Winterkill

by Nicole Davidson

This can't be happening. But Karen saw it - she witnessed the moment her boyfriend Matt died. She saw his eyes, dead and staring; saw his killer disappear into the night.

The crowd at Killington had been at a party - laughing, dancing, talking about a day on the slopes. Now one of them is dead. One is a killer. And one is terrified...because she saw too much, knows too much, and cares too much to let them call it an accident.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Teen, Mystery, Childrens

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Nicole Davidson is a pen name for Kathryn Jensen.

Reviews

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun thriller if you can get past the PAGES AND PAGES of skiing!! Like seriously, allll the skiing instructions and demonstrations that you’ve ever wanted to know (and which I didn’t care to know).

A few rando notes:

- This one definitely had a Pike vibe! If you love Christopher Pike, you’ll prob enjoy this one too. Especially since Pike loves to give us pages and pages of How-To’s as well 🤣🤣

- The babe of the book is referred to as having “awesome breasts and shapely hips that were shown off to their best advantage” LMAOOO at awesome breasts 🤣🤣🤣

- It was easy to guess the killer…a little TOO easy which made me think it was a red herring instead 😆😆

- One of the fellas works at a pizza place called PIZZA ATTACK. Best name ever for a pizza joint!! 🙌🍕🍕

- Grandma gives our protag a necklace with opals inside a small water-filled glass globe which changes color anytime danger is near. I want one too!! Maybe I can snag one at Spencer’s Gifts? 🤣😜

- There are guts on the floor. Exciting!! 🤣🤣🤢

I’d give this 3.5 stars if Goodreads allowed half star ratings! Have fun skiing! ⛷️⛷️

[Erica Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts on the slopes and ends on the slopes. This is the most ski-heavy book I’ve ever read in my life. V dramatic, soapy murder mystery but with SKIING.

- Starts off with about three chapters worth of very detailed ski instruction. I’ve never skied before in my life but I think I’m an expert now??
- Magic opal necklace from dead grandma is an interesting detail
- Fantastic business names in the town of Killington! Pizza Attack! The Wobbly Barn!
- Also, is anyone surprised there’s a murderer roaming around in a place called KILLINGTON
- Karen organizes a party (at the Wobbly Barn!) to confront her group of friends bc she suspects one of them to be the killer. I expected this scene to be super dramatic and then it didn’t even add to the story because the climax ends up taking place—you guessed it—ON THE SLOPES
- Bad Guy is very obvious but it’s k
- I can’t believe the murderer has a chance to kill our protag but instead CHALLENGES HER TO A RACE in one final ski scene

Ski lifts are scary

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I learned from this book: When you are scared or don't know what to do -- just sit down.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not that great. There are other teen horror books that are better. I wanted more snow, death by avalanche would’ve been interesting. Of course there’s a dead pet. It felt like the author was trying to copy off R.L. Stine with the reveal and dead animal. The burning opal necklace, never explained! The part where she sat down. Lol.

[Bree · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a blind pick from a secondhand bookstore. My main thought throughout was "get to the point" when so much of the book consisted of the high-stakes intensity of meeting new friends at the lunchroom, skiing lessons, and beautifully descriptive prose like "Frank placed two triangles of dough mounded with cheese and circles of pepperoni on a paper plate."
If that isn't enough to compel you to read, the killer's comeuppance in the end involves a pretty funny plot device that really tied the whole story together.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO
MUCH
SKIING


also features a creepy set of siblings
Overall enjoyable but the skiing really made this a two week slog.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many books I have read lately are all about skiing. Didn't plan it that way but once you get past all the stuff about the sport, the books are either more interesting or just as exciting as the brochure hype for it.

Personally, I don't know how to ski but my late father was an avid skier and according to my mother, a pretty decent one in getting her on skis. That is all I know about skiing.

Oh and that this book was very good...I know that too.

Karen Henderson and her parents move from NYC to Killington, Vermont. (Yes town's real name and a major ski spot.)

Karen is afraid it will be a town of hicks and lumberjacks but is pleasantly surprised that most of the guys in town are major hunks. Her first day of school is after the Christmas vacation is over and she meets Nona Stewart, Matt Welch and Kurt Haller hanging up posters at the door.

They welcome her into their group with no questions asked and she can't help but be drawn to both of the young men. Matt is cute with long, sandy, curly hair and brown, soulful eyes while Kurt has silver-blond hair and icy blue eyes with a cute Swiss accent.

Later in the day around lunch, Karen gets asked if she would like to sit with a girl who knows she must be new. Her name is Rosemary Geer but people call her Rosie and she is a sophomore while Karen is a junior. Karen politely turns her down saying that Matt already asked her to join him, Kurt and Nona that morning.

Rosie doesn't seem too fond of Nona or the boys and says that when Nona's brother Brandon was here last year, their crowd would be interested in people one minute and then make their lives miserable the next. Karen just thinks Rosie is jealous of the more popular crowd because she isn't in it.

Karen learns skiing is big up here and Matt offers to teach her how to ski since Karen has never done so before. It is clear that Matt is very interested in her but Karen can't help but see Kurt looking at her with such longing. There are also very strange looks between all three friends that Karen can't decipher...still an outsider despite the warm welcome.

Karen has a run in with a car that makes her angry yet freaked out at the same time as she drvs to the slopes to meet Matt and discovers it is Frank Roselli, pizza delivery guy who has no concern for speed on these mountain roads in the winter.

There at the slopes we are introduced to Nona's brother Brandon, a very tall and broad-shouldered redhead who is nice but intimidating. We also see Karen's eyes land on a female ski instructor being a knockout in a one piece ski suit and making her feel apprehensive about her own weight.

Her name is Jerrie Tilden and she is Kurt' ex-girlfriend. They dated for three months and then broke up but Jerrie has a reputation for being a...flirt. She even dated Matt for awhile. We also learn that Kurt doesn't get along with his father when he shows up looking for his son at the restaurant where the teens are carbo-loading after skiing.

As January goes into February, Karen has been dating Matt for almost a month. Kurt stepped aside knowing that his best friend was interested in the new girl from New York thanks to Nona knowing everything about everyone working in the office at the high school.

In that time, skiing has slimmed Karen down a little more and Kurt hopes to impress her when he, Matt and Brandon enter a qualifying race for a big skiing competition. Brandon and Kurt make the finals...not Matt.

Later that evening, there is to be a party at a room at the local tavern, The Wobbly Barn. Karen goes to decorate the place with Nona and then the guys arrive, with Brandon and Matt clearly buzzed.

What should be a night of fun soon turns into a night of horror and tragedy.

Karen should have known something would happen. Her grandmother, right before her death six months ago, gave her one of her most prized possessions. It was a necklace with Australian opal chips swimming inside a glass bulb on a gold chain.

Her grandmother told her that her friend who got it for her a long time ago said the Aborigines knew opals to have powers. If worn close to the skin, it could warn of danger when the pale blue stones started to turn to a fiery red.

It has always been cool in color and warm to the touch but that night at the dance, it burns to the touch and blazes in Karen's fingers. Only since she moved to Vermont had the color slowly made its way to pink like a faint blush but now as red as blood...

Karen then watches as Matt is rundown in the snow. Death by a hit-and-run while the car responsible drives off into the night. Police Officer Mancini says he will find the person who did this but Karen can't rest until she finds out who killed Matt for she was sure it was done in cold blood...

We get Karen drawn into playing detective while everyone else tries to get her to move on with varying reasons but is sure any of her "friends" could have motive to want Matt dead. We get some serious discussions about things you won't be reading in any Fear Street book that's for sure with some very subtle innuendos.

The characters aren't exactly terrible but do have instances of being not very nice human beings and you think any of them could be responsible. There is a slip, possibly an error, where we do find out a "male" is watching a scene of Karen with one of the other "males" and makes it clear who it is by process of elimination.

The reason why of our killer is soon revealed and leads to a big reveal and a heart-racing climax on the ski slopes of Killington. The ending of book is again bittersweet but there are little loose ends tied up in nice outcomes.

I question the "maybe magic, maybe mundane" aspect into which the necklace is introduced but I guess not fully explaining it and leaving it to your own conclusion is actually fine with me.

The more ambiguous the better I say...

I would have rated it five star amazing if we didn't have to have a scene of our main character losing a pet :( You would think after reading books like this I would be use to that by now but sometimes they still hurt a little.

If you haven't read Winterkill by Nicole Davidson, I highly recommend it.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

* Karen moves to Vermont with her parents from New York.
* She makes friends and learns to ski.
* Her boyfriend Matt is killed hy a hit and run driver. She vows to find his killer.
* She works out that whoever killed Matt did it using her own car.
* She works out that Matt wasn't who the person I tended to kill, they I tended to kill Kurt's father (Matt was accidentally wearing Kurt's father's coat)
* She learns that Kurt's father was involved in a skiing accident years ago, which killed 4 people and was his fault (he took a group of learners across a fresh field and caused an avalanche).
* 2 of the people who died were her new friend's parents (Nona and Brandon).
* She figures that Brandon killed Matt, and then it turns out that Nona had been helping him.
* Nona and Brandon then try to kill Karen. Nona survives with 2 broken legs, but Brandon dies of a heart attack before skiing off a high ledge into a deep crevasse.
* Karen also has some weird necklace from her grandmother which glows red when she's in danger, and blue when shes safe.

[Donna Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone gifted me this young adult mystery with a copyright of 1991.

The writing is excellent, the story line engaging, the teenagers never ask for help (which is one of those things that time doesn't change), and a fantastical necklace creates spice.

I will be forwarding to a young adult to ask her opinion.

[Amanda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great teen horror book. Definitely has some thriller/mystery elements as well. I loved the winter vibes. This was my first Nicole Davidson read, really enjoyed her writing style and how she constructed the story

[Jamie French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read whwn I was in Jr high. This book sparked my love of reading

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicole Davidson is a great writer. I hope I can read more of her books.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn’t a bad YA (young adult) book. I used to read a lot of the Point Horror books and this book could well of been one of those.

A nice quick read

[Paul Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid teen mystery book with occasional twists that does keep my attention while reading this book with diverse characters.

However, this type of mystery isn't complex but rather typical for teen mystery since it's only about hit and run which brings another problem not enough suspense moments. I do wish the antagonist would make more effort scaring off the protagonist just to make the book a little more fun.

So is the book scary? No. The only remotely "spooky" part is when Karen's room is ransacked and her pet bird is killed(I don't think she even cried over her pet's death nor does she grief over throughout the book.) but this type of threat is not disturbing and keeps occurring in other YA mystery books. Our main character is unharmed or not threatened while investigating her case.

I forgot to mention the opals. I only see its purpose for foreshadowing just to keep the readers glued to the book. I do find it a bit sweet how Karen cling to them as a memento of her dead grandma.

For our main characters, Karen is the typical teenage girl character.
-Loves to shop and consider her city life to be best
- Concerned about her appearance and weight
But she's a pretty fun character just for her spunkyness and her determination for solving the case makes her somewhat strong.

Kurt is also the other main character. He's okay. All I see him for is the fact he's the main love interest and he has daddy issues that's resolved pretty well.

I recommend this book for those who like to read about teenagers for fun. With plenty of character interactions and simplistic mystery, you can read this just to pass time. It also has teenage romance it if you're into that. However, be aware this book isn't action packed but relies on the investigation part only. I did enjoy this book when I focused on the teenagers rather more than the mystery.

Also, this book is written by Kathryn Jensen. Looking at her work, I can see that she really does like to write romance, especially in her horror books.