I received an advance copy of this title from the publisher, Darkfuse, in exchange for an honest review. Darkfuse, as I have said many times before, is a great source for horror and dark fiction that is deeper and more literary (and at times disturbing) than most other in this genre.

I thought this was an interesting novel. The premise is quite original. I have read in other places (I think it was Jim Thompson but that may be because I have been reading him a lot recently) that we tend to think of ourselves frozen in a particular time until we move on in our own mind. We do this several times in our life. A person will internalize of the 21 year old version of himself for about 20 years. Then he will adopt and try to project a 40 year old version until he gets too old to hold vision even in his own mind. We only go through about 4 internal versions of ourselves in our life and we only change, I guess, when we look in the mirror and don’t recognize the person staring back.
In The Winter Box we have a box that holds momentos of prior versions of a marriage. One that has fallen on hard times, both emotionally and physically. This trove contains items that represent memories and symbolic reminders of an earlier version of the marriage. And memories can be powerful.

What if one day you woke up, let’s say at the age of 40, and were confronted by the 21 year old you. He wanted to know how you screwed him up so badly and became what you are now. And he is very angry. And he wants to hurt you.

This is that type of story.

4 stars. ( )

A short love story under the disguise of horror. What happens when you question the relationship of the one you thought you would share you life with forever? Todd has grown tired and complacent with Heather and she in her turn does little to try to stop the breakdown of their teenage love. Both have indulged in random pointless affairs and yet both refuse to have a conversation that includes the D word.

When Heather produces an old winter box that contains precious memories from each year they have spent together, strange dreams and happenings occur. The cold, the snow, the illusions all add to a strange and yet enjoyable tale that attempts to mend the cracks in a broken marriage....."It wasn't just him, though. The same thing had happened to Heather, if to a lesser degree, but that was no excuse. Each partner was expected to do his or her share of the heavy lifting in the relationship, and neither of them had done any for a long time, him more so than her."

The story has a surprisingly good and very relevant ending which brings all the strands of this sad tale to a somewhat unexpected but suitable conclusion. ( )