Wow. I wasn't sure what I expected when I started reading "The Snowman's Children," but it wasn't quite this. I suppose you could call this a psychological horror novel, or a thriller, or a mystery, but it's really none of those things. It's got a serial killer in it, but The Snowman really isn't the point. Instead, it's one of the most haunting depictions of loss and grief and regret and childhood that I've ever read. This ones gonna stick with me.

This book starts out strong with a keen sense of mystery, driven by a lack of clear information that the reader must use to infer what is going on. When the second half of the book begins to accelerate, the mystery is lost, especially in the last few info-dumping pages. I walked away from the book thinking that it's missing a resolution, especially for Mattie who is a completely unsympathetic character, the scope of whose unsympathetic nature is only really revealed in the last few pages. A quic...

I thought that this book was a murder mystery. It really is not. What this book is about is the stress of families living under the shadow of a serial killer, and the ripples that stress has into the future. It is also about the intensity of childhood friendship, love, illness, betrayal and loss.

Terrific non-supernatural thriller involving children threatened by the serial killer known as the Snowman. Hirshberg's ghost stories demonstrated his ability to draw out scenes and build suspense without sacrificing characterization and pacing in short forms, and it was gratifying to see he could do the same at extended length. Here the three kids who form a friendship are entirely believable as is the threat they face.

It would have been 4 or 5 stars if it hadn't left it somewhat open ended. Did not like how it ended. Just kind of fizzled out.

A remarkable and haunting book with a truly brilliant ending. (So rare in books that try to tell a story of any suspense.) There’s no last-minute cheap selling out to wrap things up and appease the producer if the film rights are ever sold. For all its potential to be treated as thriller, this book is too thoughtful for that label. It ends on a remarkable and powerful meditation on the ways in which we remember our childhoods.

A creepy psychological book. Goes between 1976 when the events happened and 1994 trying to find resolution for Mattie. The winter of 1976 finds this Detroit suburb on alert to a “Snowman” who captures children that are later found dead, but apparently well cared for. Neighborhoods and family are thrown into a tizzy with curfews and lifestyle changes. Eleven-year-old Mattie, Theresa and Spencer and enthralled with this event and even go so far to fake a missing child. His family moves from the ar...

It is also a perfect ending to yet another major reading experience that Hirshberg has provided for me over the last few weeks and monthThe detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.Above is one of its observations.

In a prior review, I mentioned my fascination with cold places, possibly due to spending my entire life in Florida. Places that receive serious snowfall seem silent, mysterious, and, honestly, pretty frightening. Maybe I’ve read too many stories of bodies hidden in snow and not found until spring—or an equal number of tales featuring a body trapped under ice. At any rate, I vaguely remember hearing about murders committed by a serial killer in Oakland County, Michigan. I was too young for anyone...

This book is adult fiction, described as psychologically intense, and that is an apt description of how the story unfolds. In Detroit, in the 1970's, Mattie, Spencer and Theresa were in the "gifted" program at their school. At that same point in time, a serial killer known as "The Snowman" was picking and choosing young victims with impunity. How those horrific murders affected families, neighborhoods and these three "exceptional" children, both at that time, and thirty years later is the framew...

A debut novel of psychological suspense features a trio of tweens, Mattie, Spencer, and Theresa. The novel flips back and forth between 1976 and 1994 as Mattie is still trying to make amends for his actions seventeen years earlier.It is all set in Detroit, and much of the background action occurs through a series of serial killings of children. There are twists and turns in the process to discover exactly what happened in 1976.

I love discovering authors who have the potential for becoming new favorites and whose progress I can enjoy following book by book. Occasionally, as with Jonathan Lethem, I get to be there when they go from obscure (Gun, With Occasional Music) to best selling and award winning (The Fortress of Solitude). Or to be there when a little known novel like Shoeless Joe becomes a blockbuster movie (Field of Dreams) and suuddenly everyone is talking about an author you've been faithfully following and qu...

Riveting, even though it's not a true serial killer book. It's a psychological coming-of-age story. Very well written, but kind of like a car crash. Sometimes you just have to put it down

Don't go into The Snowman's Children expecting a fast-paced thriller. This is not that book. Instead, it is much more along the lines of Lee Thomas's The German or Peter Straub's A Dark Matter; books that methodically breakdown the abrupt change from boy to man, from child to adult, and all the terrible consequences that come with it. But that's not to say it isn't thrilling or scary. It's just that Glen Hirshberg is too good a writer to use cheap tricks. Instead, he drops you knee-deep in a Det...

4.5/5I quite liked this coming-of-age novel. Beautiful, atmospheric prose and well structured, overall very well written. Subject matter was a little difficult, an adult reflecting on growing up in the 1970s in a town where a serial killer was targeting children. But overall, I enjoyed it.

3.5 starsThis novel wasn’t so much a non-stop rollercoaster ride but a long meandering drive to the sea shore. There is a distinct division between the tone establishing first half rich with metaphor and the accelerated second half filled with the meat of the story. In the opening, our main character, Mattie Rhodes, seems a few shades tamer then Bart Simpson; he pulls pranks, but nothing horrible. The book shifts between his childhood, his college years, and the present day (mid 90’s Detroit) an...

2015 review:A friend pointed me in the direction Glen Hirshberg’s first novel, “The Snowman’s Children,” several years ago, and it remains one of the best recommendations I’ve received. The book left a strong impression on me, and after a second read, it’s become one of my very favorites.“Snowman’s Children” is, I suppose, what’s normally considered a coming-of-age story, though with shades of horror throughout. On the surface, it sounds like a thriller of some sort, the story of a child killer

3.51 stars.

I read this book about 8 months ago and earlier today, I was staring off at nothing thinking about it. This book has done this to me periodically ever since I finished the last page. Today, I thought I should write about it.Disclaimer: I was a fan of Glen Hirshberg's before ever picking up this book. I was only familiar with his short and medium length fiction at the time and was firmly enthralled by everything I had read so far. All that to say my expectations could not have been set any higher...