Eminence Front Book Review

by Catalina Bonati

3.25/5 stars ★★★☆☆

Eminence Front by Rebecca Rowland (to be published January 20, 2026) is a psychological horror novel set in winter in Massachusetts, in which the inhabitants of a street are haunted by the noise of snow, which has released an unknown power that takes over people’s minds and drives them to murder.

This short novel focuses on all characters more or less evenly, so it is hard to point at a specific protagonist. All characters are middle-aged adults in the suburbs, either single or married with or without kids. Winter plays a big role in this story and is almost a character in itself, as it envelops both the landscape and mental state of the street and the characters. The story takes place in the dead of winter when the snow has piled to over a foot and a half and everyone is busy clearing it from their driveways. The strange entity/energy takes over people’s minds one by one, leading them to murder. The next person who is targeted by the energy has an encounter with last person to have died under its influence, whom they believe to be alive. The dead person finds a manner in which to kill the new person, and so on. The deaths are gruesome and unpredictable.

This book is slow-paced and has too many characters. At first it is hard to keep track of who everyone is, and a good third of the book is spent on introducing new characters. At one point it is very similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). Rowland’s writing is fluid and engaging, and although the story seems underdeveloped her writing is captivating enough to partly make up for this fault. The horror in this story is hard to pin down in descriptive terms, as the horror element takes the shape of an unknown force that strikes at random times. The story is atmospheric in its winter element, but horror does not permeate the entire plot, only at certain points. There are bits of news clippings interspersed throughout the story; they illustrate historical events in the same region in which mysterious deaths have taken place during harsh winters, and within cattle as well, which asserts the mysterious supernatural power of winter as a force that has always existed.

This novel is an atmospheric winter horror story that is extremely well-written but needs more development in its plot and in the construction of its horror. This is recommended to readers who like psychological stories, winter tales, literary fiction, and slow horror.        

This book was received as an ARC from CLASH Books.