Winter Rain is family drama with a touch of the supernatural.

The story begins with a very mysterious, highly visual narrative that throws you into the narrator’s first person perspective and immerses you in Tiergan’s feelings. Even though it’s first person, a lot is hidden from the reader, as Tiergan doesn’t take time to "explain" things to you—it feels like you’re in his head, along for the ride, rather than him sitting you down and telling you a story. This makes everything feel immediate and urgent.

The author reveals more things as the story goes on, and it’s enough to keep the reader from from getting lost and fed up with confusion, while still leaving plenty to speculate about and look forward to. It’s a great balance between character and plot.

Each segment is fairly short, but the author updates frequently enough that he feeds you the story in tantalizing bits, in true serial fashion. Every time a segment ends I’m filled with questions and guesses about the characters, their lives, and where the story is going. I always look forward to more.

The narrative is in the present tense, which can be a little jarring if you’re not used to it. But the prose is clear and it quickly becomes second nature.

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Help us improve!  Register or log in to rate this review.

Caveat:  Winter Rain is a serial novel, still regularly updated.  Review is subject to change based on further installments.

I don’t usually care for present tense.  In fact, I try to stay away from it if I possibly can.

It wasn’t until [more . . .]

First of all, I have to say that Chris Poirier has accomplished something I thought was absolutely impossible: a story in present tense that is actually fun to read. After the first couple of episodes, I completely forgot that I was reading present tense, and it never once threw me out of the prose. Amazing? Absolutely.

[more . . .]

As far as I’m concerned, Chris’s choice of update length was golden. There is not a cliffhanger every chapter, there’s a cliffhanger nearly every update (with roughly 10 updates per chapter).

The first few posts are amateurish and blocky, but the prose smooths out surprisingly quickly. Before the end of the [more . . .]

"Winter Rain" is a well-constructed thrill-ride.  Written in the rarely-used, often ill-used, present tense, the writer (Chris Poirer) makes it work:  because it puts you into the action, following the dynamic and aggressive life of a young werewolf.

It suits the instinctual nature of these wolves, who run as much on [more . . .]