Galloway does an excellent job of building suspense around a sleepy town in the dead of winter, a girl who knows too much, a teacher with a past, and a boy struggling to navigate the waters of losing someone and finding oneself.



[T]here’s no doubt that this rich, complex puzzle is the work of a talented author.
– Publishers Weekly

[T]his strange tale manages to creep deeply under your skin, and to stay there for some time.



Galloway recaptures the intensity, magic and terror of adolescence. He preserves that teenage sense of wonder at discovering everything as if it were new. Far from cynical, As Simple as Snow presents in all its splendour that adolescent yearning for a life well lived and testifies to the importance of keeping those emotions alive, of not letting adulthood wear down the imagination.
This novel's authentic portrayal of adolescence untempered by a condescending adult gaze recalls another first novel, Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, with which it shares some essential characteristics. Both authors chose not to resolve their central mysteries fully, creating evocative and disturbing ambiguities. Both books focus on enigmatic teenage girls from an unusually tender male perspective. Both of them are fuelled by plots that flirt with the murder-mystery genre and are so haunting that they almost read like ghost stories.
Emphasizing this kinship with the ghost story, Anna and G.G. come to share a passion for reading ghost stories and for creating their own. Perhaps the whole of As Simple as Snow is a ghost story engineered by Anna for G.G.'s benefit.
Beyond the murder mystery and the ghost story, Galloway also draws on Gothic fiction's fascination with the grotesque. Essentially a work of realism, As Simple as Snow gains texture and depth by acknowledging and incorporating other modes of storytelling. . . .
. . . .Engaging mysteries, profound characters, heartbreaking tenderness, a playful intermingling of genres and a maddeningly involving plot all combine to make As Simple as Snow utterly seductive.

-- The Montreal Gazette, Claude Lalumiere

The best novel I've read in a while.
Gregory Galloway's As Simple As Snow is a quiet mystery, told from the perspective of a teenage boy who befriends an unusual girl named Anastasia.
That's really all you need to know about the plot. The real reason you should read this book is because it does such a brilliant job building its characters, and gradually building the elements of the story. This book blows away The Da Vinci Code with the intricacy of its mystery, and it does so without having to use chases and gunfights to spice things up.
You can choose to read this book in a couple of different ways. If you want a light, fast, read, you can breeze through the book and enjoy the story as it is. If you want a challenge, you can twist your mind around all the subtle clues embedded within the small details. Or, you can do what I did: read the book once through quickly, and then go back and read it again to try to catch everything that you missed. The book was even better the second time through.
Sometimes you start looking for clues so intently that you start to see patterns that aren't there. And I think that's exactly what the author intended. It can really start to fry your brain cells, but if you like puzzles and mysteries, you'll like this book.

-- The Real Kato

This book was one of the best that I have read in a long time, although the ending does leave the reader with some unanswered questions. It is a strange tale and is so intriguing that it is almost impossible to put down. It will suck you in from the beginning and hold your attention until the very last word. It is definitely a must read!
-- Teen Scene Magazine

As Simple as Snow by Gregory Galloway will be haunting me for a long, long time.
Author Gregory Galloway has created a stunning and haunting tale. Just as Anna herself, this book is hard to categorize. Many would call "As Simple as Snow" a mystery, but just as many might refer to it as a coming-of-age story. The writing is engrossing, placing the reader on the same page (no pun intended) as the narrator, trying to figure out Anna herself as well the codes she used. Readers will be looking for clues in the grand design while falling for this strong, willful character and wondering why she left.
It even has an appropriately creepy website, where you may download the mix CDs Anna created and watch a unique trailer for the book. If the trailer doesn't make you want to read the book immediately, I don't know what will.
This isn't a run-of-the-mill mystery, nor a cautionary tale. It's a story about a boy, a girl, a town, a code. It's a story about that time in your life when you realize nothing is as simple as it seems. Once you realize that, you can't go back, no matter how hard you try. You can only go forward.
-- Five Six Seven Eight

I just completed reading Gregory Galloway's AS SIMPLE AS SNOW, his first (published) novel. And I am near speechless, agog with wonder. Gregory Galloway uses simple, declarative, even affectless sentences (the protagonist's narrative voice) to powerful advantage, creating an increasing sense of tension and fright from beginning to end. A novel of character, the author also has successfully crafted a thriller, loaded with clues. And if you cannot discern its meaning (e.g., what happened to Anna), then know there is a website that offers added depth to the clues [that are] strewn craftily, deftly throughout the book.
-- The Deipnosophist

After hearing some rumbling about this book, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Within a few paragraphs I was completely hooked. Everything else fell to the wayside -- dinner, laundry, bills -- I had to get to the end! Once it was over, I wanted more. I can't wait to see what Gregory Galloway has in store for us next!
-- PaperCuts

More of a supernatural love story than a ghost story, the book acutely charts the romance between an average teenage boy and a hipster, and the grief he succumbs to when she disappears. The clues the narrator receives that may reveal the ultimate fate of Anna all fit together to form an amazing puzzle. It’s a great supernatural mystery that’s handled realistically and has rational explanations. [The narrator] pursues the clues in the heartbreaking hope that Anna still exists in some form, even if it’s a supernatural one. “There are people you meet in life that will forever change you, forever alter everything about yourself,” one character says. “They become part of you, and if they leave, you have been robbed of that treasure, a part of you has been ripped away.” “As Simple As Snow” is a compelling examination of grief that’s further amplified by its supernatural undertones and the moving relationship at its core.
-- FilmZeus


"As Simple As Snow," a beautiful, quirky novel that will keep you up way, way too late trying to decode the cryptic "acknowledgements" section, has spawned its own site (assimpleassnow.com) for fans to commiserate.


“What’s Hot” 05/01/2005


“Anna Cayne had moved here in August, just before our sophomore year in high school, but by February she had, one by one, killed everyone in town.” This is the line with which this mesmerizingly bizarre novel — part mystery, part love story — opens. Anna Cayne loves Houdini and ghost stories, dresses all in black, writes secret codes and puzzles, and in her spare time writes make-believe obituaries for everyone in town. When our nameless narrator falls in love with her and she suddenly disappears, he begins to receive cryptic messages that only Anna could have sent him. Techincally an adult fiction/mystery novel, As Simple As Snow could also be considered young adult, and would be a fantastic read for a teen. (By the way, about the ending: you’ll either love it, or you’ll want to come throw the book at my head).
-- Hilary Emerson Lay
Spirit of ‘76 bookstore, Marblehead, MA

A stranger comes to town and somebody leaves home: Greg Galloway’s first novel encompasses both elements of the famous plot reduction in a mystery that continues to resonate long after the last page. Anna Cayne is the newcomer to Hamilton High, a Goth sophomore in love with words, puzzles, codes and ghost stories. Her hobby is to write the epitaph of everyone in town – in short, a 21st century Wednesday Addams... The narrator is, by his own account, completely unremarkable in every way but the two become friends until Anna vanishes (need we say mysteriously?). His search for her triggers more questions than it answers, while revealing more than he wants to know about his family and friends. Sound a little odd for a mystery? Well, it is – but we really really like it!
– Partners & Crime, Partner’s Pick


I can't put down As Simple as Snow. This one is even more filled with cryptic maps and puzzles and clues than Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It's about a high school boy who meets a cute goth girl obsessed with poetry, wordplay, indie music (she gives the unnamed narrator several CD mixes, and the tracklists are included), shortwave radio spy-number stations, and stage magic. And then one day she disappears. Her dress is found spread out next to a hole in the ice over a frozen river, and everyone assumes she's dead, but then the boyfriend starts getting mysterious packages in the mail. It's ooh spooky good and I think I can't go to sleep tonight until I finish.
-- I been havin a snake


I am very impressed with the story and the writing. The situation is one which has me torn on my opinion of the author. I am torn between the idea that I would not want to read another book by him and that I cannot wait for him to write many more so I may read them all. The only reason I would not read his other writing is I would be afraid it would not be as original; not as good. It is an odd feeling, one I am not used to, to finish a book and be left with this strange appreciation for the author because of the work he completed. The book was not the best I have read, but Gregory Galloway took me in directions that are usually left untraveled in my literary adventures and for that I thank him.
-- Privatjokr

Galloway's new young adult novel is anything but simple! An unnamed narrator — a high school boy who describes himself as so uninteresting that he is like a glass of water — suddenly finds himself the object of interest by a new student, a bright, artistic goth–girl named Anna. She pursues our narrator, challenging his taste in poets, books, and music until he falls hopelessly in love. Then she disappears —leaving behind a labyrinth of clues in letters, art, and music CDs. There is no way to know whether she dead or alive, or where the clues are leading him . . .but follow it he must. The novel pulls on lots of resources: Houdini, beat poets, teen angst and disenchantment, and music. Galloway's teens are bright, intelligent, passionately interested in the world of ideas and puzzles. The book is a real treat.
-- Midori Snyder, The Endicott Studio

Last night I finished the stupidest book I've ever read called As Simple As Snow. It's so stupid I'm not even going to link to it.
-- Fluent Sap