Happy New Year from the 2 Book Girls! It looks like we’ve taken an unplanned hiatus over the last few months, with holiday plans and travel getting in the way of sitting down and enjoying a good book! I have been listening to a few audiobooks, which are easy to tune in to on a plane or a train. Still, I found myself ravenous for a new book in some quiet moments around the New Year. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon ended up being an enjoyable surprise.
Truth be told, I took the book on vacation because it was small and packable, never a bad reason! The story is written in two different time periods: 1908 and the present day. Following the story of a modern teenage girl living in rural Vermont, Ruthie, and a young new mother in the early 1900s, Sara, the novel adroitly switches back and forth in sequence.
Sara Harrison Shea is the subject of lore for the constituents of West Hall, Vermont. She was allegedly killed by her husband, Martin, after the tragic death of their young daughter, a family torn apart by grief. The house they lived in, in front of the famed landmark mountain outcropping the Devil’s Hand, is said to be haunted. That historic house is now inhabited by a family named the Washburne’s.
Ruthie Washburne comes back from a night out to find her mother gone, a cup of tea still on the table. She goes to sleep and awakes to her mother still missing, and her six-year-old sister asking where she is. Ruthie takes on all the responsibility of caring for her sister, while simultaneously trying to figure out where her mother has gone.
Ruthie and her sister, Fawn, discover hidden papers in the floorboards of the house in their search for clues about their mother, the diary of Sara Harrison Shea. The diary elucidates the tale of the death of Sara’s daughter Gertie, and her decision to bring her back from the dead. Sara knew the secrets of awakening the dead, or creating sleepers[rd1] , from her pseudo-adopted mother, an aboriginal woman who raised her as her own. Auntie’s tragic death is also documented in Sara’s writings.
As Ruthie starts asking questions in town, she finds that the lore of Sara Harrison Shea may be more than just lore. With finding her mother as her North Star, Ruthie meets some people who simultaneously help her understand where her mother may be, and throw her into a new line of fire.
Ruthie is a bold character, and I found her storyline very compelling. Her wholehearted interest in keeping her sister safe throughout the novel is juxtaposed by her typical teenage personality in the first few chapters. I found her growth in the face of adversity to be paramount to the novel’s realism. Although the subject of awaking the dead can often be steeped in tales of witchcraft, I found the basis of the novel was more historic, making the tale somewhat more believable.
The Winter People was thoroughly entertaining, and I will be picking up more work by Jennifer McMahon.
2 Book Girls 