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COVER OF SNOW

by Jenny Milchman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 22, 2013

Nice writing, but Nora’s meandering investigation only makes a confusing plot even more so in a tale populated by irrelevant...

Milchman’s debut novel follows Nora Hamilton as she puzzles through the inexplicable and sudden suicide of her young husband, Brendan.

Nora awakens one morning to find her bed cold and empty and her husband, a police officer in a small town not too far from New York City, missing. She climbs out of bed with a sense of foreboding and discovers that Brendan has inexplicably hanged himself in their home. An outsider in the small village of Wedeskyull, Nora finds herself the object of intense scrutiny by his fellow police officers and targeted by the piercing scorn that radiates from Brendan’s mother, Eileen. Soon, Nora begins to unravel the mystery of what could have compelled her husband to choose to end his life without any warning. She unearths both a childhood filled with blame for an accident that took place many years before she came to town and a strange, autistic man-child named Dugger who offers Nora some cryptic clues into what might have driven Brendan to destroy himself and their marriage. Along the way, Nora picks up an ally or two in the form of a local newspaper reporter and her husband’s aunt but finds herself leaning more and more on her sister, Teggie, for moral support until the truth finally comes out. Milchman makes the reader feel the chill right down to their bones and casts a particularly effective mood in this stylish thriller; but her storytelling falters when placed under the microscope of logic. The clues with which Nora pieces together the mystery of what’s actually happening in Wedeskyull and why a happily married man like Brendan would kill himself are so obscure and easily overlooked that it’s difficult to believe a grieving widow would zero in on them with such unerring precision. The ensuing investigation seems illogical and disjointed with the introduction of characters whose only apparent function is to take up literary space.

Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-345-53421-7

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012

SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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by Jenny Milchman

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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BOOK TO SCREEN

THEN SHE WAS GONE

by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018

Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.

Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.

Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s ( I Found You , 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.

Pub Date: April 24, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018

GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | SUSPENSE

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by Lisa Jewell

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Book summary and reviews of Cover of Snow by Jenny Milchman

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Cover of Snow

by Jenny Milchman

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Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan, has committed suicide. The first few hours following Nora's devastating discovery pass for her in a blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in: Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them. Unraveling her late husband's final days, Nora searches for an explanation - but finds a bewildering resistance from Brendan's best friend and partner, his fellow police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence unknown ... and its darkest secrets hidden.

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"Starred Review. Milchman expertly conveys Nora's grief in a way that will warm hearts even in the dead of a Wedeskyull winter." - Publishers Weekly "Nice writing, but Nora's meandering investigation only makes a confusing plot even more so in a tale populated by irrelevant details and vague side journeys." - Kirkus "Milchman's debut is a chillingly good mystery thriller that quickly picks up momentum and spirals into a whirling avalanche of secrets, danger, and suspense." - Library Journal "Everything a great suspense novel should be - tense, emotional, mysterious, and satisfying ... Let's hope this is the start of a long career." - Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Wanted Man "Terrifically suspenseful ... Reading Cover of Snow feels like racing across a frozen lake: heart-pounding, exhilarating, frightening." - Louise Penny, New York Times bestselling author of The Beautiful Mystery "A suspenseful story of switchbacks and surprises ... Cover of Snow is a darkly atmospheric first novel that challenges all sorts of romantic notions we might harbor about small towns and the people we think we can trust." - Laura Lippmann, New York Times bestselling author of And When She Was Good "A terrific debut." - Harlan Cobin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seconds Away

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Author Information

Jenny milchman.

Jenny Milchman lives in New Jersey with her family. Cover of Snow is her first novel.

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Waking up one wintry morning in her old farmhouse nestled in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, Nora Hamilton instantly knows that something is wrong. When her fog of sleep clears, she finds her world is suddenly, irretrievably shattered: Her husband, Brendan, has committed suicide.

The first few hours following Nora’s devastating discovery pass for her in a blur of numbness and disbelief. Then, a disturbing awareness slowly settles in: Brendan left no note and gave no indication that he was contemplating taking his own life. Why would a rock-solid police officer with unwavering affection for his wife, job, and quaint hometown suddenly choose to end it all? Having spent a lifetime avoiding hard truths, Nora must now start facing them.

Unraveling her late husband’s final days, Nora searches for an explanation—but finds a bewildering resistance from Brendan’s best friend and partner, his fellow police officers, and his brittle mother. It quickly becomes clear to Nora that she is asking questions no one wants to answer. For beneath the soft cover of snow lies a powerful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep its presence unknown...and its darkest secrets hidden.

This novel began life when one question grabbed me by the throat. What would make a good man do a very bad thing? It's amazing how many wrinkles that question led to. Before I could even start to dream up an answer, I had to figure out what the terrible thing was. That turned out to be the easy part.

Novels are living things. They live in the crosshairs between author and reader, not fully complete until someone besides the author lays eyes on them. And they live while they are being written, constantly writhing and changing in ways that, if we are lucky, we can wrestle into some kind of shape that speaks to people.

This novel took on many different forms over the years, and the version you reading is in its twenty-second draft. As a result, there are scenes that were cut and a prologue that never made it in, which I'll be sharing once the book has had a chance to find readers.

Also a result, this book has spanned a fair amount of time in my life. I was in a Kinkos in North Carolina, writing early chapters on a rented machine, before the dawn of laptops. In one scene you will read, Nora, the main character, Googles something. But in the version my agent read, Nora went into the store to ask, leading my agent to wonder why she didn't just search. Answer? There was no Google when that scene was written, not really anyway.

Every novel is a journey. I'm so glad you'll be a part of this one.

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Review of “Cover of Snow” by Jenny Milchman

Some of the writing in this book shows that the author may have a good story inside of her yet, but this particular book isn’t it.

Nora Hamilton, 35, wakes up one morning to find out her husband hasn’t woken her up AND he hasn’t made her coffee! Oh, and incidentally he killed himself the night before. No, it wasn’t because he was tired of waiting on his wife, but the real reason (which we don’t discover until the end) wasn’t a much better explanation.

After Nora’s gruesome discovery, the rest of the book consists of her efforts to find out what drove her husband Brendan to kill himself. Maybe it was his creepy and evil mother, who seems to have escaped from a Grade D horror movie. Or maybe it was his fellow police officers, most of whom obviously spent their previous life in Hitler’s S.S. Or maybe it was because Nora was married to this guy, but obviously knew absolutely nothing about him or his family or his past or his present. (This could be because Nora is totally self-absorbed, or because she is totally clueless. Both are true.)

In short, most of the plot is just nonsensical. Some of the characters are inconsistent, if not schizophrenic (presumably at least in a few cases so we can be mislead by red herrings). Others, like the main protagonists are pretty much unknowns. Why should we care about them? How can we judge the bizarre things they do to be believable if we don’t know who these people really are and what might motivate them?

Discussion: So, you may be asking, why did I keep reading this book? Well, there were a couple of reasons. One is that I really wanted to like it and thought that if I just reading, it would get better. (We might label this The Red Wine Principle – i.e., sometimes if you let a wine breathe, or aerate, the flavor improves.) The second reason is that some parts showed promise. (This would be the You Go Girl Principle – rooting for the just-starting-out author!)

Rating: 1/5

Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, 2013

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22 responses to review of “cover of snow” by jenny milchman.

I laughed and laughed as I read your thoughts on this one. Thanks for always being so honest Jill. Better luck with your next read.

I admire your honesty in that first sentence, and in the rest of the review, too. I haven’t read the book, but I think I know the sort of writing you’re talking about – where the author is obviously trying to make you care whilst not actually giving you a reason to? Very difficult books, those.

Sigh… I will stay far, far away from this one!

I don’t think i’ll be attempting this one. I appreciate the honest review. Hoping your next read was much better.

All of the less-than-positive reviews of this book makes me very sad, because she is a new author and as nice as can be. And she likes Tana French. But I guess those characteristics don’t write a good book. I hope she keeps writing and working on her craft.

I too cracked up reading this review — I haaaaaaaaaaaaate books that are based on a married couple not talking/knowing each other. So annoying.

Aw, too bad. It’s nice to know the author has potential.

I am pondering all the Principles in this educational and enjoyable review. Hmmmmm.

Darn it, darn it, darn it! Just accepted on audio!

Ditto to all the above comments – thanks for the honest review, too bad on the not so great book and hopefully the author will grow and prosper!

I have heard from other reviewers that this was not the best read out there, and that it was really underdeveloped with flaky characters. It seems like you felt the same way. I’m sorry this one didn’t work for you. It sounds like it would be a terrible read for me.

Hmmmm, I think you may have fallen victim to the Sunk Cost Fallacy of reading — it gets me pretty rarely these days, but I sometimes do find myself halfway through a slog of a book, feeling terribly resentful and somehow unwilling to give up because then all my previous slogging will have been for naught. :p

I probably would have kept reading too. I always think “things MUST get better since it got published.” I’ll wait for her to “season”

Thanks for the honest review. I like Jenny’s Sunk Cost Fallacy. Sounds like something that gets me a lot.

I can’t disagree with anything you’ve said here, although I might have found a little more potential in the novel than you did. But Jenny is SO nice so it was difficult to be so honest about the book. I hate when this happens!!

Staying away from this one. The plot didn’t appeal to me and your review just confirmed my thoughts.

On the positive side, the book cover is beautiful. Suppose that’s what the title is trying to say “Cover of Snow” – don’t bother about the content! 😉

As Nancy Pearl has taught me, there are too many good books to read to waste time on a bad one. Glad you forewarned me. I will not have to waste my soon to be precious retirement time.

As I sit here drinking my perfectly aerated red wine, I applaud you for giving this one a chance to prove itself 😉

Well….I really liked this one. I found it engrossing. I knew something bad was going on, but couldn’t quite figure out what it was, and felt the author strung the reader along very well to keep up interest. I can’t wait to see if she writes another one. I for one, will read it. My review is here.

I agree with your review. I really tried to get through this. There was not one character I liked.

When I realized how pathetically naive and risk taking Nora was, I just had to close the book.

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Cover of Snow: A Novel

By Jenny Milchman

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By William Boyd

• Oct. 5, 2020

SNOW By John Banville

Some years ago I was on a book tour in Dublin. Granted an unexpected night off, I asked the publisher’s representative, who was guiding me around, if he could recommend a good restaurant. He suggested an Italian trattoria not far from Trinity College. And then, lowering his voice confidentially, he said: “John Banville eats there.”

Such is Banville’s renown. Ireland’s greatest living novelist occupies a unique place in the contemporary pantheon. Not only is Banville a prizewinning, much-translated literary novelist, he is also a feisty, formidable critic, former literary editor of The Irish Times, playwright, memoirist, screenwriter and developer of long-form TV series. In other words, a literary polymath — somewhat in the line of Graham Greene.

Like Greene, Banville has a distinguished oeuvre of literary novels — 17, at the current count — and what we might term Greene-style “entertainments.” A series of detective novels written under the nom de plume Benjamin Black, featuring the Dublin pathologist Garret Quirke, has been extremely successful and adapted for television. The John Banville/Benjamin Black co-identity is a fascinating one. Why adopt the disguise of a pseudonym when everyone knows, and always knew, the man behind it? Greene, after all, was happy to sign his name to his own entertainments.

Now we have “Snow,” just to add to the mystery. The novel has Banville’s name on it, but it is also a classic policier in the Benjamin Black mode. It features a young Irish detective — earnest, a bit troubled — called St. John (pronounced “Sinjun”) Strafford. Strafford has appeared before, as a detective in a Benjamin Black novel, “ The Secret Guests ,” set in 1940. In “Snow,” Strafford is 35 (the book is set in December 1957), which would have made him 18 in the earlier novel. Unless there were teenage detectives nosing around midcentury Ireland, perhaps a bit of retrospective chronological adjustment is required.

“Snow” is advertised on the cover as “An Inspector St. John Strafford Novel,” implying that a new series is underway. Is this a third layer to the Banville corpus? John Banville at the top, Benjamin Black a level below and the “John Banville” of “Snow” and its future siblings somewhere in the middle? (The writer himself recently said he had killed off that “rascal” Black.)

The story begins almost like a game of Clue. Just before Christmas, in a ramshackle country house in County Wexford, south of Dublin, a Roman Catholic priest is found murdered in, yes, the library. Detective Strafford is sent to investigate. As in Clue, the various suspects — mostly members of the Osborne family and their staff — were all in the house the night of the murder. So far, so familiar — except for one detail: The priest has also been expertly castrated.

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, cover of snow.

Chapter One

My husband wasn’t in bed with me when I woke up that January morning. The mid-­winter sky was bruised purple and yellow outside the window. I shut bleary eyes against light that glared and pounded.

A second later I realized my toes weren’t burrowing into the hollows behind Brendan’s knees, that when I flung out my arm it didn’t meet his wiry chest, the stony muscles gone slack with sleep. I slid my hand toward the night table, fingers scrabbling around for our alarm clock.

Seven-­thirty.

It was late. As if drugged, my brain was making sense of things only after a dull delay. But it was a full hour past the time I always woke up. We always woke up. Brendan slept a cop’s sleep, perpetually ready to take action, and I had been an early riser all my thirty-­five years.

Bits of things began to take shape in my mind.

The morning light, which entered so stridently through the window.

Brendan not in bed with me. He must’ve gotten up already. I hadn’t even felt him move.

But Brendan had been working late all week; I hadn’t yet found out why. My husband had good reason to sleep in. And if he had risen on time, why didn’t he wake me?

I felt a squeezing in my belly. Brendan knew I had an eight o’clock meeting with a new client this morning, the owner of a lovely but ramshackle old saltbox in need of repair. My husband took my burgeoning business as seriously as I did. He would never let me miss a meeting.

On the other hand, Brendan would know that if I slept late, then I must be worn out. Maybe getting Phoenix off the ground had taken more out of me than I realized. Brendan probably figured he’d give me a few extra minutes, and the morning just got away from him.

He must be somewhere in his normal routine now, toweling off, or fixing coffee.

Except I didn’t hear the shower dripping. Or smell the telltale, welcome scent of my morning fix.

I pushed myself out of bed with hands that felt stiff and clumsy, as if I were wearing mittens. What was wrong with me? I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror and noticed puddles of lavender under my eyes. It was like I hadn’t slept a wink, instead of an extra hour.

“Brendan? Honey? You up?”

My words shattered the air, and I realized how very still our old farmhouse was this morning.

Padding toward the bathroom, one explanation for the weight in my muscles, not to mention my stuporous sleep, occurred to me.

Brendan and I had made love last night.

It had been one of the good times; me lying back afterward, hollow, cored out, the way I got when Brendan was able to focus completely on me, on us, instead of moving so fiercely that he seemed to be riding off to some distant place in the past. We’d even lain awake for a while in the waning moments before sleep, fingers intertwined, Brendan studying me in a way that I felt more than saw in the dark.

“Honey? Last night tired me out, I guess. Not that it wasn’t worth it.”

I felt a smile tease the corners of my mouth, and pushed open the bathroom door, expecting a billow of steam. When only brittle air emerged, I felt that grabbing in my gut again. Cold tile bit my bare feet.

“Brendan?”

My husband never started the day without a shower; he claimed that a night’s sleep made him ache. But there was no residue of moisture filming the mirror, nor fragrance of soap in the air. I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around my shoulders for warmth, and trotted toward the stairs, calling out his name.

Could he have gone to the station early? Left me sleeping while my new client waited at his dilapidated house?

“Honey! Are you home?” My voice sounded uncertain.

No answer. And then I heard the chug of our coffeepot.

Relief flowed through me, thick and creamy as soup. Until that moment, I hadn’t let myself acknowledge that I was scared. I wasn’t an overreactor by nature usually.

I headed downstairs, feet more sure now, but with that wobbly, airless feeling in the knees that comes as fear departs.

The kitchen was empty when I entered, the coffee a dark, widening stain in the pot. It continued to sputter and spit while I stood there.

There was no mug out, waiting for its cold jolt of milk. No light was turned on against the weak morning sunshine. Nobody had been in the icy kitchen yet today. This machine had been programmed last night, one of the chores accomplished as Brendan and I passed back and forth in the tight space, stepping around each other to clean up after dinner.

That thing in my belly took hold, and this time it didn’t let go. I didn’t call out again.

The sedated feeling was disappearing now, cobwebs tearing apart, and my thinking suddenly cleared. I brushed past the deep farm sink, a tall, painted cabinet.

With icy hands, I opened the door to the back stairs, whose walls I was presently laboring over to make perfect for Brendan. Maybe, just maybe, he’d skipped his shower and called in late to work in order to spend time in his hideaway upstairs.

The servants’ stairs were steep and narrow, with a sudden turn and wells worn deep in each step. I climbed the first two slowly, bypassing a few tools and a can of stripper, then twisted my body around the corner. I took in the faded wallpaper I’d only just reached after months of careful scraping.

Perhaps I didn’t have enough momentum, but I slipped, solidly whacking both knees as I went down. Crouching there, gritting my teeth against the smarting pain, I looked up toward the top of the flight.

Brendan was above me, suspended from a thick hank of rope.

The rope was knotted around a stained glass globe, which hung in the cracked ceiling plaster.

Brendan’s neck tilted slightly, the angle odd. His handsome face looked like it was bathed entirely in red wine.

Suddenly a small cyclone of powder spilled down, and I heard a splitting sound. There was a rip, a tear, the noise of two worlds cracking apart, and then a deafening series of thuds.

The light fixture completed its plummet, and broke with a tinkling sprinkle of glass. A tangle of ice-­cold limbs and body parts slugged me, heavy as lead blankets.

And I screamed, and screamed, and screamed, until the warble my voice had been before became no more than a gasping strain for air.

Excerpted from COVER OF SNOW by Jenny Milchman. Copyright © 2013 by Jenny Milchman. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover of Snow by by Jenny Milchman

• Genres: Fiction , Psychological Suspense , Psychological Thriller , Suspense , Thriller
• paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• ISBN-10: 0345534220
• ISBN-13: 9780345534224
• About the Book

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Cover of Snow: A Novel Kindle Edition

• Print length 338 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Ballantine Books
• Publication date January 15, 2013
• File size 1087 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

From booklist, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00957T4ZG
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books (January 15, 2013)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 15, 2013
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1087 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages
• #2,304 in Conspiracy Thrillers (Kindle Store)
• #3,849 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
• #7,363 in Psychological Thrillers (Kindle Store)

About the author

Jenny milchman.

Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from the Hudson River Valley of New York State. Her debut novel, COVER OF SNOW, was published by Ballantine/Random House in January 2013 and her follow up, RUIN FALLS, was published in April 2014. Her third novel, AS NIGHT FALLS, was published in June 2015.

Her short story 'The Closet' was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2012, and another short story, 'The Very Old Man', in 2014. The short work 'Black Sun on Tupper Lake' appears in the anthology ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES II.

Jenny is a board member and Vice President of International Thriller Writers, responsible for Author Porgrams. She is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which was celebrated in all 50 states and four foreign countries by over 700 bookstores in 2013. Jenny hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has featured more than 250 international bestsellers, Edgar winners, and independent authors. Jenny co-hosts the literary series Writing Matters, which attracts guests coast-to-coast and has received national media attention. She also teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop and Arts By The People.

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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 35% 33% 20% 7% 4% 7%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 35% 33% 20% 7% 4% 4%

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Customers say

Customers find the storyline interesting and horrifying. They also say the plot is predictable, difficult, and unexceptional. Opinions are mixed on the writing style, characters, and pacing. Some find it well-written and suspenseful, while others say it has too many padding, blathering sentences, and obvious hints.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the storyline interesting with many twists and turns. They also say the ending is unexpected and makes them both sad and happy. Customers also mention the book is filled with enough scary situations and creepy people. They say the crime aspect is pretty good and adds up to one good book.

"...The crimes were calculating, shocking , and cold and Milchman wrote her story in the cold setting of the Adirondack Mountains of New York where it..." Read more

"...The writing is skilled, the story is complex and intricate , and the characters feel natural and true -- we all know people like them, or at least..." Read more

"...As I said, because this is Milchman's debut, it's an ambitious story . Some have compared her to Gillian Flynn, and I can see that...." Read more

"... A great read !" Read more

Customers find the winter settings in the book a good bit for a cold day. They also appreciate the great descriptions of winter in the Adirondacks, which can bring readers relief from the heat wave.

"...windchill temperatures outside, this seemed like the perfect book for a cold winter weekend . I could not have been more wrong...." Read more

"...I live, but Jenny Milchman's "Cover of Snow" can bring readers relief from the heat wave ...." Read more

"... Loved the extreme winter setting as well, which just added an extra layer of complexity to the plot.Enjoyable holiday reading." Read more

"really absorbing-keeps you on edge till the end. great descriptions of winter in the Adirondacks." Read more

Customers are mixed about the writing style. Some find the book very well written and full of suspense, while others say it has too much padding, blathering sentences, and hard to continue reading. They also say the author failed the reader on many levels and that it was difficult to get into the story.

"...I closed the book because it was hard to continue reading . Sorry." Read more

"...The writing is skilled , the story is complex and intricate, and the characters feel natural and true -- we all know people like them, or at least..." Read more

"...unnecessary interior monologue." I thought the novel lacked the necessary interior monologue to flesh it out...." Read more

"...especially clever at figuring out mysteries, there are just too many obvious hints and no red herrings...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the characters in the book. Some find them believable, while others say they act in strange ways.

"...Not only did the author create fascinating characters and throw in just the right amounts of twists and turns but she created this atmosphere in the..." Read more

"...2. The characters needed to be fleshed out more ...." Read more

"...is skilled, the story is complex and intricate, and the characters feel natural and true -- we all know people like them, or at least like most of..." Read more

"...There is no emotion from the main character . She is all business. I ended up not liking her...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the pacing. Some mention it keeps them guessing to the end, while others say it's slow and hard to finish.

"...In fact, it was so slow that I almost gave up on it, but I'm glad I didn't...." Read more

"...And, finally, the pacing is breakneck : Milchman keeps the clues and surprises coming at a rapid clip, so there's always a reason to read just "one..." Read more

"...The story has huge holes and drags on far too long to get to the place it is trying to go...." Read more

"...grab an iced tea, grab "Cover of Snow", and let Jenny Milchman's fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining tale take you away to a much cooler place...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the entertainment value of the book. Some find it suspenseful and entertaining, while others say it's predictable and boring. They also mention that some aspects seem shoehorned in and unnecessary.

"...This was really irritating and dull since I had long ago figured out what the "surprise" would be...." Read more

"...plot had so many new facets that it began to be predictable and a bit boring . I actually considered not finishing the book...." Read more

"...It was really good!! Compelling, exciting and believable!! I thoroughly enjoyed it and would read the next one she writes." Read more

"...The story moves in fits and spurts, some aspects seem shoehorned in and unnecessary (eg the kid twist), other arcs peter off and are left hanging..." Read more

Customers find the plot predictable, believable, and hackneyed. They also say the execution is lacking and the book is not a master work. Readers also mention that the plot is easy to anticipate, juvenile, and clumsy. They say it's difficult and unexceptional.

"...The plot idea is decent but the execution is lacking . To start, the writing seemed rather juvenile and clumsy to me...." Read more

"...in no way at all related to the central mystery and the constant overstating of facts ...." Read more

"...I felt like some loose ends didn't get tied up, and that some of it was overly contrived , but I was still entertained...." Read more

"...It is such an old and hackneyed development and so obviously entirely fictional - given how fond most folks are of posting their most intimate..." Read more

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'Society of the Snow' Review: A Gripping Take on a Devastating True Story

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The Big Picture

• Society of the Snow is a technically well-made film that grounds itself in the humanity of its characters facing an unimaginable crisis.
• The film effectively depicts the harrowing true story of a devastating plane crash that left a group of survivors stranded in the Andes mountains.
• The technical details and immersive presentation make the film emotionally profound, but the narration can be reductive in not letting the visuals speak for themselves.

If it wouldn't be absolutely terrifying to do so, Society of the Snow feels like the exact type of movie you'll watch alone on a plane a few months from now and find it to be quite good before bemoaning that it didn't get a wider theatrical release . Instead, the latest from writer-director J.A. Bayona is only popping up in a handful of theaters before being sent to Netflix starting January 4. While the streamer is by no means the only one to often not give their films proper theatrical releases , it still feels disappointing each time it happens. While all releases deserve to be seen with the best visuals and sound, there is also the communal aspect of going to the movies that would serve a film like this rather well.

Society of the Snow

In 1972, the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, catastrophically crashes on a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Only 29 of the 45 passengers survived the crash and finding themselves in one of the world’s toughest environments, they are forced to resort to extreme measures to stay alive.

Hearing the way people react to moments of terror, triumph, and everything in between is what makes the experience of taking in a shared cinematic vision such a special one. Not to get too romantic about it, but there is something irreplaceable about it that feels like it is being increasingly lost. That even a film like Society of the Snow , a well-made and even potential late awards contender, isn’t in theaters across the globe just brings this perplexing state of affairs into focus . As it is now, it feels like a film that risks being buried in the malaise of churned-out streaming movies when it could have left more of an impact had people gotten the chance to go out to see it. It’s more than a little imperfect, with some narration undercutting it at key moments, but goodness does its presentation leave a mark.

What Is 'Society of the Snow' About?

Originally premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival and based on the harrowing true story of a group of plane crash survivors who must fight to stay alive in the desolate cold of the Andes mountains in the 1970s, it is a film that gets right to the central event. We get a very brief series of introductions to some of the characters, primarily made up of a young rugby team going on a trip that they’re all initially excited about before it all goes terribly wrong. The crash sequence, even as you know it is fast approaching, is a nightmare. It is effectively constructed and terrifying as the sound of the disaster carries just as much weight as the gruesome chaos we see unfolding onscreen. This is only the beginning, as the survivors will then be faced with the threats of starvation, cold, or, at many moments, overwhelming despair. As we watch them try to survive, desperately trying to come up with a plan to find a way back home, Bayona strikes a balance between showing respect to the victims while also never flinching from the reality that they all had to endure. Though there have been other works that have tried to take on this story, this is now the definitive film to do so and greatly benefits from drawing heavily from survivor Pablo Vierci 's book of the same name.

Each of the cast is fully up to the task with what little time they get amidst the ensemble, including Esteban Bigliardi of this year’s twisty heist film The Delinquents who delivers one great monologue about midway through , and bring a real sense of understated gravitas that ground the immense spectacle in something human. However, the standout of the film is the way Bayona and his crew present it with precise attention to the technical details. There is never a moment where you aren’t completely immersed in the particulars of what is playing out. Whether it is the slow creeping in of dread where the characters realize they may have to turn to consuming those who have already died, which the film makes room for the complicated feelings and discussions that go into this, or another moment of crisis where they may be buried alive in the snow, you feel every single development in painful detail.

The presentation places you fully in the emotional mindset of the characters as they stake their hope on something like a radio only to hear that the search has been called off and they are basically on their own. If anything, the experience is best when it lets the filmmaking speak for itself. Elements of recurring narration by a central character can be poetic in certain moments while reductive in others , spelling out things that we can already feel from the visual language of the film. For every moment where it feels like it adds an extra layer, it can also take away a few just as easily. What it reveals itself as and the way this becomes the ending narration does work, though it still has some moments scattered throughout that frequently don’t nearly as well. Perhaps there is something self-reflexive about how this narration reveals that making sense of something unimaginable for audiences far removed from it will rely on specific framing devices, though the film remains best when it doesn’t.

'Society of the Snow' Does Right by Its True Story

In the end, Bayona’s film takes us right into the heart of this story with clear-eyed focus and the necessary technical craft to make it work. While the filmmaker’s last feature, the pulpy yet perfunctory prehistoric romp Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom , was a little all over the place, this one brings his same directing abilities to a more sturdy story. One may be tempted to compare it to The Impossible , another time he dramatized a disaster, but Society of the Snow finds something more expansive about all of its characters rather than falling into being far too narrowly focused as that film did. One can only hope this vision doesn’t get buried and that, like the characters themselves, it eventually gets to emerge into the light .

Rating: 7/10

Society of the Snow will be available to stream on Netflix in the U.S. starting January 4.

WATCH ON NETFLIX

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