By Matt Query & Harrison Query

Despite many frustrations with the male half of the couple who are the two narrators of their story, I really enjoyed this folk horror/thriller. A young couple leave their urban lives behind and fulfill their dream of buying a large property in the country at the foot of the Teton mountains. With them, is their dog, Dash, who I have to count as the third main character in the novel. Their nearest neighbors are an older couple, Dan and Lucy, and Joe, the rather mysterious Native American patriarch of the family who has owned the largest ranch in the area for generations. Soon after moving in, Harry and Sasha are visited by the older couple who shock them by telling them that their valley is haunted by a malevolent spirit that manifests itself 3 different ways depending on the season. Winter is a reprieve when the spirit is at rest. They talk to them about the rules they must follow to keep themselves safe and the spirit at bay. And though the whole process is disturbing, it is not that hard. At first, though they like and value Dan and Lucy, how can they believe such craziness? Harry especially is resistant to anything dealing with the supernatural, while Sasha, as things begin to transpire exactly as Dan and Lucy foretold, understands that she must believe the evidence of her own senses.

Harry and Sasha’s love and support for each other throughout the ordeals which are to come is never in doubt. It is established early on that Sasha is wise and strong, while Harry, though a former marine and tough and strong on the surface, is ruled by his emotions. This leads to bouts of rage and actions that not only fly in the face of logic and sense, but put the safety of himself and his beloved Sasha (and Dash) at risk. This happens over and over despite his recognition of his own foolhardiness and the remorse which follows. Harry’s frustrating behavior is caused to some degree by his injuries and experiences in Afghanistan. Until near the end of the book when Joe, often talked about but never seen, finally makes his entrance, I counted Harry’s weaknesses as a flaw in the book. I was driven to distraction by him and his mess when I felt the rest of the story was so strong that it was an unnecessary distraction. After a disastrous encounter with the Autumn manifestations of the spirit, Joe finally comes to the rescue and his encounter with Harry is so satisfying that it almost made all of my distress and disgust with the essentially good man and co-hero of the book worth it. I saw what the authors did there.

I was engaged and engrossed throughout. The concept and source of the horror and terror were fascinating and unusual. Secrets are revealed that increase the threat and danger to Harry and Sasha. Sasha’s focus changes to living with the spirit by following the rules to vanquishing it permanently. When winter comes, the season in which the spirit is supposed to hibernate, we learn that it only hibernates for those who have not killed another human. And of course, Harry, a war veteran, has killed as many as 5 people in Afghanistan. It is with the Winter manifestations that the story breaks down. The main problem is voiced by Harry himself:

I dunno…a divine omnipotence that’s damn near indiscernible from how most monotheists describe God. All that power over the souls of the dead just to play ventriloquist for a few weeks a year? All that power just to put on some spooky theater for a nobody asshole like me in this little mountain valley? Nah. Even applying the bizarre, fucked-up metrics that exist in this strange place, that’s just too much of a stretch.

Exactly.
At the end of the book we are left with the hope that this infinity-year-old omnipotent spirit has perhaps been permanently put to rest by Harry and Sasha. But how they did that when generations of Native Americans could not crack the code is very unclear. And smacks of white saviorism. The secret was too simplistic bordering on inane. So much so that I thought I missed something. There were plot holes and questionable aspects throughout the book which I could and did overlook, the story was so compelling. I loved all of the characters except for Harry. But since Sasha and Dash the dog (and Dan and Lucy) loved him despite his flaws, I didn’t want any permanent harm to come to him. It was a good read but the epilogue was facile with an attempt to bolster it by a tangle of meaningless gobbledygook. Also, unanswered questions! A bête noire of mine. No pun intended.