7 Winters Alone

by David Irons

New York City: 1986. After a paranormal electrical storm, Kathryn Baxter finds herself the sole survivor of a mass disappearance. Living in a state of paranoia and isolation, basic survival and gnawing fear are the only things she is left with. The fear of being alone, of the past… of the thing she created in her old life … a thing, which might not be dead…

Eventually, Kathryn receives a radio message mysteriously broadcast from an old house with a strange secret at its epicenter: a machine that gives her the power to communicate with the dead.

Little does she know that the machine can conjure something that's waiting to feed off her fears, that can turn her worst nightmares into real-life entities.

Forced into a situation she can't stop. Trapped in an empty world with an evil supernatural presence unleashed.

Where would you run?

Where would you hide?

If you were haunted, for Seven Winters Alone.

Genres: Horror

327 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published October 31, 2021

About the author

David Irons was the kid who went to his room to watch and read horror when his relatives came round. It paid off. When he left his room, he became an award-winning filmmaker and writer living on the south coast of England. His films, colourful and stylish in design, have won awards at the Cambridge Film festival, Las Vegas VIFF festival, and LA Independent Festival for cinematography, editing, writing, and directing. '7 Winters Alone' - a sci-fi, horror short - was a winner in David Lynch's 2014 Short Film Competition.

In 2019 David had his first novel, Night Waves, published, followed by Night Creepers, Polybius, and The Bloody Tracks of Bigfoot in 2020 - 2021 from Severed Press. Since then, David has become a Splatterpunk award-nominated writer for his '80s summer camp slasher, 'Don't Go To Wheelchair Camp.'

The moral of this story is to be weird and stay in your room. It pays off in the end.

Reviews

[Brian G Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

David Irons has once again proved that he is an author you can always rely on publishing great work! Weaving a haunting world of horror, Irons puts the reader into the eyes of Viss the cat and Kathryn, both surviving amidst the hallowed silence of a world of terror. This was a fantastic story that left my eyes wide towards the end. Highly recommended!

[Damien Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very second you put a cat on the cover of a horror novel, I’m in; then you make the woman on the front look like Catherine Mary Stewart in Night of the Comet, I’m double in. The Night of the Comet feel didn’t stop at the cover; David Irons has written a book that’s just about as close to a modern version of that movie as well ever get. Make no mistakes, this isn’t all fun 80’s romp, the fun is a huge part of the book(that ending though!!!) but there’s some really tender character moments at play here. The book keeps a nice pace, the reader is presented with new information over the course of the book making every chapter feel heavy and important; this is a detail that is heavily utilized with the main character, Katherine…. Wait…. Her sisters name is Samantha… so maybe there are even MORE Night of the Comet Easter eggs. I had a blast reading this, my first and definitely not last read from Irons. K thx.

[Brian G Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Irons has once again proved that he is an author you can always rely on publishing great work! Weaving a haunting world of horror, Irons puts the reader into the eyes of Viss the cat and Kathryn, both surviving amidst the hallowed silence of a world of terror. This was a fantastic story that left my eyes wide towards the end. Highly recommended!

[Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the mash-up of 80s elements. I enjoyed reflecting on the movies this story possibly drew its inspiration from. But I had a big drawback. I wished I could've endeared myself to Kathryn, the heroine. To me, Kathryn was an unlikeable bully with no care for anyone but herself, okay, and the adorable cat. She went through tragedies in her young life and, from my p.o.v. had intense, unaddressed mental issues. Still, I was left with a poor impression that I could not shake. She constantly reflected on her past, but I never felt sincere regret for her bullying actions, only for the one moment when she failed Samantha.

I still love a good apocalyptic tale. I got chills with the mystery of the Black House. The trials and scares Kathryn went through were very inventive and frightening, and the cemetery scenes killed me. I loved the Cowboy.

But then Kathryn left the toy factory, and I think it went off the rails. I still appreciated that Kathryn acknowledged she had the perfect chance to end it sooner, but …

The writing was mostly fun, and it made sure we knew it was the 1980s. But it veered into purple prose, and I felt myself saying, "Get on with it, I know Kathryn banged her head again!" Based on different factors, the amount of bodily harm she went through without dropping dead felt unrealistic. (Yes, I do know the entire story is wild fiction! But worlds have rules and she was a human teenager.) Then again, this wouldn't be a bombastic 80s story without an extreme action hero.

[Cassandra Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about this on Podcasting After Dark. If you like apocalyptic horror this is something original. The whole story is cut up in serialized chapters that are super short and easily digestible – most chapters only last a page! It makes the book a very easy read. You could almost read a chapter a day and consume the story that way. It makes me wonder if this was a story intended for another platform like Inkett? If you like cats, haunted houses, and end of the world storytelling, you should give this a try. It might not be for everyone, but its fun.

[Petey Mcwilliams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different take on apocalyptic horror what becomes a character study of a traumatized heavy metal girl dealing with a dead world ultimately becomes a very personal story. The lead character is a mix of an over the top 80s Bruce Campbell and Bruce Willis, someone trying to hold it together, but breaks down in believable ways in an unbelievable scenario. I think the author tried to write some of this with a fifties hard boiled prose style which kind of works. Worth a read as its very easy to read.

[Rachel Barclay · Rating 5 out of 5]

7 Winters Alone is an 80s set supernatural thriller that I quite frankly struggled to put down. This is the kind of novel you could imagine being very easily made in to a movie. Its got everything, scares, the paranormal, the apocalypse and a brave woman and her cat. Grab this and give it a go, you wont be disappointed!

[Hayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really, REALLY wanted to like this one more than I do, but my reviews are honest and my own personal opinion. I will also share the fate of the cat, which might be a spoiler for you. So consider this your advance warning.


I think my expectations were ultimately too high because of how much I LOVED Graveyard Billy. This book isn’t similar. First off, the cat is not a main character, which is okay but not what I was led to expect. Secondly, this story is dark - Like really dark. There are multiple rapey scenes (that don’t really advance the plot or have any reason to be there), mention of suicide, guilt and hopelessness, and strong gorey horror descriptive writing. I think it’s too much for the YA genre (maybe too much for me, too). And nothing really gets my goat like gross-out scenes that don’t serve a purpose to the overall story.
Lastly, the writing is really repetitive. I think Irons is trying to build tension but overcompensates and does the opposite. The first time introduces the reader to the thing; the second time builds the tension; the third time the reader goes “yes! I know! Just tell me!” And the fourth time just gets annoying. I almost wish I’d counted all the repetitive sentences so I could present the total.

What Irons does well, is the descriptiveness in his writing. The imaginative monsters, gorey details, and settings are all written with skill. I also loved how he doesn’t kill off the cats. Animal deaths are an easy emotional manipulation in horror fiction (and my only real trigger); Irons doesn’t resort to it in either of his cat horror books and doesn’t even seriously injure or etc. The cat makes it through and gains his/her happily ever after regardless of if the humans do or not. And that’s one key reason why I’m a fan of Irons’ work.

So, to sum up, this one wasn’t for me. But I’d recommend it to the right reader. And hey, have you read Graveyard Billy?

[Petey Mcwilliams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different take on apocalyptic horror what becomes a character study of a traumatized heavy metal girl dealing with a dead world ultimately becomes a very personal story. The lead character is a mix of an over the top 80s Bruce Campbell and Bruce Willis, someone trying to hold it together, but breaks down in believable ways in an unbelievable scenario. I think the author tried to write some of this with a fifties hard boiled prose style which kind of works. Worth a read as its very easy to read.

[Cassandra Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about this on Podcasting After Dark. If you like apocalyptic horror this is something original. The whole story is cut up in serialized chapters that are super short and easily digestible – most chapters only last a page! It makes the book a very easy read. You could almost read a chapter a day and consume the story that way. It makes me wonder if this was a story intended for another platform like Inkett? If you like cats, haunted houses, and end of the world storytelling, you should give this a try. It might not be for everyone, but its fun.

[Rachel Barclay · Rating 5 out of 5]

7 Winters Alone is an 80s set supernatural thriller that I quite frankly struggled to put down. This is the kind of novel you could imagine being very easily made in to a movie. Its got everything, scares, the paranormal, the apocalypse and a brave woman and her cat. Grab this and give it a go, you wont be disappointed!