The Winter People was my first Jennifer McMahon book. I wanted to read it because the premise sounded pretty good, I like a spooky ghost story (if it's well written), and from what I've heard McMahon has a popular following. 
 So this was an "in between" book for me, meaning that I neither loved nor hated it. The Winter People enters as a ghost/paranormal story, but for many readers it may not end with what you had wanted. I'm in that latter half, and although I wasn't completely disappointed in the plot's direction, I had hoped for something different. The success of a story like this hinges on the final result because that is the set up. Most of the book is a lead-in to the mystery. Many good hints were placed along the way that kept me guessing, and I really liked how the story was revealed by alternating the present with the past in 1908. Too much detail would spoil the end, but I may have liked the finale far more if I could have seen the viewpoint of the "aberration" that haunts the little town in Vermont. It seems we are supposed to care for this visitor from the other side. I wanted to, but just couldn't find its feelings in the pages.