PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’m always looking for something new to read. I’m admittedly a bit particular when it comes to choosing something, though. Maybe it’s because I work in a library and have a ton of books at my disposal to try. Or maybe it’s because I’m picky AF. Who knows. But I do know that when I find something I like, I will completely devour it.
My quest for something new and awesome led me to Gage Greenwood’s dystopian horror tale, Winter’s Myths. I had heard great things online, and despite the fact that it wasn’t available at any local library or bookstore yet, I found myself itching to get my hands on a copy. All you need to do is read the plot line below to find out why.
Synopsis:
When the world ends, who will tell the story?
After a disease ravages his underground community, Winter escapes with his daughters to the dangerous surface of Earth. Believing the planet is largely abandoned, he struggles to make sense of this strange new world while trying to keep his family alive… But the surface is not all complicated artifacts and relics of a deserted universe. Winter is certain something—or someone—is hunting them.
He weaves wild tales to entertain and teach his daughters, turning celebrities into demigods and Abe Lincoln into an ice giant. As the journey grows darker and more dangerous, his mythologies keep not only his children from confusion and despair, but him as well.
With tensions rising and danger at every corner, will Winter keep his family alive long enough to finish his tales?
Imagine bring born underground, never having seen the sun, a dog, a DVD, a toilet, or even a tree. Then you’re thrust into this new world of earth’s surface, trying to figure it all out and, at the same time, explaining it to your two young children? What stories would you tell them about the things you found? How would you keep them safe when you’ve been told your entire life that being aboveground meant being exposed to humans, the most dangerous beings in your people’s history? And you can’t go home, because everyone there is dead from an unknown, highly contagious disease… one that seems to have affected the humans you so despise, leaving their world broken and desolate as well. How do you survive that?
Winter’s Myths is unlike any book I’ve ever read. It’s a combination of mythical mystery, science fiction, beauty, the post-apocalypse, horror, and tragedy. The absolute wonder of rediscovering our world through Winter, Violin, and Candlestick’s eyes combined with the soul-crushing horror of bloody loss and immutable fear left me scrabbling on the edge of my literary seat, trying desperately to hold on to this new world while desperately trying to get to the end to find out what was going on. I didn’t want it to end, but I had to get answers. Never has a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon been so eye-opening.
These three characters became real to me, and I laughed and cried right along with them. There are monsters here—both human and not—that have never been seen before. What would scare you the most if everything on this earth was new to you?
I love how Greenwood was able to switch gears while telling the tale, going from tragic, gritty despair to technicolor fantasy as he switched from the little family’s new reality to Winter’s twisted yet all too human fairy tales. It was completely unsettling, but in the best way.
Initially published on Amazon’s Kindle Vella, multi-season serial Winter’s Myths is now available through Gage Greenwood’s author site as well as on Amazon and through Barnes and Noble. Also available is the second book in the series, Winter’s Legacy, which I loved as well. I highly recommend this series. You will be shocked by how much you love it, too.
