How does the author use imagery in the novel, Once Upon a Dark November?

"November was dreary and bleak; the trees looked forlorn and bare; it was dark by four-thirty." Throughout the book, York refers to the cold, sometimes foggy, weather and gloominess of this time of year to create an aura of mystery. She contrasts the gloom with light effectively to create moods as scenes change. She uses Halloween trick-or-treating as a vehicle to introduce Miss Gorley, an elderly woman who makes neighborhood children feel inexplicably uneasy.