by Laura Kasischke
On a snowy Christmas morning, Holly Judge awakens with the fragments of a nightmare floating on the edge of her consciousness. Something followed them from Russia. Thirteen years ago, she and her husband Eric adopted baby Tatty, their pretty, black-haired Rapunzel, from the Pokrovka Orphanage #2. Now, at fifteen, Tatiana is more beautiful than ever - and disturbingly erratic.
As a blizzard rages outside, Holly and Tatiana are alone. With each passing hour, Tatiana's mood darkens, and her behavior becomes increasingly frightening... until Holly finds she no longer recognizes her daughter.
"Starred Review. A book that will haunt you for days and long, long nights after reading." - Booklist
"Kasischke skillfully mixes an insightful look at a damaged woman with a twisty plot that builds to a shocking ending." - Publishers Weekly
"Holly's nonstop interior ruminations are agonizing yet fascinating and draw the reader into a search for clues as to what is real and what may be bizarrely delusional ...Kasischke vividly depicts a woman's tormented inner world. " - Library Journal
"It is not enough to say that Kasischke's language is 'poetic' ... [T]he language catapults us into another plane of existence, one of facade and reflection." - New York Times Book Review
"Mind of Winter is a tightly coiled story of suffocating love and undeniable horror. Its grip is remarkably chilling, masterfully poetic, and psychologically unrelenting." - Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street
"If I could stand on a mountaintop and shout over the land, I would do it now: This book is magnificent! It's a gripping psychological thriller, at once both charmingly domestic and flat-out terrifying. Laura Kasischke writes so well that she leaves me inspired and very, very jealous." - Elin Hilderbrand, author of Beautiful Day
"Thought-provoking and chilling, Mind of Winter will have you looking over your shoulder as you tear through the pages to the shocking and heartbreaking conclusion. It will leave you questioning not only what is real, but also what it means to be a good mother." - Kimberly McCreight, New York Times-bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia
This information about Mind of Winter was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Laura Kasischke teaches in the University of Michigan MFA program and the Residential College. She has published seven collections of poetry and seven novels. She lives with her family in Chelsea, Michigan.

If you liked Mind of Winter, try these:
by Bryan Washington
Published 2026
A life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington.
by Maureen Sun
Published 2024
"You're my sister, but I'm not sure I love you. I'm not sure I love anyone. But if someone hurt you I'd want to kill him. I'd want him to die in pain. And he has hurt you…"
by Dana Czapnik
Published 2019
Told in vibrant, quicksilver prose, The Falconer is a coming-of-age story, providing a snapshot of the city and America through the eyes of the children of the baby boomers grappling with privilege and the fading of radical hopes.
Great political questions stir the deepest nature of one-half the nation, but they pass far above and over the ...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.