A haunting debut novel about family and sacrifice, Winter Loon reminds us of how great a burden the past can be, the toll it exacts, and the freedom that comes from letting it go.Abandoned by his father after his mother drowns in a frozen Minnesota lake, fifteen-year-old Wes Ballot is stranded with coldhearted grandparents and holed up in his mother’s old bedroom, surrounded by her remnants and … surrounded by her remnants and memories. As the wait for his father stretches unforgivably into months, a local girl, whose own mother died a brutal death, captures his heart and imagination, giving Wes fresh air to breathe in the suffocating small town.
When buried truths come to light in the spring thaw, wounds are exposed and violence erupts, forcing Wes to embark on a search for his missing father, the truth about his mother, and a future he must claim for himself–a quest that begins back at that frozen lake.
A powerful, page-turning coming-of-age story, Winter Loon captures the resilience of a boy determined to become a worthy man by confronting family demons, clawing his way out of the darkness, and forging a life from the shambles of a broken past.
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Beautifully written. Tragically real.
Really enjoyed it. Kinda Northern Gothic as opposed to the usual Southern Gothic.
Wes Ballot’s mother Valerie falls through the ice of a winter pond, and afterward he’s left alone in the world with his deadbeat father and not-any-better maternal grandparents in rural Minnesota. Believable and sad, this is a small-town story, one that speaks to those of us who didn’t grow up in the city. Wes’s story is a coming-of-age story quite different from a lot of the others populating the YA genre, a genre this book doesn’t fit in despite the age of its protagonist. A lovely read.
Loved the story, and the author writes beautifully. This is the best book I’ve read in the last year.
Loved this book from the perspective of a child who experiences abandonment from his father, the death of his mother, and grandparents who end up begrudgingly taking him I to live with them to bea witness to their personal abuses. Wes has no idea how the real world operates until he falls for a native American girl and gets the opportunity to share their lives. He learns all about love, responsible, integrity, and security from Jolene and her family.
It kept your interest and you hoped that things would improve for the main character.
Much more than a coming of age story as some have noted. This is a story of hope, a search for meaning, a courageous struggle, and a book that makes you really think about family and about relationships.
I think this is a debut novel, if I remember correctly. Either way, the story was very well written and kept my attention. The characters were fleshed out and believable. I found it intriguing the way the story flowed. It’s a coming of age story in a sense, but with a very different slant. I would read the author again.