Winter Moon
Published: 1975 (as Invasion) - 1994 (as Winter Moon)
Author: Dean Koontz (Written as Aaron Wolfe)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Crime, Family Life, Fiction, Ghost, Horror, Literature, Paranormal, Rural, Small Town, Supernatural, Suspense, Thriller, Zombie
Check out the review of this book here:
Summary
The narrative opens with Jack McGarvey, a 32-year-old Los Angeles police officer. Jack is caught in the middle of a firefight at a petrol station. He kills the gunman but is severely injured and spends months in the hospital recuperating.
When Jack comes home, the McGarveys receive word that he has inherited the Quartermass Ranch in Eagles Roost, Montana, from his late partner's father, Eduardo Fernandez.
Eduardo was having unusual happenings in Montana as Jack was healing from his injuries. He notices blazing lights in the trees and weird noises. He discovers a large black circle one night and assumes it is a doorway established by an extraterrestrial.
Soon later, he finds wild raccoons spying on him and in his home. Eduardo visits the local veterinarian, Travis Potter when all of the raccoons mysteriously die. The veterinarian conducts an autopsy, which yields no definitive information on the cause of death.
Squirrels and birds are now watching him. Despite his fear, Eduardo ultimately dares the visitor to come to him in its actual form rather than using animals. He hears a shambling on his doorstep one night. He opens the door, shotgun in hand, and discovers the traveler piggybacking on his late wife's corpse, taken from the family cemetery on the ranch. Travis Potter discovers Eduardo's body, and an examination reveals that he died of a heart attack.
With his wife, Heather, and kid, Toby, Jack moves onto Eduardo's property. They are looking forward to a calm life in Montana, away from big-city violence, and a secure school for Toby. Falstaff, the family's golden retriever, is smitten with Toby.
Strange things begin to happen to the McGarveys. Travis Potter and attorney Paul Youngblood both suggest that something peculiar happened soon before Eduardo died.
All three McGarveys have repeated nightmares about an entity promising bliss if they let it into their thoughts, but each recognizes the promises are fake and violently rejects the offer. Heather refers to it as the Giver.
The Giver uses technological equipment to mesmerize Toby and seeks to speak with Jack through Toby.
The family gradually admits to each other the resemblance of their dreams and several perplexing happenings.
The Giver grows impatient and bolder, having never encountered opposition from any species before. It tries to trap the family during a blizzard by cutting off their cars and phone lines.
Jack walks out of the house to urge a neighbor to take his wife and son away, while Heather and Toby stay armed with gasoline cans and pistols.
Despite the fact that they have locked the home, the Giver is able to enter. It manifests itself in two distinct forms, each riding a body from the ranch's family plot.
Heather realizes that gunshots do not harm the Giver riding Eduardo's body, so she sets fire to the home in the hopes that the fire would kill the thing. She fires at the second body, injuring it, and learns the Givers are unable to move without their hosts.
The first Giver has walked its corpse through the flames, and as it continues to follow them, Heather notices that half of it has been devoured by the fire, giving her hope.
Toby captures the Giver in his thoughts by convincing it that he accepts its offer, so immobilizing the Giver and allowing him, his mother, and Falstaff to flee the home.
Harlan Moffit, a snowplow driver, picks up Jack and sees the home on fire as they come into the driveway. Heather and Toby are lugging gas cans up the back stairs when Harlan arrives and informs them of an extraterrestrial invasion.
Toby claims that he can't keep the Giver hostage for much longer and that the Giver is actually at the caretaker's house. When they get to the caretaker's house, they witness a third creature riding another body, trapped immobile by Toby's mind.
The Giver's primary body is located further back in the home and is a huge creature that spawned three lesser extensions of itself. Toby maintains the being's will as the grownups pour gasoline on the structure and set it on fire.
After the authorities had gathered everyone's statements, Toby informs his father that, towards the very end, the Giver produced a few little worms that tried to escape by digging into the wood. He's not sure if any of them survived, and Jack says they'll leave it up to the experts and authorities. A few weeks later, the family returns to Los Angeles.
Useful Search Related Words & Keywords
Good Read, Half Of The Book, Jack McGarvey, Keeps You Turning, Koontz Books, Los Angeles, Page Turner, Police Officer, Years Ago
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