PositiveThe Guardian...continues with Winter's Bone, a characteristically short novel of tremendous and, at times, ferocious power. Words such as 'bleak' and 'beautiful' and 'heartbreaking' spring to mind ... Everything about Ree's quest is utterly compelling; everything evoked about the landscape and its people convinces completely ... Woodrell's language fascinates and intrigues; he manages to make this sort of American-English seem aeons old, ancient... Winter's Bone pulses between innocence's triumph and annihilation; it recognises that there is 'a great foulness afoot in the world' but that we still walk among miracles and, despite the unexpectedly upbeat ending.
