This book put me in the craziest reading slump. Strap in, there’s a lot that I want to say about Susan White’s Such a Winter’s Day. Lets start with the good parts. It’s a well written book, it utilizes multiple povs and has all of the storylines connect when it’s appropriate. The characters feel very real, they feel very grounded, they all live normal and very believable lives. I liked the insight that this book gives, and it’s really a book that made me think about a lot of things. There’s a lot of commentary about homeless people and how our attitudes towards them can change. I would say that’s my main takeaway from this book, just treating others with kindness and compassion. Not everyone makes all of the right choices in life, and the least that we can do is help people. Help people to heal, to learn, to grow, and to get their lives back on track. All of the characters take this theme and express it in their different ways, and I think that’s a very good strength for this book. A lot of people have that outlook on homeless people, like Miriam and Ted in this book, that they’re all alcoholics, that they’re all bad news. But then, some, like Gloria and Liam actually take the time to value them as a person. So that’s what I liked most about this book, and what I was most interested in reading about.

Now, some of the downsides for me, and also what made it hard to read was actually the multiple povs. There are a lot of time skips, we see Hank’s life since the late 1950-2000s and all of this is done by flashbacks. Getting into the actual story was really had for me, I’m not too used to this nonlinear storytelling, with all of the time skips and pov changes. It was quite jarring, but I really just had to stay focused and commit. This put me into my reading slump. It wasn’t good. There are also a lot of characters, I feel like sometimes the story couldn’t properly keep up with them. It’s funny because a lot of the characters were well done, but then some that got their own povs just felt like names being thrown around. Characters just pop in whenever the story needs them to, rather than them being actual solid characters that properly have a hand in the main storyline. When I started reading this, I feared that there were too many characters and not enough time or story to properly develop each. And I was right.

Another thing, I don’t feel like I’m the target audience for this specific book. With Digitally Lit books I feel that I’m either reading adult books that are too high for my age level, or children’s books that are too low. This one is the former. This is very much an adult’s book. Plus, I don’t think this book is really intended for casual fun summer reading. Its a little story that’s meant to break you into pieces, to give some social commentary on the world, and break you into little pieces. I actually expected this book to be sadder. But it wasn’t. Instead of being an ultra sad story it’s credited as being “a moving exploration of human rights and justice, and the lasting power of friendship” on the back of the book.

This book also touches on a lot of nostalgia from the sixties and onward? It’s a bit hard for a 17yr old girl like me to get through, the only thing that really helps me is that I live in Saint John. I’m familiar with the streets and the store names that are mentioned so heavily in this book. Location stuff that still exists today, and that I live within still holds up well for me, but I can see how someone who’s not familiar with the geography of Saint John would be a little lost. I find myself more lost in the nostalgia that’s heavily mentioned in the flashbacks.

I guess the question is… is it worth it? I think yeah, Such a Winter’s Day is a good book if you know what you’re in for. I hope my review can offer some insight into what kind of book it is, it might not have really been the book for me, but you know… others would enjoy it more than I did.

❄️ Book review ❄️

Such A Winter’s Day by Susan White was published by Acorn Press and given to me for free by Digitally Lit.

I really enjoyed this book but it definitely wasn’t what I imagined it to be when I picked it up. This book, like most of Susan White’s books, is very atmospheric. You can picture yourself in the story with the characters and feel yourself there.

I really liked learning about all the different characters and how they all came together in the end. However I feel like at times some characters names were just thrown in there and were underdeveloped and there was just too many povs to keep up with. I also think that utilizing the jumping timeline (some of the story is told in flashbacks, looking at Hank’s life from the 1950-2000) was a solid choice that helps readers understand how Hank got to where he is today. It was quite confusing at first but eventually made sense.

I felt like I needed to be in the mood for this book and couldn’t digest a whole lot of it at a time. I also felt like the ending was a tad bit rushed but overall a good end to the story. I really enjoyed the themes of resilience and found family in this book.

All in all, I would recommend this book for a more mature/adult audience. It definitely isn’t for everyone but this story has a very strong sense of place and emotional depth that shows the real life struggles of homelessness and other important topics. I give this book 3.75/5 stars!

Here is my favourite quote: “It’s the yin and the yang. The joys and the sorrows, the dark and the light. It’s just… life.