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A review by jolietjane
Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore
5.0
4.5/ 5 and I HAVE A LOT TO UNPACK HERE. This was described as Mad Max meets Frozen. That's still true if you add drugs, smugglers, buddy team adventures and found family nonsense, and...monsters made out of body parts of other people(?) Right. Remember what I said? We are unpacking a lot.
Is Winter, White and Wicked perfect? Not by a long shot. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t have a great time. For about 4.5 hours I was taken an on absolute fever dream where nothing made sense and everything made sense at the same time.
Sylvi is a long haul trucker living a modest life driving her big rig across an island of eternal winter. She has the ear of the winter spirit that dominates the land. Her life is changed when her best friend runs away with a group of rebels fighting against the oppressive late stage capitalist ruling class that dominates the land.
Mars Dresden is a black eyed smuggler that has learned to enslave the spirit of winter to his will, and he needs Sylvi and her truck for a long and dangerous journey. Our story follows Sylvi, Mars, and his small team across a desert of ice. They face sociopathic rangers, vicious wildlife, island natives, and winter's fury on their journey.
What sets this apart to me is the incredible amount of gore and violence for what I believe is technically considered a YA novel- Winter White and Wicked does not hold back in it's viciousness. I would go so far to argue that the book has actually carved out a whole new genre of YA Grimdark, pushing the limits of what would normally be considered acceptable for a teen audience. No character is safe from immeasurable suffering.
At it's core, One could argue that "Winter" is about deconstructing belief and the foundation of belief- as we are introduced to several impactful moments of radical faith (bot religious and political) Whether it's Sylvi's unrelenting belief in the spirit that haunts her, the numerous island based faiths that drive the brutal lifestyles of their inhabitance, or warring political parties that use humans as slave labor. The absolute truths believed by almost every character they meet swell into a dark and cold world of violence that makes driving a truck turn into a death sentence.
Unlike many YA novels of today, "Winter" does not focus much on things like romance, instead investing deeply into the powerful growing bond between Sylvi and the smugglers that she is driving. The character driven warmth of this book carries you through the darkness of this world and keeps you invested until the end.
Is Winter, White and Wicked perfect? Not by a long shot. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t have a great time. For about 4.5 hours I was taken an on absolute fever dream where nothing made sense and everything made sense at the same time.
Sylvi is a long haul trucker living a modest life driving her big rig across an island of eternal winter. She has the ear of the winter spirit that dominates the land. Her life is changed when her best friend runs away with a group of rebels fighting against the oppressive late stage capitalist ruling class that dominates the land.
Mars Dresden is a black eyed smuggler that has learned to enslave the spirit of winter to his will, and he needs Sylvi and her truck for a long and dangerous journey. Our story follows Sylvi, Mars, and his small team across a desert of ice. They face sociopathic rangers, vicious wildlife, island natives, and winter's fury on their journey.
What sets this apart to me is the incredible amount of gore and violence for what I believe is technically considered a YA novel- Winter White and Wicked does not hold back in it's viciousness. I would go so far to argue that the book has actually carved out a whole new genre of YA Grimdark, pushing the limits of what would normally be considered acceptable for a teen audience. No character is safe from immeasurable suffering.
At it's core, One could argue that "Winter" is about deconstructing belief and the foundation of belief- as we are introduced to several impactful moments of radical faith (bot religious and political) Whether it's Sylvi's unrelenting belief in the spirit that haunts her, the numerous island based faiths that drive the brutal lifestyles of their inhabitance, or warring political parties that use humans as slave labor. The absolute truths believed by almost every character they meet swell into a dark and cold world of violence that makes driving a truck turn into a death sentence.
Unlike many YA novels of today, "Winter" does not focus much on things like romance, instead investing deeply into the powerful growing bond between Sylvi and the smugglers that she is driving. The character driven warmth of this book carries you through the darkness of this world and keeps you invested until the end.