Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2014
288 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
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.
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