A Cold Place for Dying - Two Chilly Novellas in One
I received a limited edition, signed copy of this book in the Nightworms November 2021 subscription box. The cover had me hooked, and it was a perfect read for the impending cold weather outside. Trigger warning for abuse, rape, and kidnapping.
The main story, A Cold Place for Dying was an interesting concept. A man, Joe, goes out hunting, runs into a hysterical woman claiming to be escaping a kidnapper. Then the pursuer arrives too and Joe is unsure of which party to believe, as their stories are vastly different. It was extremely fast-paced and felt a bit more scary because it was a situation that one could imagine might actually happen.
I think Kristopher Triana tried to write these characters with compassion, but I felt a little bit put off as a female. It struck me as conveying something that leaned heavily on the idea that people shouldn't necessarily believe all women, but rather should treat each case carefully and with as much compassion as possible. Objectively, this statement should be fine. I do believe in fairness in judging cases of abuse, rape, and mental illness, but this felt dangerously close to being a negative commentary on the 'believe women' and 'me too' movements.
The second story was The Love Nest and it was another story that felt a bit male-gazed focused, despite there being a female who shared at least half of the same story with the male character. She was painted as weak and reliant on men with no real personality and only an appealing body to speak of. It drew me in a bit more than the first story, to be fair. However, I felt the results of the ending were somewhat questionable as well.
You know, I have loved other works by Kristopher Triana. He is honestly a really great writer who knows how to capture attention and keep you fascinated. I just didn't quite like this book as much as I thought I would, despite being written well enough to devour in a short period of time.
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