I found myself enjoying snow for what it was from the get go. It was a pretty quick read for me with a quick pace and some really intriguing monsters. However, the story did lack in character development and the plot was pretty obvious.
So Snow follows Todd and Kate as they try to survive during a storm where monsters that live in the snow or are the snow (this is ambiguous throughout) are attacking and killing everyone in the town of Woodson, Iowa. The pacing was really quick, getting you launched into the action right from the get go with Kate and Todd leaving the airport and driving into the blizzard. Clearly a bad idea, but ok.
My favorite part of this book was definitely the monsters. They are these incorporeal snow creatures with these scythe like hands. For some reason in my head I saw them as slivers from the card game Magic the Gathering. Anyways, the monsters use their scythe like hands to puncture a persons back and pull themselves in, taking over their bodies. When the persons head is shot off, then the snow creatures escape. But if they go into a child, something weird happens and the child’s face melts away. Definitely creepy, especially when Todd is in the woods and sees a whole bunch of them.
While I found the concept of these monsters to be intriguing and a bit scary, I really wanted to know more about them. Where did they come from? Were they aliens or some new type of creature? Why didn’t they react well with children? And what happened with the ending? ( more on that later)
So, for the others problems I had with this novel. First, I didn’t really find myself getting attached to any of these characters. This probably had something to do with the fact that I got attached to Fred and he was the first to die. I didn’t know who was going to die and so I didn’t grow too attached to them.
And the ending. What happened there? I had several problems. First, the military coming to the rescue at the end. Seemed kind of obvious that this would happen. I kept thinking of Stephen Kings the Mist. It was too easy of a finish for me. And what exactly did the military do to scare off the snow monsters? It seemed like they just rolled up and the monsters got scared and left. Too easy for me. Also, nothing happened between Kate and Todd. Kate went back to her fiancé and I think Todd was going to go back to his ex. No, no, no. That just ruined whatever characterization I was getting for them.
Overall, the book was a good read but I probably wouldn’t read it again.
Kristopher L. Campa 
That Spectral Sliver does look very appropriate for them.
Maybe when the military came, they’d already struck other towns successfully, so the monsters were told to retreat by whatever was beyond the crazy storm?
Now I’m going to have Sliver images stuck in my head when I think of the snow monsters. That’s one of my favorite Magic decks btw.
I actually didn’t mind that Kate and Todd weren’t obviously together at the end. I think Malfi layered enough about their relationships in the book that leaving it open in the end makes you wonder if they will eventually get together. Maybe there will be a sequel? I don’t think Todd is getting back with his wife; she was just trying to show concern for someone who she used to share her life with that almost died, while feeling awkward about it because of all the complexities of what happened. Or maybe not, who knows? 🙂
I actually think T&K might end up together. If nothing else, Kate needs to ditch that fiance now that she’s seen real danger in life; life’s too short to stay with someone you don’t really love.
I have to say I disagree with the characters; I got very attached to Kate and Shawna in particular, which made Shawna’s death really devastating. Todd was mildly annoying and hard to connect with, but I respected his love for his son and that as his driving motivation. Kate’s fiance stuff was a little more interesting.
Shawna was my favorite character, I was pretty miffed that she didn’t survive. Fred and Nan both seemed to me like they were set up to be fodder for the monsters from the get go – there was almost no introduction for them, and hardly any scenes from their POV. But they were certainly the nicest of the group.
I didn’t really get attached to any of the characters either, but I was thrown off when Kate went her way and Todd’s ex showed up. But I didn’t connect with them enough to care one way or the other. All the characters read a bit like stock characters to me.
The ending actually gave me hope for my own book. In the end the characters didn’t actually accomplish anything, they just survived and the cavalry saved the day. The enemy wasn’t defeated. There wasn’t much for closure. Maybe survival is an accomplishment enough. Maybe. I hope.
The ending actually gave me hope for my own novel. In the end the characters didn’t really accomplish anything other than survive. They just waited for the Calvary to arrive. They didn’t defeat the monster or save the day. Maybe survival is accomplishment enough. Maybe. I hope.