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These novels either take place during winter, or are set in a location that’s often cold and dreary. If you’re looking for an atmospheric book to read while drinking hot cocoa by a fire, then these are your books!

Books Set In Snowy Places

The Afterlife Of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand

Young Adult Retelling

On Christmas Eve five years ago, seventeen-year-old Holly Chase was visited by three Ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she’d become. They tried to convince her to mend her ways. She didn’t. And then she died.

Now she’s stuck working for the top-secret company Project Scrooge—as their latest Ghost of Christmas Past. So far, Holly’s afterlife has been miserable. But this year’s Scrooge is different. This year’s Scrooge might change everything . . .

Why I recommend it: It's a Christmas book! It's also a unique spin on A Christmas Carol. Holly starts out as an insufferable person, but she changes slowly and believably over the course of the novel. I like the tension that's created by Holly sneaking around with the Scrooge. Her boss is going to find out. I wanted to know what would happen when the Ghost of Christmas Past is caught dating the Scrooge. I had a good time with this one. Put it on your holiday reading list. (It would make a great Christmas gift for the bookworm in your life.)

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Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia Of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Adult Fantasy

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.

Why I recommend it: I know the cover doesn't look snowy, but I promise it's set in a far-north fantasy place. There's snow!

The book has cozy vibes like a small town rom-com, but there's still danger because the faeries are unpredictably violent. It's not always a light, whimsical story. However, it's not a stressful story either. That's probably because it's written like a diary. You know that Emily and Wendell are alive and safe because they're writing diary entries about the scary stuff they experienced. Dead people can't write. (I don't think . . .)

Speaking of Emily and Wendell, their banter is hilarious. They have big personalities and use their research to help humanity, even though they dislike people. I enjoyed reading about them.

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Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Adult Literary Fiction

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

 

Why I recommend it: It’s set during hockey season in Sweden. You can’t get more “snowy” than that. I’ve loved all of Fredrik Backman’s books. He has quickly become one of my all-time-favorite authors because he’s great at creating realistic characters with memorable personalities. Beartown is about the fallout in a small town after a star hockey player rapes a teenage girl. It’s heartbreakingly realistic, but it has enough humor, hope, and hockey to keep it from getting too bleak.

 

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A Darker Shade Of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Adult Fantasy

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.

 

Why I recommend it: On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a winter book, but when you read it, you’ll discover White London. And you’ll never forget White London. It’s a desolate parallel universe, covered in snow and ash and ruled by cold, evil siblings. The characters are awesome. The dialogue is sharp, smart, and funny, which is perfect because a few of the parallel Londons are depressing places! They’re vivid, though. They each have their own unique culture, language, history, and architecture. If you like fantasy or science fiction books, you need to read this one.

 

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Salt To The Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Young Adult Historical Fiction

While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers—the intended capacity was approximately 1,800—and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives.

Sepetys crafts four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks.

 

Why I recommend it: Reading this book made me feel physically cold. Like, shivery. The characters are on a ship in the Baltic Sea that’s supposed to take them to safety, but it sinks, plunging them into a freezing ocean that’s just as deadly as the war they’re fleeing. The fast-paced plot follows four young people who have been swept up in the tide of refugees trying to get out of Europe during WWII. I understand why so many readers adore this book. It has something in it for everybody. It’s well-researched historical fiction, so the facts appeal to history lovers like me. Adventure enthusiasts would enjoy the survival elements. There’s romance, danger, secrets, and characters who can’t be trusted. I highly recommend this book!

 

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The Smell Of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Young Adult Historical Fiction

Alaska, 1970. Being a teenager here isn’t like being a teenager anywhere else. Ruth has a secret that she can’t hide forever. Dora wonders if she can ever truly escape where she comes from, even when good luck strikes. Alyce is trying to reconcile her desire to dance with the life she’s always known on her family’s fishing boat. Hank and his brothers decide it’s safer to run away than to stay home—until one of them ends up in terrible danger.
 
Four very different lives are about to become entangled.

 

Why I recommend it: Look at that wintery cover! It's set in Alaska. It’s a story about connections and how small gestures can mean a lot. The characters and setting are well-developed. If you’re a wannabe writer who wants to learn how to make a setting come alive, you need to read this book. There’s a quote on the back cover from Eowyn Ivey that says “This book is Alaska,” and I fully believe that. There are beautiful descriptions of the landscape, but the setting goes deeper than that. The author shows the values and lifestyles of small-town people. She also shows the cultural differences between the white characters and the native characters. It all feels very authentic.

 

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Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Adult Historical Fiction

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Why I recommend it: It's set in Iceland and so atmospheric! The book is based on the true story of the last woman to be executed in Iceland. The plot is intense. Even though I knew the main character would eventually be killed, my heart was pounding while I read the final pages. To balance out the suspense of the plot, there are beautiful descriptions of Iceland's landscape and culture. This is a brutally gorgeous novel.

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Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Young Adult Historical Fiction

It's 1910. In a cabin north of the Arctic Circle, in a place murderously cold and desolate, Sig Andersson is alone. Except for the corpse of his father, frozen to death that morning when he fell through the ice on the lake.

The cabin is silent, so silent, and then there's a knock at the door. It's a stranger, and as his extraordinary story of gold dust and gold lust unwinds, Sig's thoughts turn more and more to his father's prized possession, a Colt revolver, hidden in the storeroom.

A revolver just waiting to be used . . . but should Sig use it?

Why I recommend it: It's a psychological thriller set in the Arctic Circle. That's not something you come across every day. This is a short, fast-paced book that I couldn't put down. The setting is cold, remote, and lonely. You get the sense that anything could go wrong at any time. It's also one of those books that's deceptively simple. On the surface, it's about a standoff between a fourteen-year-old boy and a cunning old man. Underneath, it's about gun violence. It's easy to pull the trigger, but could you live with the consequences?

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The Hunger by alma katsu

 Adult Historical Horror

Tamsen Donner must be a witch. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the pioneers to the brink of madness. They cannot escape the feeling that someone—or something—is stalking them. Whether it was a curse from the beautiful Tamsen, the choice to follow a disastrous experimental route West, or just plain bad luck—the 90 men, women, and children of the Donner Party are at the brink of one of the deadliest and most disastrous western adventures in American history.

While the ill-fated group struggles to survive in the treacherous mountain conditions—searing heat that turns the sand into bubbling stew; snows that freeze the oxen where they stand—evil begins to grow around them, and within them. As members of the party begin to disappear, they must ask themselves "What if there is something waiting in the mountains? Something disturbing and diseased . . . and very hungry?"

 

Why I recommend it: The horror genre can sometimes feel stale. There are tons of clichés that suck the scariness out of monsters. That’s why I’m thrilled whenever I come across a distinctive horror novel like The Hunger. I’ve never read anything like it. It takes the real-life history of the Donner Party and adds a terrifying supernatural element. It’s brave and creative. Perfect for history lovers or horror fans.

 

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Blankets By Craig Thompson

Adult Graphic Novel

Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith.

Why I recommend it: The illustrations. Look at that cover! It's snowy! I love the winter landscapes and the drawings of characters hanging out on freezing winter days. Even though this book focuses on a coming-of-age romance, it's not all light and fluffy. It's a quiet, powerful story about making connections and questioning your beliefs. This is one of my favorite graphic novels ever. It perfectly blends the sweet with the thought-provoking.

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What's your favorite book set in a snowy place?