Sometimes – when my fingers are going numb and my arms have broken out in goosebumps – I forget that even the most frigid Sydney winter is relatively mild. Luckily, I have plenty of books on my shelves to remind me what real winter feels like. These ten books set in cold climates will give you the chills for sure.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Where: An unnamed Australian ski resort
Yes, Australia isn’t typically known for its cold climate, but as readers can see in Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, things get pretty nippy at the country’s handful of mountain ski resorts. One such resort is the setting for the Cunningham family reunion, where – as the title suggests – the only thing every attendee has in common is that they’ve each killed someone. Now, a snowstorm has stranded this band of merry murderers, and they won’t all make it out alive. Read my full review of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone here.
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Where: the Adirondacks, New York
The Writing Retreat is set in the mountains of northeastern New York, where even the summer months get chilly due to the regions high elevation. It’s a spooky spot to have a potentially-haunted mansion, even more so when you gather a bunch of creative types there and get them to fight (to the death?) to write the best manuscript. But that’s where our protagonist Alex finds herself, rugged up and typing away, avoiding her estranged best friend down the hall. Read my full review of The Writing Retreat here.
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Where: the Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are known for their picturesque peaks and ski-perfect snow, but the setting of The Sanatorium is anything but a postcard. An abandoned mental asylum has been renovated and re-purposed as a luxury ski resort, and it’s where Detective Elin Warner’s kind-of-estranged brother has chosen to host his engagement party. That’s an odd choice, sure, but it’s even odder that his fiancee has disappeared into thin air and a snowstorm has cut off their access to the outside world. Read my full review of The Sanatorium here.
Misery by Stephen King
Where: Colorado
Stephen King is known for setting his novels in the relatively humid climate of Maine, but one of his (relatively) early best-sellers, Misery, takes place in Colorado. The protagonist, writer Paul Sheldon, makes the ill-advised drunken decision to drive home to Los Angeles in the midst of a blizzard, leading to a horrifying car accident. Luckily – or not, as the case may be – he is ‘rescued’ by a nurse, Annie Wilkes, and she just so happens to be a big fan of his most famous character, the one he has just killed off. She’s not happy about that, so she ‘helps’ him recuperate and rewrite the ending as she sees fit. Read my full review of Misery here.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Where: northern Iceland
Even in the warmest summer months, Iceland’s sub-polar climate requires a jacket and a cup of hot cocoa. Spare a thought for the characters of Burial Rites, who experience it in the 1820s when the primary heat source in most stable homes was a coal-burning stove. The harsh isolation of the book’s setting reflects the story, a fictionalised account of the final days of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman sentenced to death in Iceland.
Cold Truth by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Where: Winnipeg, Canada
Cold Truth follows Harlow Close, a Winnipeg influencer not deterred in the slightest by the region’s sub-zero temperatures and cold snaps. Her father mysteriously disappears from his home one night, and Harlow enlists the assistance of her reluctant (and far less Insta-famous) sister to aid in the search, seeing as the police are turning up nothing beneath the snow. Read my full review of Cold Truth here.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Where: Sweden
The titular Beartown is a small village in a forest in the middle of nowhere in Sweden. It’s cold, it’s insular, and it’s in a pretty severe economic downturn. The hopes and dreams of everyone who remains in the dot on the map rest on the local ice hockey team. If their Junior team really manages to make it all the way to the championships – and win – it could mean an influx of resources and support that could turn the struggling community around. A young woman’s determination to tell the truth about what happened to her could ‘ruin’ it all. Read my full review of Beartown here.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Where: rural Vermont
There’s a lot of chilling content in The Secret History, but even with all the bloodshed and betrayal, what will stick in your mind is the chapters where Richard – lacking any family support or financial means – very nearly freezes to death during the Christmas break from college. He is staying, alone, in an unheated illegal sublet, and you’ll practically be able to feel his chronic hypothermia from the ‘bone cracking’ cold through the page. Read my full review of The Secret History here.
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Where: Massachusetts
It’s easy to romanticise the idea of a white Christmas in New England, but Eileen will disabuse you of those romantic ideas quick smart. The titular character has very little seasonal cheer, as she shuffles between the squalor of her alcoholic father’s home and her day job as a secretary in a boy’s prison. The bleakness of the landscape is matched by the bleakness of Eileen’s mood, until a shining light appears – one that will draw her into complicity in a crime. Read my full review of Eileen here.
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Where: “the Farm”
It’s not clear exactly where I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is set, but it’s cold as heck and the remote farm is truly in the middle of nowhere. Our narrator is also being stalked through this frozen rural landscape by The Caller, a man who leaves her cryptic voicemails, somehow calling her from her own number. She’s thinking of ending things with her boyfriend, but he doesn’t know that yet. Things are going to get worse before they get better. Read my full review of I’m Thinking Of Ending Things here.
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