Frost Bite: Novel Review
Hello hello! I am back after taking my standard week-long break after my annual October writing challenge! If you missed it, you can read all my stories here:
I also attended a book vendor event at the Stanley Hotel up in Estes Park, hosted by AAP, over the weekend.
Hence why this post is a bit late! Oops!
Still, this week, I have a special treat for you — I have a double feature, a review and an interview about the book, Frost Bite by my friend and fellow goth, Angela Sylvaine.
The Author
Angela Sylvaine is a self-proclaimed cheerful goth who still believes in monsters. She adores reading and is always looking for a great book recommendation. Angela writes horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy. She has published one novella, CHOPPING SPREE, and her short stories have appeared in over two dozen publications. Her debut novel, FROST BITE, will be available 10/10/23 from Dark Matter INK. Her debut short story collection, THE DEAD SPOT: Stories of Lost Girls, will be available from Dark Matter INK 5/1/24.
She grew up in North Dakota and holds degrees in psychology and philosophy from the University of North Dakota. After marrying her high school sweetheart, they moved to Colorado, and now live on the front range of the Rockies with their three creepy cats.
Angela is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Pikes Peak Writers. — Angela Sylvaine’s website
Follow Angela on Twitter or Instagram, or visit her website!
The Book
Remember the '90s? Well...the town of Demise, North Dakota doesn't, and they're living in the year 1997. That's because an alien worm hitched a ride on a comet, crash-landed in the town's trailer park, and is now infecting animals with a memory-loss-inducing bite-and right before Christmas! Now it's up to nineteen-year-old Realene and her best friend Nate to stop the spread and defeat the worms before the entire town loses its mind. The only things standing in the way are their troubled pasts, a doomsday cult, and an army of infected prairie dogs. — Frost Bite Amazon description
Raelene hates Demise and wishes she could escape the confines of her trailer park, the responsibility of taking care of her ailing mother, the cold grip of winter. Then a meteor crashes nearby and those cute little critters she is so fond of, don’t seem so cute anymore.
What does it take to survive? What is Raelene willing to do? Frost Bite is a nostalgic, cozy horror novel that came out October 10, 2023 from Dark Matter Ink.
The Review
I love cozy horror and I love horror novels set in the 80s and 90s, so sue me. I loved Frost Bite.
Sylvaine has an amazing skill of setting the scene and creating wonderful characters to the point that I even loved the bitchy characters (see the girl in the pink ski suit on the cover.)
I could picture this book perfectly in my mind as a neon-coloured, bubblegum-flavoured, skin-bitingly chilly movie that never let go. The pacing is superb, the characters are oh-so-real, and Sylvaine isn’t afraid to punch you (cutely) right in the feels, as well as send a shiver up your spine.
Raelene is a greatly sympathetic character and so is her best friend, Nate, who is also struggling in the small, claustrophobic town of Demise. You root for them, you see yourself in them, and your heart breaks for them.
The story whips you away like the winter wind, hardly giving you time to breath as the entire town is infected by an alien virus that creates monsters out of animal and human alike. Add tot hat a cultish doomsday group and no one is safe, no one is sane, and Raelene is just trying to protect the ones she loves. (Beware your eyelashes freezing together as the book cracks your heart open.)
Frost Bite is a perfect winter read for horror lovers looking for something to cuddle up with, along with a hot drink and thick blanket — so don’t wait, grab your copy today!
9/10
x PLM
p.s. come back on Thursday for my PLM Talks interview with Angela!
