Synopsis:
Amateur cinematographer Cleo Moss hasn’t tried to make a film since her father’s death three years ago. Her cousin Noah, a director, is convinced that her latest script is the perfect opportunity to try again, but Cleo is less sure. Those reservations grow when a blizzard nearly runs them off the road on their way to the shoot, and when they discover that the house they’re filming in has a tragic past to rival Cleo’s own horror-filled writing. By the time she starts seeing ghostly shadows out of the corner of her eye, she’s convinced that the production is doomed.
At first, filming moves forward in spite of an unreliable camera battery and Noah’s surprise casting of Isobel, Cleo’s not-so-former crush. But as the worsening snow traps cast and crew in the house overnight, the strange shadows escalate into horrifying, dangerous specters. While the rest of her friends fight to find a way out of this nightmare, Cleo can’t help but be drawn to the ghosts she captures in her viewfinder—just as she can’t help noticing how similar their story is to her own past…
Review:
What the f*ck did I just read???
But like, in a good way. Really, what was that ending though, how dare you Jillian Maria, just as we thought we were safe, you do that?!?
Ok first, let me just say that horror is not my normal genre, especially ghost or haunted house type stories. I’ve read The Shining and plenty of Edgar Allan Poe, but they aren’t books I actively read regularly, nor are horror movies my typical choice, but I did see nearly every movie referenced in this book!
Cleo and a bunch of friends get together in a rented house to make her latest horror script into a movie, problem is, a massive snowstorm strands them there. To make it worse, there’s some ghastly shenanigans happening in the screen of Cleo’s camcorder that only gets weirder and weirder. As the storm rages, arguments arise and spooky sh*t starts affecting the friends, some end up missing, others…
The structure of this book was quite interesting, as it’s about a group of friends making a horror movie and ends up in a haunted house. That in itself isn’t all that groundbreaking, but each chapter starts with a small screenplay-esque epithet that relates to either the scene or emotion bound to the chapter. I liked that, then sometimes throughout the chapter, we get an almost 4th wall-breaking insert from our POV Cleo (who is the videographer/script writer of the horror film) in screenplay style. Such as SHOT: camera pans to see ghost (this is not a true example as I don’t want to spoil the fun of these). It was a fun little tactic that immersed me further into Cleo’s 1st POV perspective.
I also thought it was a smart move by the author to not waste time in introducing the ghost. Cleo sees something within hours of being in this house she didn’t even want to be at (there is a lot of baggage Cleo brings that is slowly revealed throughout the book relating to her making movies) and I think that was the way to go. She sees it, but then the others start to see stuff really early on, which framed the plot great here because it happens while they are filming, so these characters aren’t exactly sure if that was real or if it was the “actors” doing things. Smart. And even though I’m not huge on horror, I felt the tension in these scenes as Maria paints with an eerie brush (book pun as paintings are a plot point!).
Cleo is a big mess of a character and I’m all for it. She’s full of backstory but she’s awkward as sin, especially since the actress hired to play the titular ghost of their movie was her first girl crush in her freshman year of high school. Noah, Cleo’s cousin and director, is a fun foil to Cleo, always coming up with silly nicknames like Cleorama and such. He’s the logical and practical one of the group. Then there is the stereotypical ghost know-it-all and then a skeptic, the tropey characters who bicker. Then the horny couple. And finally Isobel, Cleo’s crush who actually spends the whole book flirting with our awkward POV and being sort of a proxy info dumpee (but she also balances Cleo’s baggage excellently). This group is awesome and they play their roles perfectly for this story.
Before I get into my final thoughts on the horror part of this story, I do want to say that I did feel a bit old dadmode here because a couple of these characters high school 16-18 years old (including Cleo) and I was wondering why their parents let them sleep over at this random house in the middle of giant snowstorm and nowhere ha. Ok, dadmode turned off.
There are a lot of tropes here, and boy they be trope-ing. But honestly, I had a ton of fun with them. Sure we have the snowstorm stranding these characters in a mysterious house with a checkered past, a ghostly sighting and/or sounds, one character who is a font of ghost/seance lore, sexual temptation, etc. But I will say that there is a lot of creepiness here that I wasn’t expecting, especially toward the end. Sure the ghost’s backstory hits the usual beats, Maria challenges us in the lead up to the climax by tapping our emotional cores, namely due to Cleo’s backstory and how it tragically almost mimics the ghost’s. And then she pulls the rug out from under us by springing a reveal (which I saw coming), but not just any ole reveal, something far weirder and creepier. AND THEN, Maria does something else that goes back to that well of emotions, ending on a banger last line that could be a total toss up, leaving the reader to decide if Cleo’s ending will be a happy one or one like the last scene in the movie Carrie. Honestly, the last sixty pages or so, absolutely riveting stuff.
I was talking to a good writer friend who is also reading this book and he agreed with my assessment, A Colder Home is just plain popcorn fun. It’s not going to forge new horror territory, and nor does it have to. This was just a damn fun book and if horror, ghosts, and/or haunted house stories are your thing, then do yourself a favor and pick up A Colder Home, which releases on February 10, 2026.
*I received an advanced copy from the author in exchange for an honest review
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