I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.
Ooh boy, this was right up my street! I am one of those people who love to read seasonal books in December and so many seasonal books end up being contemporary romances. Finally I have found a book to satisfy my horror needs in the colder months. This is a wonderful collection of short winter/holiday-themed horror stories and most of them are pretty decent reads. As per usual with an anthology, I had some favourites and some least favourites so I'll go through a couple of those now:
Christmas in Barcelona-The second story and the one that let me know I was in for a good time. A man is on holiday with his wife and child when he encounters a woman selling something magical. A well-paced slow build that ends explosively. 4/5.
Snake's Tail-The only story I truly hated. This is kind of rambly horror and I couldn't work out what it was actually about. My personal least favourite of the collection. 1/5.
Doctor Velocity-This again had a really weird premise and the character names were too distracting for me. 2/5.
Yankee Swap-A woman gets kidnapped by a crazy guy who has special presents planned for his hostages. Very straightforward horror but with a seasonal twist and written excellently. 5/5.
Hiking Through-A wintery ghost story about a hiker who has recently been dumped that again, is written excellently and weaves a great atmosphere. Kind of easy to predict but that doesn't take away from its impact. 5/5.
The Hangman's Bride-My absolute favourite without a doubt. An immersive tale about a chimney sweep child who finds more than he bargained for when he goes up the chimney of the local hangman. I was utterly gripped every second of this and the collection would be worth getting for this story alone, never mind the other excellent ones, 5/5.
All of the others ranged from 2.5-3.5 ratings. My overall rating for the anthology mathematically was 3.75, which I rounded up to 4 stars for argument's sake.
Overall, I was very impressed with this anthology. It has such a great range of themes horror-wise, and I like that the stories vary from very Chrismassy to just vaguely wintery. It is definitely worth checking out
and fills a perfect niche in the market for non-romance holiday books.
Overall Rating:
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