A Cold Season

July 1, 2013
Having lost her husband to the battlefields of Afghanistan, Cass retreats with her son, Ben, to the village of Darnshaw. There she expects an idyllic life of comforting smalltown safety. What she actually gets is less a community and more a moral infestation. Ben rapidly transforms under the influence of the malevolent architect at work in Darnshaw; once a lovable young boy, he becomes rude, cold, and menacing. The hoped-for haven is a stalking ground for the worse sort of predator and an arena where the stakes may be Cass’s very soul. The small town that turns out to be a festering hive of dark ritual is a well-established trope in horror; anyone adopting this setting has to find some way to make their tale stand out. But each development in Littlewood’s debut is entirely familiar and predictable, delivering all the required steps in this horrific little dance with nary a flourish.

July 15, 2013
Littlewood's debut novel takes a young widow and her son back to a town she knew in her childhood. Cass and Ben are finding the going tough in the little town of Darnshaw, where Cass spent part of her youth with her mother and uncompromising father. Although her memories of the town are mostly black, she has inexplicably returned there to give Ben a new perspective on life following the death of his father, Pete, who was killed in Afghanistan. Ben doesn't want to be there, and he makes it clear, particularly when they discover that the mill, which has been converted to apartments, appears to be deserted except for the two of them. And when the pair are snowed in and must walk to the small local school, they find themselves becoming more and more isolated from both the outside world and each other. Soon, Ben has made some new friends, but his behavior becomes outrageous. Cass chalks it all up to his being upset about his father and the move, and she doesn't do anything about his increasingly bizarre actions until a lack of phone service interferes with her business efforts. After losing what appears to be the one genuine friend she might be making in that town, she drags Ben away and tries to walk to another town, only to find that Ben refuses to leave. Later, a series of strange and grisly discoveries confirms that nothing in Darnshaw is as it appears to be. Cass proves improbably slow on the uptake, shrugging off sinister incidents and ignoring her own instincts to the point where it becomes hard, if not impossible, to sympathize with her. Impatient readers will have figured out long before Cass finally connects the dots that she should have snatched the kid and run. Readers who prefer clueless heroines, pointless gore and evil mumbo jumbo will find a veritable feast in Littlewood's debut.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2013

Looking to start over after the death of her husband in Afghanistan, Cass takes her young son Ben to Darnshaw, the village where she grew up. While she has some creepy memories from her childhood, it seems like an idyllic place. That is, until Ben starts falling into trances and acting violently. At about the same time, Cass notices the crosses scratched on all the doors in town and begins to discover the dark secrets in Darnshaw's past. VERDICT This creepy, claustrophobic debut evokes classic films and novels, such as The Omen and Rosemary's Baby, in the demonic-horror genre. While these similarities help elevate the book by placing it on the shoulders of giants, they also make the story a tad predictable and formulaic. Cass is an incredibly unlikable protagonist, oblivious even by the low standards of horror-novel characters. She makes unrealistically poor decisions and takes a ridiculously long time to figure out what is going on. Despite these shortcomings, the novel builds a real sense of foreboding and dread, which creates a chilling reading experience for fans of demonic and religious horror.--Peter Petruski, Cumberland Cty. Lib. Syst., Carlisle, PA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
Once you open the pages of Littlewood's debut novel, the hairs on the back of your neck are not safe. This classic supernatural story with gothic undertones opens with Cass and her son, Ben, leaving behind the tragedy of losing a husband and father for a place Cass remembers fondly from childhood. Once they arrive in Darnshaw, Cass soon realizes it is no longer the idyllic town she remembers. The apartment building she rented, which looked cozy and populated from the brochure, is only partially finished, and they appear to be its only inhabitants. Then a winter storm knocks out phones, electricity, and Internet, and Cass' nightmares begin. Ben's moods start to become more volatile and explosive. Theodore Remick, the charming headmaster of her son's school, appears to provide a needed respite, but as winter wears on, she realizes he has an agenda of his own. Littlewood's story isn't perfect, and some themes are overdone, but it certainly hits some very high and scary notes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)