Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

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✦ BLURB ✦

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing...only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport...and they're far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.

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A snowstorm, a hunting cabin, and a killer in the dark—Darcy Coates brings us another claustrophobic, spine-freezing survival horror.

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PRE-READING THOUGHTS

Darcy Coates always delivers a tightly wound horror: gothic houses, supernatural dread, or survival terror. This one promised a snowbound nightmare, and I was bracing myself for blizzards, paranoia, and death in the drifts.

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POST-READING

As I thought…
The atmosphere is relentless. Every creak of the cabin, every gust of icy wind, every snowflake feels lethal. The realism of the survival details—how cold eats away at you, how snow muffles sound and sight—made the horror visceral.

It surprised me by…
How long I stayed uncertain about the killer. Darcy Coates is a master at red herrings, and just when you think you’ve guessed, suspicion shifts. The claustrophobia wasn’t just physical—it was psychological. The dwindling numbers kept me on edge, flipping pages like I was racing the storm myself.

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🎵 MUSIC PAIRING

• Featured Song: Whiteout Conditions — The New Pornographers (icy, fast-paced tension)

• Vibe Album: Lost Themes — John Carpenter (chilling synths perfect for survival horror)

• Artist Recommendation: Chelsea Wolfe again (she’s practically the patron saint of claustrophobic dread)

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🎨 VIBE CHECK

• Colour Palette: Icy white, slate grey, and blood red

• Soundtrack: Wind shrieking through gaps in wood, the crunch of boots in snow, and the sudden silence when breath stops

• Season: The dead of winter (of course)

• Mood: Desperate survival with a killer watching

• Scent: Smoke from a dying fire mixed with metallic blood in the snow

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🃏 TAROT PULL

Five of Pentacles (Dark Wood Tarot): Two figures stumble through snow, exhausted and shut out from safety. This card embodies the novel’s freezing isolation, the desperate fight to endure against both the storm and the unseen killer. It’s a reminder that survival isn’t just physical but mental—and the cold can be as merciless as any murderer.

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FOR FANS OF

• Book: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

• Film: The Thing (1982)

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DISCLAIMER

Dead of Winter is available now. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

🃏 The deck had opinions: [Page of Cups] — [Sadly subverted. Christa starts the book in love and ends it bereaved and traumatised.]

🧹