There was an entry on the Hyannis Country Garden Blog on November 26, 2017 discussing this issue on Cape Cod.

WHY DIDN'T MY.....HAVE FALL COLOR

I don't have Japanese maples but other small trees, like the Cornus Kousa dogwoods, had poor fall foliage here too.

Claire

I've seen similar mentions elsewhere on the forums as well. This has some:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4970743/so-which-deciduous-trees-are-still-hold-their-leaves?n=27

I think I've seen more also, but don't remember where.

We are near Lowell MA and our Japanese maples look exactly as you described. Think there was one tiny branchwith red leaves, the rest were brown and crinkly.

My J. Maple has been here for 14 years, and I love it (no matter what). I never know what I will see in the Fall, though. Freeze-dried is a perfect description for 2017! It never turned red. This is how it still looks on December 14:

Last year, It was glorious in November:

A few days later it dropped it's leaves, but never turned brown:

I have seen these ups and downs over the past few years, Sigh.

Susan

Same thing for the Japanese maples here (lower Hudson Valley NY). Certain dogwoods experienced this too, as well as my crape myrtle (which I'm hoping doesn't get taken out by this cold snap)

I was just noticing this morning that my Kousa dogwood has retained quite a bit of its foliage. It's a first and not a good look. I might have to stomp out through the snow to see how solidly they are attached and release them if possible.

Glad I saw this thread - the exact same thing happened to about half of the Japanese maples I have in my garden - they never changed colours and freeze dried (perfect term!). I was speaking to a plant biologist and she said it was a very unique phenomenon.

I was just out in the yard today and noticed our Japanese Maple still has all it's dead brown leaves all over it. I guess they're there until new leaves push them out. I don't remember this happening before.

I'm seeing those light brown freeze dried leaves all over several kinds of trees in our area. Amazing how long they are holding on. I wonder if next summer we'll have them still on the tree along with new green ones!'

Here's link to UNH Coop Extension that I found helpful. Susan

What I find most interesting about that article is that it apparently was not the sudden drop in temperatures that kept the leaves attached, but rather the extended overall warmth over the entire fall which prevented the separation mechanism from triggering completely. How interesting!