Windigo Thrall by Cate Culpepper

From the blurb:

“The Windigo has a heart of ice.” 

The legends of an ancient cannibal demon might have been enthralling, but they were folklore. To Jo and Becca, investigating reports of a Windigo is a lively scholarly exercise, and for Grady and Elena, it means a weekend at an idyllic mountain retreat. Only Pat and Maggie can draw on their Native roots to recognize a monster out of Algonquin myth, but only if they unlock the mystery of their shared past. Throw six volatile personalities into a snowbound cabin, beset by a blizzard, and stalked by a monster, and there’s no assurance they’ll survive the night with their sanity intact—or their lives.

Review:

There's nothing like an ancient cannibal demon to shake you to your core.  Make sure you are somewhere warm and safe when you read this.  Probably not best consumed in an isolated cabin in the middle of winter.

There's something perfect about a powerful myth that's tied to the land and its people.  There's also something irresistible about some good ol' fashion horror tropes.  Culpepper does both very well in Windigo Thrall, focusing on the psychological interplay between characters to manifest the monster - the Windigo - and other spiritual forces.

I enjoyed the stories of the six different women and their relationships.  I think my favourite character out of all of them is probably Pat, the Native American Park Ranger. She's stoic, but also has a rich history and I loved her and Maggie's story arcs the most.

The romance elements of this story are fascinating because there are three romances going on at once, two established (Grady and Elana, Jo and Becca) and one new (Pat and Maggie).  Culpepper masterfully juggles these three, making sure we spend time with each character and explore the dynamics of all three relationships as well as the non-romantic relationships that contribute to the volatile situation inside the cabin.

I would have loved for this book to have gone slightly more down the horror route.  Perhaps I'm accustomed to coming out of a good horror novel feeling kind of obliterated.  However, I recognise that the romantic happy ending would have been very difficult under such circumstances.

Lots of Stephen King references and influences which were really cool.

All in all, I enjoyed my time locked away with these six women in an isolated cabin being stalked by a cannibal demon.

More information:

Title: The Windigo Thrall
Author: Cate Culpepper
Length: Novel (64k)
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Publishing Date: Jan 2014
Type: f/f
Genre: Romance/Paranormal/Horror