“A rash of strange deaths in the Tahoe National Forest bring Sam, Dean and Bobby to the Sierra Nevada mountains to hunt a monster with a taste for human flesh. Soon walking corpses, bodies with missing organs, and attacks by a mysterious flying creature lead the trio to a cunning and deadly foe which can assume a human form and will do anything to survive. When a blizzard strikes the area, and not knowing who they can trust, they must battle not only the monster, but also the elements to survive.”

When I first read the original description for this novel, one that carefully hid the true nature of the story, I was deeply concerned.  When a television series runs this long (Supernatural is now set to go at least nine seasons), there is bound to be repetition.  And the seventh season, during which this novel is set, was designed to call back to the very first season in many of its story elements.  A novel featuring a Wendigo, the topic of the second episode of the entire series, was not necessarily something I was anticipating with great fondness.

Thankfully, that is merely the hook into the story, and since the Winchesters themselves point out that they have previous experience with a Wendigo, it doesn’t offend sensibilities too much.  The actual creature at the heart of the case is a lot more interesting, especially since the author does a very good job of setting up a handful of red herrings when it comes to the identity of the killer.  (My guess at the beginning of the book was completely wrong!)

As has been pointed out with many procedural shows in recent years, there is a tendency to telegraph which character is the perpetrator based on casting alone.  If there are a number of suspects and one character in particular is portrayed by a relatively well-known guest star, odds are fairly high that they are the guilty party.  Novels don’t have that issue, of course, and so it all comes down to how well the mystery unfolds.

Another valid concern with tie-in novels is scope.  How well does this story fit into the timeframe in which it is set, and would these events overshadow what is significant during that portion of the story arc?  Since the seventh season was extremely loose in terms of the overall season arc, and that centered more on the Leviathans, this case fits relatively well within the context of everything else that happened before and after it.

Isolating the characters was a good decision; Dean ends up on his own for a while, then placed in ever-worsening situations until the final showdown.  Sam and Bobby end up pulling research duty, but catching up with Dean is complicated by the arrival of a major snowstorm in the area.  Given that they are dealing with remote mountainous areas, nature itself becomes as potent an antagonist as the creature.  Events in the second half of the book that had nothing to do with monsters or organ removal had me turning pages faster than normal.

If there is one weakness to the novel, it’s the writing style.  Authors have had notorious difficulty in capturing the internal and external “voice” of the Winchesters, despite how well the show delves into both, and thankfully Alice Henderson manages to capture all of that organically.  But the writing style feels simplistic at times, almost as if the novel is being written to appeal more towards a young adult audience than some of the more recent work.  The chapters are also relatively short, as is the book itself (when font size is taken into account), so there’s a sense that the story never quite achieves the depth that it could.

On the other hand, there are worse things that a quick Supernatural novel that features Bobby Singer in a substantial role, given that the seventh season was not particularly kind to him.  It also manages to put the Brothers Winchester through the wringer without going too far over the top (one scene on a mountain ridge comes perilously close, though).  With the eighth season coming to a close soon, and the summer coming not long after, a wintery Supernatural tale might just hit the spot.

Price: $5.59 (Kindle version)
Acquisition method: Amazon.com