very human mistakes coming a mile away. This novel, in all its rich characterization, is supposed to make you shake your head in disbelief. A lot has been said about how effective it is that the serial killer is not the focus of the novel, but an ever present threat that drives it. I would go one further and say that the threats that are more blatantly presented are so haunting that they almost make you forget "The Snowman" has any power over this story. And the fact that we get to see two eras of cause and effect, the ideas are fully explored without losing their subtlety.
Let me put it this way, I look forward to the day where I can say Glen Hirshberg and have everyone around me know exactly who I'm talking about. Mark my words, it will happen. Until that happens, I'll keep recommending him to anyone who'll listen.
April 6, 2015
доволі непроста, сумбурна розповідь, від якої так і не з'являється відчуття завершеності (навіть на формальному рівні; автор передав реальні події та свої спогади про них у романній формі, але, вочевидь, вирішив віддати перевагу фактам і враженням, а не жанровим принципам). зате глибокій, моторошній атмосфері фрагментарність тексту тільки додає відтінків.
Отрочество, по-моему, не имеет никакого отношения к взрослению. Скорее оно похоже на переправу через Лету. Если тебе это удастся, то все, что сохранится у тебя в памяти от детства, – это его вкус. И будет ли это вкус ада или рая, ты уже никогда и ничем не сможешь его заесть.
Отрочество, по-моему, не имеет никакого отношения к взрослению. Скорее оно похоже на переправу через Лету. Если тебе это удастся, то все, что сохранится у тебя в памяти от детства, – это его вкус. И будет ли это вкус ада или рая, ты уже никогда и ничем не сможешь его заесть.
July 6, 2018
Terrific non-supernatural thriller involving children threatened by the serial killer known as the Snowman. Hirshberg's ghost stories demonstrated his ability to draw out scenes and build suspense without sacrificing characterization and pacing in short forms, and it was gratifying to see he could do the same at extended length. Here the three kids who form a friendship are entirely believable as is the threat they face.
January 28, 2009
I thought that this book was a murder mystery. It really is not. What this book is about is the stress of families living under the shadow of a serial killer, and the ripples that stress has into the future. It is also about the intensity of childhood friendship, love, illness, betrayal and loss.
March 16, 2024
You may not be sure what you're getting into when you start this book. It's kind of horror, kind of a mystery/thriller, but mostly it's a sad, surprisingly moving, character-based story about kids growing up, sometimes growing up too early the hard way and making mistakes that even at their young age, can't be taken back and have repercussions for the rest of their lives.
The Snowman's Children is a coming-of-age novel with a serial killer. No, the serial killer isn't the one coming of age. In fact, we never meet the serial killer, he's offstage and really just a plot device throughout the book, something that drives the events but not really a character.
Mattie Rhodes is the POV character, reminiscing about his childhood in suburban Detroit in the 1970s and the critical events of one tragic year. There is a serial killer abducting children and leaving their carefully posed bodies around the neighborhood, driving the adults mad with fear and paranoia while the kids, of course, treat it like a live-action 24/7 haunted house ride. Mattie's best friends are Spencer, the only black kid in the neighborhood, and Theresa, a brilliant girl whose father hosts the weekly "Mind Games" that everyone in their class competes in.
The book jumps around in time, between flashbacks to the 70s and Mattie's college years, and the present day when as a mediocre "artist" with a deteriorating marriage and a newborn child, he decides to return to his hometown because he's still haunted by what happened when he was a kid.
If you're getting a Stephen King vibe from this, there's a lot of King's childhood-is-magic-and-also-brutally-scary storytelling here. But Hirshberg's touch is softer. There are a few gruesome scenes but mostly as seen through the not-yet-jaded eyes of a child, and the story isn't really about children being murdered, it's about being a child trying to navigate life when you're kind of messed up, your friends are kind of messed up, your parents and neighbors are all kind of messed up, and also children are being murdered.
What elevates this book above your basic thriller-with-a-kid-killer is that it's an intense and deeply psychological novel. The serial killer isn't a slasher movie villain, there are no on-screen murders or jump scares, he's just a nameless ever-lurking threat in the background. What is foregrounded are Mattie's internal dialogs, his relationship with his loving but angry mother, his hard-working but weak father, his contemptuous younger brother, his status as a weird misfit who isn't exactly hated but isn't liked either. Spencer and Theresa also have complex personal and family situations – and Theresa's is made more complex by the fact that, even as young as she is, the mental illness that will eventually consume her life is starting to pull her out of the cozy childhood friendship circle.
Eventually we get to the part when Mattie and Spencer and Theresa do something terribly stupid. Well, first Mattie and Spencer do something stupid, and then Theresa makes it worse. They're just kids, so on one level they know better, but they really don't, and of course they don't really understand consequences, not yet. It's painful watching Mattie fuck up so epically and tragically. When everyone else in the story just wants to hit him, and Mattie wants to hit himself, the reader does too, even though you're still telling yourself "He was just a kid! He meant well! It seemed like a good idea in his head!"
In a sense, Mattie is still paying for what he did years later, as an adult. He's never been able to get past what happened, just as Spencer and Theresa have never been able to escape it.
This was a very impressive book which apparently was the author's first novel, deeper than I was expecting and definitely not just a "book about a child serial killer."
The Snowman's Children is a coming-of-age novel with a serial killer. No, the serial killer isn't the one coming of age. In fact, we never meet the serial killer, he's offstage and really just a plot device throughout the book, something that drives the events but not really a character.
Mattie Rhodes is the POV character, reminiscing about his childhood in suburban Detroit in the 1970s and the critical events of one tragic year. There is a serial killer abducting children and leaving their carefully posed bodies around the neighborhood, driving the adults mad with fear and paranoia while the kids, of course, treat it like a live-action 24/7 haunted house ride. Mattie's best friends are Spencer, the only black kid in the neighborhood, and Theresa, a brilliant girl whose father hosts the weekly "Mind Games" that everyone in their class competes in.
The book jumps around in time, between flashbacks to the 70s and Mattie's college years, and the present day when as a mediocre "artist" with a deteriorating marriage and a newborn child, he decides to return to his hometown because he's still haunted by what happened when he was a kid.
If you're getting a Stephen King vibe from this, there's a lot of King's childhood-is-magic-and-also-brutally-scary storytelling here. But Hirshberg's touch is softer. There are a few gruesome scenes but mostly as seen through the not-yet-jaded eyes of a child, and the story isn't really about children being murdered, it's about being a child trying to navigate life when you're kind of messed up, your friends are kind of messed up, your parents and neighbors are all kind of messed up, and also children are being murdered.
What elevates this book above your basic thriller-with-a-kid-killer is that it's an intense and deeply psychological novel. The serial killer isn't a slasher movie villain, there are no on-screen murders or jump scares, he's just a nameless ever-lurking threat in the background. What is foregrounded are Mattie's internal dialogs, his relationship with his loving but angry mother, his hard-working but weak father, his contemptuous younger brother, his status as a weird misfit who isn't exactly hated but isn't liked either. Spencer and Theresa also have complex personal and family situations – and Theresa's is made more complex by the fact that, even as young as she is, the mental illness that will eventually consume her life is starting to pull her out of the cozy childhood friendship circle.
Eventually we get to the part when Mattie and Spencer and Theresa do something terribly stupid. Well, first Mattie and Spencer do something stupid, and then Theresa makes it worse. They're just kids, so on one level they know better, but they really don't, and of course they don't really understand consequences, not yet. It's painful watching Mattie fuck up so epically and tragically. When everyone else in the story just wants to hit him, and Mattie wants to hit himself, the reader does too, even though you're still telling yourself "He was just a kid! He meant well! It seemed like a good idea in his head!"
In a sense, Mattie is still paying for what he did years later, as an adult. He's never been able to get past what happened, just as Spencer and Theresa have never been able to escape it.
This was a very impressive book which apparently was the author's first novel, deeper than I was expecting and definitely not just a "book about a child serial killer."
July 10, 2020
Главный герой Мэттью Родс (несчастный, запутавшийся в себе человек, которого не отпускает прошлое) спустя 17 лет возвращается в Детройт, - город, где прошло его детство. Повествование ведется в двух временных линиях: 1994 и 1977 годах. В 1977 году в городе во всю орудует маньяк, убийца детей по прозвищу Снеговик, существовавший и в реальности.
Книга понравится далеко не каждому. Тем кто ждет динамичного детектива и веселых приключений за нее лучше не браться. По стилю я бы скорее определил ее как психологическую драму с элементами детектива.
Мэттью растет немножко странным, со своебразным чувством юмора. Друзей у него практически нет, разве что одноклассница Тереза. Однако девочка еще более необычна: интеллектуально очень одаренная, вундеркинд, она медленно скатывается в пучину психического заболевания (жесткое диссоциативное расстройство личности). Видимо, катализатором этого процесса становятся и некоторые события, описываемые в книге. В классе появляется новый ученик Спенсер, который также становится другом Мэттью и Терезы. События происходят на фоне постоянной угрозы исходящей от Снеговика.
В 1994 году, вернувшись в родной город, Мэттью, пытается отыскать старых друзей и узнать как сложилась их судьба. В первую очередь, его интересует что стало с Терезой.
Эта книга о дружбе, любви, страхе, болезни, ненависти, попытках разобраться в своем прошлом и исправить ошибки, исправить которые уже врятли возможно... и немного о Снеговике.
Критики сравнивают роман с "Убить пересмешника" Харпер Ли, "Тело" и "Оно" Кинга. Некоторое сходство и правда есть, но, не слишком большое.
Из минусов, на мой взгляд, присутствует перебор во всех этих бесконечных самокопаниях, рефлексиях, фрустракциях и т.д. у главных геров. Правда, привыкнув, относишься к ним более-менее терпимо.
Тем более что книга читается достаточно легко, захватывает и скучать в общем-то не дает. Но это уже к вопросу о плюсах.
А тут хочется отметить тонкий психологизм, прекрасный авторский язык, атмосферность, неплохой, неизбитый сюжет, яркие живые персонажи, которым по настоящему сопереживаешь.
Книга понравится далеко не каждому. Тем кто ждет динамичного детектива и веселых приключений за нее лучше не браться. По стилю я бы скорее определил ее как психологическую драму с элементами детектива.
Мэттью растет немножко странным, со своебразным чувством юмора. Друзей у него практически нет, разве что одноклассница Тереза. Однако девочка еще более необычна: интеллектуально очень одаренная, вундеркинд, она медленно скатывается в пучину психического заболевания (жесткое диссоциативное расстройство личности). Видимо, катализатором этого процесса становятся и некоторые события, описываемые в книге. В классе появляется новый ученик Спенсер, который также становится другом Мэттью и Терезы. События происходят на фоне постоянной угрозы исходящей от Снеговика.
В 1994 году, вернувшись в родной город, Мэттью, пытается отыскать старых друзей и узнать как сложилась их судьба. В первую очередь, его интересует что стало с Терезой.
Эта книга о дружбе, любви, страхе, болезни, ненависти, попытках разобраться в своем прошлом и исправить ошибки, исправить которые уже врятли возможно... и немного о Снеговике.
Критики сравнивают роман с "Убить пересмешника" Харпер Ли, "Тело" и "Оно" Кинга. Некоторое сходство и правда есть, но, не слишком большое.
Из минусов, на мой взгляд, присутствует перебор во всех этих бесконечных самокопаниях, рефлексиях, фрустракциях и т.д. у главных геров. Правда, привыкнув, относишься к ним более-менее терпимо.
Тем более что книга читается достаточно легко, захватывает и скучать в общем-то не дает. Но это уже к вопросу о плюсах.
А тут хочется отметить тонкий психологизм, прекрасный авторский язык, атмосферность, неплохой, неизбитый сюжет, яркие живые персонажи, которым по настоящему сопереживаешь.
January 23, 2024
I can't stop thinking about this book. The story takes place in two time periods and Hirshberg does a masterful job of bouncing back and forth to keep the reader in suspense. During the mid-1970s, ten-year-old Mattie Rhodes navigates his childhood while a serial killer, dubbed The Snowman, stalks the streets of his hometown. Seventeen years later, he returns to attempt to reconcile his memories of the incidents. One of the best coming-of-age tales I've ever read, woven into an intricate mystery. At times chilling, at other times heartbreaking. This one os not to be missed, especially for fans of King's IT, Simmons' SUMMER OF NIGHT, and McCammon's BOY'S LIFE.
November 26, 2019
This book starts out strong with a keen sense of mystery, driven by a lack of clear information that the reader must use to infer what is going on. When the second half of the book begins to accelerate, the mystery is lost, especially in the last few info-dumping pages. I walked away from the book thinking that it's missing a resolution, especially for Mattie who is a completely unsympathetic character, the scope of whose unsympathetic nature is only really revealed in the last few pages. A quick-paced, decent read but not great.
March 2, 2019
Wow. I wasn't sure what I expected when I started reading "The Snowman's Children," but it wasn't quite this. I suppose you could call this a psychological horror novel, or a thriller, or a mystery, but it's really none of those things. It's got a serial killer in it, but The Snowman really isn't the point. Instead, it's one of the most haunting depictions of loss and grief and regret and childhood that I've ever read. This ones gonna stick with me.
August 24, 2019
A remarkable and haunting book with a truly brilliant ending. (So rare in books that try to tell a story of any suspense.) There’s no last-minute cheap selling out to wrap things up and appease the producer if the film rights are ever sold.
For all its potential to be treated as thriller, this book is too thoughtful for that label. It ends on a remarkable and powerful meditation on the ways in which we remember our childhoods.
For all its potential to be treated as thriller, this book is too thoughtful for that label. It ends on a remarkable and powerful meditation on the ways in which we remember our childhoods.
April 20, 2021
4.5/5
I quite liked this coming-of-age novel. Beautiful, atmospheric prose and well structured, overall very well written. Subject matter was a little difficult, an adult reflecting on growing up in the 1970s in a town where a serial killer was targeting children. But overall, I enjoyed it.
I quite liked this coming-of-age novel. Beautiful, atmospheric prose and well structured, overall very well written. Subject matter was a little difficult, an adult reflecting on growing up in the 1970s in a town where a serial killer was targeting children. But overall, I enjoyed it.
July 12, 2017
Riveting, even though it's not a true serial killer book. It's a psychological coming-of-age story. Very well written, but kind of like a car crash. Sometimes you just have to put it down
February 2, 2021
3.51 stars.
August 3, 2021
It would have been 4 or 5 stars if it hadn't left it somewhat open ended. Did not like how it ended. Just kind of fizzled out.
February 18, 2022
Slow to medium paced. I am not satisfied with the ending. The explanations feel wrong.
December 20, 2024
Традиційний промах у різдвяному читанні, це зимова книга, звичайно, сумна, моторошна, прикра, і дива в ній не стається
September 8, 2014
An uneven first book that attempts to explore the lives of three kids living in the shadow of a serial killer. Set in 1970s Detroit and the protagonists’ adulthood, shifting between the two. His prose runs purple; the narrator is often astonished and his mouth often gapes. In one scene, the words spurted from his mouth like blood from a severed jugular. Additionally, he continuously commits the First Sin of Dialog Attribution: “Get out!” she barked, “I’m tired,” he whined. He doesn't seem to have learned that "he said" should be used 99.9% of the time.
I really enjoy Hirshberg’s short stories but not sure if I’ll bother with another of his novels.
I really enjoy Hirshberg’s short stories but not sure if I’ll bother with another of his novels.
April 5, 2012
I am still giving this one star because it is written very well, but can't give more stars to something I stopped reading. I wanted to keep reading it, because the writing was quite good, but I gave up because I was one third of the way through and the writer brought up "The Snowman' every once in a while, in a teasing kind of why, but that far into the book, even though we were told how horrible this (serial killer? child molester? kidnapper?) was, we still don't know exactly what crimes he comitted. That's why I lost interest.
June 23, 2009
If you can't deal with Childhood trauma, this is not the book for you, but if you can...you must read this book. You will be sucked right into 1970s Detroit, in the mind of a child. If I say this book is "haunting", I don't mean in a mysterious, or supernatural sort of way. Its a psychological haunting that will lead you to believe you know these characters. They have become my friends, in every sad way.
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