Review: Hidden in Snow (Viveca Sten)

 

Snow. Cold. Mountains. Darkness.

You find these things a lot in Nordic Noir. And while Viveca Sten isn't usually included in lists of Swedish Nordic Noir writers, this book is probably one of her "noir-iest" yet. I had to sit with it for a few days after finishing it and let things process before I could put my thoughts down. Set in midwinter, in the leadup to Christmas, Hidden in Snow is the story of a young girl who disappears after a party and is later found dead on a ski lift in a mountain resort area. But it's so much more than that: this is about what happens to her family and town in the aftermath of that discovery.

Update to Currently Reading

 Time for an update to the books I'm currently reading. Cemetery Boys (by Aiden Thomas, readng for the Read Harder challenge); Dune (by Frank Herbert); Hidden in Snow (by Viveca Sten, reading for the Cloak and Dagger challenge); and Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder (by Joanne Fluke, reading for the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge).

Currently Reading (Challenge Books)

Cloak and Dagger: Hidden in Snow (Viveca Sten, 12/1/2022) - 4%
Cruisin' Through the Cozies: Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder (Joanne Fluke, 2/23/2021) - 7%
Read Harder: Cemetery Boys (Aiden Thomas, 9/1/2020) - 5%

Read Harder Challenge 2023

I'll admit: I really like genre fiction. But I'll be the first to tell you, it's not always the most challenging stuff out there. So to up my reading a little, I've decided to do Book Riot's Read Harder challenge this year. It's only 24 books, maybe two a month, but the books selected have to meet certain criteria. Most of those are books I probably wouldn't normally read. For example, the first listed criteria is it has to be a book by a trans author about a trans character. I've chosen Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas. It's a book I've actually had for a while (audio), but I've never finished it. This time I will. It's not that I don't like the book. In fact, I do like the story of a Latine transgender person dealing with spirits and his (not always supportive) family very much. I just keep getting distracted by easier reads. It's time to fix that and get the book done. An hour a day, and I'll have it finished in two weeks.

2023 Reading Challenges

I've started looking for 2023 reading challenges, and I've found a couple that appeal to me. I believe I'll be doing the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge, hosted at Carol's Notebook, and Cruisin' Through the Cozies at Socrates' Book Reviews. These will be the first time I've done any challenges since I switched to audio and ebook as my preferred formats. Should be interesting! I realize they're both mystery challenges, but that is my favorite genre these days, so I think it will work for me. Since they're similar genres, I won't count the same book for both challenges. Both run from Janury 1 to December 31 of 2023.

For Cloak and Dagger, I intend to try the Inspector level (26-35 books). i figure that will be about half the books I plan on reading in 2023, maybe a little less. Cruisin' Through the Cozies, I plan on going for the first level (Snoop). I'm choosing option B, one cozy from each listed subgenre (culinary, animal, crafting, paranormal, outside USA, career-based, holiday, travel, historical, and reader's choice). If anyone has a recommendation for another challenge (not mystery), let me know in the comments and I'll take a look at it.

Also, today I started the audiobook version of Dune (Frank Herbert, Macmillan Audio). I must be the last American in my generation reading this book. I'm in the process of disconnecting from Goodreads and moving to StoryGraph, so if you're interested you can follow me there.

I hope everyone had some good holidays, and I'm looking forward to 2023!