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When Winter Comes
Bestselling author and award-winning horror fiction podcaster of "The Other Stories" podcast, Daniel Willcocks, brings you the culmination of over half a decade working within the horror space to explore a world of blizzards, monsters, magic, and legend in this definitive collected edition of the "When Winter Comes" epic.
In the isolated reaches of a frozen Alaskan town, a creature is awoken. Tales written in the marrow of the earth are born as the Aurora Borealis melts to the color of blood, and a freak blizzard blankets Denridge Hills. In the midst of it all, a visiting teenage boy, a native social media mogul, and a researching author find themselves caught in the throes of a legend that has been years in the making.
The sky is bleeding. The storm has come.
A crimson rift washes over the isolated Alaskan town of Denridge Hills, staining the Aurora Borealis the color of blood. To some, an unlikely occurrence. To those in the know, a sign of dark magic at play. When the storm has completed its devastation, who will be left standing?
A social media mogul holds the fate of her ex-lover in her hands. A high school student finds himself miles from home, his constitution and willpower put to the test. A researcher searches for his nephew, his knowledge of the town’s local history the only lead toward ending the madness.
When the world shrinks around you, the monsters come, and all that’s left is an unbending will to survive, who will emerge as the true heroes, and who will be marked as the villains?
In the isolated reaches of a frozen Alaskan town, a creature is awoken. Tales written in the marrow of the earth are born as the Aurora Borealis melts to the color of blood, and a freak blizzard blankets Denridge Hills. In the midst of it all, a visiting teenage boy, a native social media mogul, and a researching author find themselves caught in the throes of a legend that has been years in the making.
The sky is bleeding. The storm has come.
A crimson rift washes over the isolated Alaskan town of Denridge Hills, staining the Aurora Borealis the color of blood. To some, an unlikely occurrence. To those in the know, a sign of dark magic at play. When the storm has completed its devastation, who will be left standing?
A social media mogul holds the fate of her ex-lover in her hands. A high school student finds himself miles from home, his constitution and willpower put to the test. A researcher searches for his nephew, his knowledge of the town’s local history the only lead toward ending the madness.
When the world shrinks around you, the monsters come, and all that’s left is an unbending will to survive, who will emerge as the true heroes, and who will be marked as the villains?
- GenresHorror
533 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 21, 2021
15 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Willcocks
82 books83 followersDaniel Willcocks is an international bestselling author and award-winning podcaster of dark fiction. He is an author coach; one fifth of digital story studio, Hawk & Cleaver; co-founder of iTunes-busting fiction podcast, ‘The Other Stories‘;’ CEO of horror imprint, Devil’s Rock Publishing; the founder of 'ActivatedAuthors.com'; and the co-host of the ‘Next Level Authors’ podcast.
Dan is furiously passionate about all things story. He has written 50+ books for himself and on behalf of ghostwriting clients. Dan provides author coaching services designed to help authors take the stories that they are dying to tell, and getting them out onto the page.
Find out more at danielwillcocks.com
Dan is furiously passionate about all things story. He has written 50+ books for himself and on behalf of ghostwriting clients. Dan provides author coaching services designed to help authors take the stories that they are dying to tell, and getting them out onto the page.
Find out more at danielwillcocks.com
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 20, 2021
Polar regions have always fascinated me; Climate, Geography, Culture. Winter is my favorite season and in Arctic Alaska, Winter isn't fun and games, it's deadly serious, and sometimes fatal. Winter in the Arctic brings a special brand of precarious frontier existence. Add in the invasion of something implacably spooky, against which the human population is defenseless prey, and the result is chilling SciFi Horror in which terror ratchets maximally.
This is the omnibus edition of the WHEN WINTER COMES serial, where "mythical" becomes far too real, and locked doors won't save.
This is the omnibus edition of the WHEN WINTER COMES serial, where "mythical" becomes far too real, and locked doors won't save.
September 21, 2021
From the moment I picked up When Winter Comes, I couldn't put it down. Every word drips terror into the reader's veins.
From the primal lust of a woman for a mountain man to the timid thoughts of a teenage boy with a crush, the characters are so real they seep off the page and rip through the reader.
The undertone of danger seethed through the story through every event from a torrid affair to a simple basketball game. Every minute action threatened to turn into something horrific. The entire story is soaked in raw horror...the kind of terror that has the reader clenching their teeth and seizing their skull as they cling to every word.
As the story unfolds, the storm brews out of control, becoming its own character. It tears away the layers of each (human) character, exposing the tenderness buried deep under the crusty outer shell of the tough ones, and exposing strengths in those that seemed weak. The terror continues to drip off the page, seeping into the reader's veins. The tension is amped up to super high voltage as the characters continue to battle the storm and the things hunting them. Shocking twists jolt the story in unexpected directions, to the chilling delight of the reader.
When Winter Comes is like a long, luxurious meal. Every bite is SO good. I was left satisfied, yet, I still wanted more!
From the primal lust of a woman for a mountain man to the timid thoughts of a teenage boy with a crush, the characters are so real they seep off the page and rip through the reader.
The undertone of danger seethed through the story through every event from a torrid affair to a simple basketball game. Every minute action threatened to turn into something horrific. The entire story is soaked in raw horror...the kind of terror that has the reader clenching their teeth and seizing their skull as they cling to every word.
As the story unfolds, the storm brews out of control, becoming its own character. It tears away the layers of each (human) character, exposing the tenderness buried deep under the crusty outer shell of the tough ones, and exposing strengths in those that seemed weak. The terror continues to drip off the page, seeping into the reader's veins. The tension is amped up to super high voltage as the characters continue to battle the storm and the things hunting them. Shocking twists jolt the story in unexpected directions, to the chilling delight of the reader.
When Winter Comes is like a long, luxurious meal. Every bite is SO good. I was left satisfied, yet, I still wanted more!
November 27, 2023
Heyyyyy quick shoutout to Amazon dot com for not letting me leave a review there too because I haven't spent $50 in a year. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.
Wow wow wow wow wow. This took me FOREVER to finish, but let me just say it was an extremely fun read, I'm just a bad reader.
I'm going to start with the stuff I didn't like because I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I disliked it. I didn't, I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite the heartbreaking ending, but I find that ending a review with the bad stuff sometimes causes the viewer to think that the reviewer didn't enjoy a work. That being said,
Chapter 40 is a bit of a nightmare. The dialogue is really weird for the only time in the entire novel (really, the dialogue everywhere else is top-notch). The character Naomi says, "Oscar needed a feed and so I obliged, taking him into my bosom until he was full. When I laid him back in his crib, milk-drunk and satisfied, I heard a knock on the door downstairs." This took me out of the reading because nobody in the history of the English language has ever said this. Also in this chapter, minor spoilers ahead,
PSA but if you or anyone you're with is ever shot, do not try to remove the bullet, you're just going to do more harm than good. That bullet is basically acting as a plug to keep the blood inside their body, digging it out is going to lead to bleeding and a probable infection. Back to the review,
Onto the positives!
This book is absolutely gripping. There were periods of time where I struggled to get anything else done because I just needed to find out what happened next. It is so gorgeously written, and there were passages I read multiple times over because they were just so well-done. It's delicious, it's absolutely delicious. The characters are all great. I couldn't stand Hayden and I wasn't supposed to (I mean that in a good way!), I had fun with Cody, Sophie and Brandon, and Travis started to grow on me at the right time. This story is an emotional roller coaster and I didn't want to get off. It is captivating. It makes you feel for these fictional people and it makes you hope against hope that they'll all make it out okay. The ending ties up all the loose ends well, and even gives us a bittersweet epilogue wherein we try to see the remains of our cast move on. It's one of those stories where, even after you reach "THE END," you just keep hoping that maybe you'll turn the page and find everyone ended up alright after all, and it's just there, just beyond your reach...
I highly recommend this. If you can look past the very few faults I detailed above (and believe me, they are just a fraction of a percentage of the overall package here), then you will be in for quite the ride. Just uh. Just try not to take more than six months to finish reading like I did, m'kay?
Wow wow wow wow wow. This took me FOREVER to finish, but let me just say it was an extremely fun read, I'm just a bad reader.
I'm going to start with the stuff I didn't like because I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I disliked it. I didn't, I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite the heartbreaking ending, but I find that ending a review with the bad stuff sometimes causes the viewer to think that the reviewer didn't enjoy a work. That being said,
Chapter 40 is a bit of a nightmare. The dialogue is really weird for the only time in the entire novel (really, the dialogue everywhere else is top-notch). The character Naomi says, "Oscar needed a feed and so I obliged, taking him into my bosom until he was full. When I laid him back in his crib, milk-drunk and satisfied, I heard a knock on the door downstairs." This took me out of the reading because nobody in the history of the English language has ever said this. Also in this chapter, minor spoilers ahead,
PSA but if you or anyone you're with is ever shot, do not try to remove the bullet, you're just going to do more harm than good. That bullet is basically acting as a plug to keep the blood inside their body, digging it out is going to lead to bleeding and a probable infection. Back to the review,
Onto the positives!
This book is absolutely gripping. There were periods of time where I struggled to get anything else done because I just needed to find out what happened next. It is so gorgeously written, and there were passages I read multiple times over because they were just so well-done. It's delicious, it's absolutely delicious. The characters are all great. I couldn't stand Hayden and I wasn't supposed to (I mean that in a good way!), I had fun with Cody, Sophie and Brandon, and Travis started to grow on me at the right time. This story is an emotional roller coaster and I didn't want to get off. It is captivating. It makes you feel for these fictional people and it makes you hope against hope that they'll all make it out okay. The ending ties up all the loose ends well, and even gives us a bittersweet epilogue wherein we try to see the remains of our cast move on. It's one of those stories where, even after you reach "THE END," you just keep hoping that maybe you'll turn the page and find everyone ended up alright after all, and it's just there, just beyond your reach...
I highly recommend this. If you can look past the very few faults I detailed above (and believe me, they are just a fraction of a percentage of the overall package here), then you will be in for quite the ride. Just uh. Just try not to take more than six months to finish reading like I did, m'kay?
August 28, 2021
I’m not sure how Willcocks has managed it but the collected edition is even better than the sum of its parts…
I was once again instantly hooked with this story, the prose is so beautiful which only serves to further highlight the tension masterfully woven throughout. It’s fast paced, character driven, breath takingly gripping and always leaves you wanting to know more. There were so many moments where Willcocks' action had me wanting to hide behind a cushion but considering I needed my eyes to read, I had to refrain. The characters are so well fleshed out it’s impossible not to feel yourself in their situation, imagine the blizzard (which is written so incredibly, it feels like a character in its own right) wrapping around you and the screams getting closer. I couldn’t help but put myself in each character’s nightmarish situation.
‘When Winter Comes’ is unyielding in its suspense, pace, questions, action and horror. Packed with the most beautiful, real dialogue, terrifying and breath snatching scenes and gorgeous description with brief moments of perfectly placed brevity that only serve to further underline the isolation and desperate situation of the people of Dendridge. I couldn’t help but feel a great unease stalking through this story alongside me.
Everything about this revision is done right, so faithful to the original series and story but tighter, faster and even more terrifying – once again I cannot recommend ‘When Winter Comes’ enough and I will watch with hawk eyes for the next work by this incredible author.
I was once again instantly hooked with this story, the prose is so beautiful which only serves to further highlight the tension masterfully woven throughout. It’s fast paced, character driven, breath takingly gripping and always leaves you wanting to know more. There were so many moments where Willcocks' action had me wanting to hide behind a cushion but considering I needed my eyes to read, I had to refrain. The characters are so well fleshed out it’s impossible not to feel yourself in their situation, imagine the blizzard (which is written so incredibly, it feels like a character in its own right) wrapping around you and the screams getting closer. I couldn’t help but put myself in each character’s nightmarish situation.
‘When Winter Comes’ is unyielding in its suspense, pace, questions, action and horror. Packed with the most beautiful, real dialogue, terrifying and breath snatching scenes and gorgeous description with brief moments of perfectly placed brevity that only serve to further underline the isolation and desperate situation of the people of Dendridge. I couldn’t help but feel a great unease stalking through this story alongside me.
Everything about this revision is done right, so faithful to the original series and story but tighter, faster and even more terrifying – once again I cannot recommend ‘When Winter Comes’ enough and I will watch with hawk eyes for the next work by this incredible author.
September 17, 2021
An epic tale the likes of which we do not see often in an e-book. Steeped in folklore of the most hideous kind, the story touches a number of our secret childhood terrors and triggers. A blinding snow storm which cloaks monsters, and brings them to the door... hungry. In the middle of it all, a small diverse group of reluctant heroes who may or may not make it to the end. Reads like King or Koontz in character development, there is nothing to disappoint here. Make yourself comfortable, get a snack and a beverage ready, and give yourself time. Once you start you are in for the long haul.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and this is my honest and unbiased review.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and this is my honest and unbiased review.
September 21, 2021
This was a strangely addicting read as it introduces the main characters as a storm that brings the crazy slowly begins. A bit scary, suspenseful, full of unknown, and a storm that complicates it all as a small town is forced to survive what comes with a heavy storm. I was rooting for everyone to survive as they try to figure out what is really going on. Well written and I loved all the flawed characters. Not sure who would survive to the end. Had to find out who the bad guys were and what they wanted. And luckily the whole story is in this set.
August 28, 2021
This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.
I read a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.
I read a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.
September 17, 2021
An exceptional, well written story with very descriptive scenes and packed with attention to detail. An excellent storyline with good, likable and not so likeable characters. I absolutely loved this from start to finish. If you enjoy survival, paranormal, horror style books, this is definitely for you. 5 🌟 plus. Very well recommended. I read this book as an ARC reader and voluntarily provide an honest review.
September 21, 2021
Right from the beginning this book builds up tension, the story develops at a steady pace which makes you want to keep reading, I found myself thinking about it when I was doing something else wondering what was going to happen next. There is good character development which results in a real emotional investment in the people involved in the story. I liked the description of the scenes and atmosphere and could almost visualise the setting. Would definitely recommend it.
September 21, 2021
A must read story, I was grabbed by the first page and it didn't let go. The writing is excellent, the characters are real and well described, the story is fast paced and in parts terrifying, the type pf story I like. This is my first experience with this author but definitely not my last. I will be looking for more. I was given a complimentary copy by the author but loved it so much I bought it anyway. Highly recommended.
October 28, 2021
This story begins in a small village in Alaska. An ancient legend of the Inuit is about to be unleashed on the unsuspecting people living on and near the First Nations lands! The author gives us wendigos! I am fascinated by this mythological creature and have had the pleasure of reading a few other stories regarding these flesh eaters of the forests. I’ve heard an author is successful if they entertain, well Mr. Willcocks has done his job and done it well!
September 13, 2021
Denridge Hills is a small town in Alaska, Cody and his Uncle Alex recently moved there so Alex could write a book. One night Cody and some friends sneak out . The Aurora Borealis is blood red in color, a blizzard starts. Something is in the storm and it wants fresh meat. Can anyone survive.
September 30, 2021
Daniel Willcocks
When Winter Comes: An Apocalyptic Horror Thriller (Collected Edition)
ARC REVIEW
This book is a fantastic read, full of chills and scary things. Hooked me in from the first chapter. I loved it!
When Winter Comes: An Apocalyptic Horror Thriller (Collected Edition)
ARC REVIEW
This book is a fantastic read, full of chills and scary things. Hooked me in from the first chapter. I loved it!
January 6, 2022
Winter Horror
Loved the book, the location and the characters kept me interested, the story had plenty scary, crazy things happening to keep me up reading half the night. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good book at bedtime.
Loved the book, the location and the characters kept me interested, the story had plenty scary, crazy things happening to keep me up reading half the night. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good book at bedtime.
September 13, 2021
When Winter Comes: An Apocalyptic Horror Thriller (Collected Edition) by Daniel Willcocks Fantastic story from the moment I started reading! The mystery had me hooked . I recommend this book…
September 21, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. The story was tightly written and the characters were very well developed. I highly recommend this book!
September 22, 2021
This is a great book. Very well written, great characters, page turner. Good job
October 16, 2021
Definitely a good read. Pacing was a little slow at times, but otherwise very enjoyable.
October 23, 2021
Some good Inuit mythology to back up the horror story, but the characters don't always ring true.
January 25, 2023
I could not put this down. I devoured it mostly in one sitting, reading all night. Wonderfully written, I was captivated. Creepy, tense, vivid and emotional. Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews