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Strange Matter #8
Frozen Dinners
Max is trapped.
A freak snowstorm has him sealed in his uncle's mountain cabin, along with his brother Mark and sister Teresa. But Uncle Shoe is missing, and no one's coming to rescue them. Should they take their chances and hike down the mountain to safety?
Max doesn't think so, especially not since he found those huge tracks in the snow. Then there's that inhuman howling coming from the woods.
Now barricaded behind the cabin door, Max thinks he knows what it might be. He's found some old reports that the Abominable Snowman, the yeti, was sighted there fifty years earlier. Has it returned?
The kids aren't taking any chances. They've boarded up the cabin, because as much as they want to get out . . .
Something else wants in.
A freak snowstorm has him sealed in his uncle's mountain cabin, along with his brother Mark and sister Teresa. But Uncle Shoe is missing, and no one's coming to rescue them. Should they take their chances and hike down the mountain to safety?
Max doesn't think so, especially not since he found those huge tracks in the snow. Then there's that inhuman howling coming from the woods.
Now barricaded behind the cabin door, Max thinks he knows what it might be. He's found some old reports that the Abominable Snowman, the yeti, was sighted there fifty years earlier. Has it returned?
The kids aren't taking any chances. They've boarded up the cabin, because as much as they want to get out . . .
Something else wants in.
Audio CD
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 3, 2026
Featuring the sibling trio from The Headless Rider (a later book in the series), this Strange Matter is another hit from the series. Jumping right into this—the book has a clear ramp up, with a good percent of the book building up the yetis and then the remainder chunk being the siege of said beings. It’s organized chaos and I had a lot of fun with it, plus the climax is just killer with some great high points. The tone of the story feels a bit different than other Strange Matters, and I don’t know if that’s the authors’ consequence (perhaps one of the duo had more leverage on this one than usual?) or just something they were going for, but I found it good. The characters are decent, the action/chaos sequences are intense, and I liked the setting of this one, being somewhere (but not far) outside of Fairfield and in the mountains. But, there’s a few things holding this back. The story was a little too linear for my liking; it didn’t differ from my expectations of where it was headed, as it is literally “yetis try and get to you in this isolated home up in the mountains, chaos ensues” and not much else until the very end. It’s not bad nor unentertaining—and I was never bored—but I yearned for a twist or a change up that brought something more to the straightforward direction of it all. The ending also tries to add some layers to what the yetis are and not only is it a little to rushed but also it feels like a pointless add-on. It’s unnecessary is all. Overall, 8.5/10. It’s great, being fun snow monster madness with some awesome sequences and moments, but was too linear and the ending was doing too much in a way I wasn’t completely jiving with (plus the random ass vanishing scene right before lol). Update on me and my wife, Strange Matter: we’re tryna adopt this kid named “Rilo Buru.” Sounds a bit familar… bah.
April 28, 2026
I think that this is one of the harder books for me to place in the strange matter series as I have one big gripe, yet the rest is pretty solid. The good aspects of this book have a lot to do with characters and atmosphere. The siblings play off of each other well, written in a manner where they do feel like siblings but none are annoying. Most of the book is just these three characters so the fact they got them right really helps the reader remain engaged. The atmosphere of being stuck in a mountain cabin during snow storms is pretty creepy. The isolation and the desperate actions to reinforce the house keeps up the intensity, leaving very little downtime from beginning to end.
Where the book really struggles is the nonsensical nature of the yetis depicted. Having tons and tons of yetis just felt a little strange, as I was reading I felt very confused with about every aspect of the yeti monsters. Their actions, numbers, motives were all quite perplexing. I knew when the main character began to question the things that were happening we would get a big lore dump at the end, which was true. Essentially the yetis are ghosts who appear with a massive storm. I felt even this was a bit silly as nothing really set up this storm being so special, by all intensive purposes the storm seemed like a pretty average blizzard a mountain would experience. Also the notion that this ghost storm hasn’t happened at all in 50 years is a bit ridiculous as well, no explanation given for why the storm brews up.
Finally I find it silly just how aggressive the yetis are, like they are just pure murder zombies. Maybe if we saw what the yetis wanted to do to the characters beyond just eating them would have been nice. This is especially the case given that the yetis are ghosts of dead miners. I think it would have been cool if the Yetis were gathering up humans to do some kind of ritual, in order to make ghosts for the storm. Anything like this would have made the yetis more elaborate beyond just ghosts that want to hurt you.
Where the book really struggles is the nonsensical nature of the yetis depicted. Having tons and tons of yetis just felt a little strange, as I was reading I felt very confused with about every aspect of the yeti monsters. Their actions, numbers, motives were all quite perplexing. I knew when the main character began to question the things that were happening we would get a big lore dump at the end, which was true. Essentially the yetis are ghosts who appear with a massive storm. I felt even this was a bit silly as nothing really set up this storm being so special, by all intensive purposes the storm seemed like a pretty average blizzard a mountain would experience. Also the notion that this ghost storm hasn’t happened at all in 50 years is a bit ridiculous as well, no explanation given for why the storm brews up.
Finally I find it silly just how aggressive the yetis are, like they are just pure murder zombies. Maybe if we saw what the yetis wanted to do to the characters beyond just eating them would have been nice. This is especially the case given that the yetis are ghosts of dead miners. I think it would have been cool if the Yetis were gathering up humans to do some kind of ritual, in order to make ghosts for the storm. Anything like this would have made the yetis more elaborate beyond just ghosts that want to hurt you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2023
Great story! These are always a fun quick read. Naturally since they are so short it is hard to give it more than 3 stars. It’s fast paced and filled with action. So if you want something easy, fast and filled with Yetis then this is worth a shot!
September 9, 2025
Well, it’s about time, huh? It’s time to start another ripoff round and we’re doing it a bit late this time. Sorry, been caught up in some other things but now I am ready to do this again. Who knows if I’ll be able to do a 3rd one of these in the fall like i want to but we’ll see.
To reward myself, I started on Strange Matter instead of using the wheel and got this one. It’s easy to explain: We follow Max and his siblings Mark and Teresa as they visit their Uncle Shoe (a nickname) who lives in the mountains near Fairfield. Shoe soon heads out to get some stuff but a blizzard hits, preventing him from returning and trapping the kids in his cabin.
Then of course they discover the abominable snow…or should I say, snowmen? So they gotta deal with those. This one was fairly solid. It’s simple and is just another good Strange Matter book that doesn’t shake things up too much. They actually first think this is a bigfoot case and it’s not as good as that bigfoot one but it is fun.
Mark is basic but he has some nice traits. I mostly like the sibling dynamic. It’s balanced as they can be annoying but step up to the plate. We get good small moments that show how this is escalating. There’s nothing deep, no big arc but things like Teresa not going back to her phone at the end shows some slight growth.
It’s mostly an intense and action packed ride. It starts fairly quickly and doesn’t let up. It’s a fun page turner that doesn't get too dizzying like a few of these can get. It doesn’t have that little something extra to make it super special but it doesn’t have much to complain about.
However, near the end they add lore to the creatures and that was a bit off to me. What we get is a cool idea but not well explained and was just sort of weird and the resolution is abrupt, leading the ending to feel a bit flat. It’s not bad, just a bit rushed and odd. That docks points but overall this is a rock solid one.
If this were a lesser series it would rank higher so that just shows how good these are. Doesn’t reach big heights but is a fun ride. I like stories of this nature and this is a good one.
And yeah that’s about. It’s a good time to read some Strange Matter given the authors are planning reprints. Yes, really. I’ll post the evidence on twitter/bluesky but yeah, even contacted Marty Engle to confirm that so that’s something to be hyped about.
Speaking of hype, next we are going with Shivers for one that seems fun. But that will later as next, I got a Monster Blood graphic novel to look at. See ya then.
To reward myself, I started on Strange Matter instead of using the wheel and got this one. It’s easy to explain: We follow Max and his siblings Mark and Teresa as they visit their Uncle Shoe (a nickname) who lives in the mountains near Fairfield. Shoe soon heads out to get some stuff but a blizzard hits, preventing him from returning and trapping the kids in his cabin.
Then of course they discover the abominable snow…or should I say, snowmen? So they gotta deal with those. This one was fairly solid. It’s simple and is just another good Strange Matter book that doesn’t shake things up too much. They actually first think this is a bigfoot case and it’s not as good as that bigfoot one but it is fun.
Mark is basic but he has some nice traits. I mostly like the sibling dynamic. It’s balanced as they can be annoying but step up to the plate. We get good small moments that show how this is escalating. There’s nothing deep, no big arc but things like Teresa not going back to her phone at the end shows some slight growth.
It’s mostly an intense and action packed ride. It starts fairly quickly and doesn’t let up. It’s a fun page turner that doesn't get too dizzying like a few of these can get. It doesn’t have that little something extra to make it super special but it doesn’t have much to complain about.
However, near the end they add lore to the creatures and that was a bit off to me. What we get is a cool idea but not well explained and was just sort of weird and the resolution is abrupt, leading the ending to feel a bit flat. It’s not bad, just a bit rushed and odd. That docks points but overall this is a rock solid one.
If this were a lesser series it would rank higher so that just shows how good these are. Doesn’t reach big heights but is a fun ride. I like stories of this nature and this is a good one.
And yeah that’s about. It’s a good time to read some Strange Matter given the authors are planning reprints. Yes, really. I’ll post the evidence on twitter/bluesky but yeah, even contacted Marty Engle to confirm that so that’s something to be hyped about.
Speaking of hype, next we are going with Shivers for one that seems fun. But that will later as next, I got a Monster Blood graphic novel to look at. See ya then.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews