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minimicropup's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Setting the Scene: 🇨🇦 Welcome to the fictional town of St. Nicholas in winter during Christmas (reminiscent of the northern regions of Ontario or Quebec, Canada).
POV: The story flits between various characters and their perspectives – from an elderly priest to a child filled with the Christmas spirit, to a corporate CEO.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Winter isolation survival thriller
-Christmas creature feature and creepy kids
-Descriptive folk horror paired with body horror and gore
-Light-hearted but deep exploration of themes of consumerism, community, reinvention, not-all-as-it-seems, misplaced loyalty, survival, denial, fear, and hope.
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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕
🗣️ Tale-Telling: The writing was cinematic, punchy, and snappy. I don’t like comparing work to other authors, but I have to here - this felt like what could happen if John Marrs and Nick Cutter wrote a story together. The scenes transitioned smoothly, each packed with just the right amount of thematic detail. It was a slow-paced fast read for me that felt like watching a horror movie.
👥 Characters: This was a large cast, but each character, no matter how briefly featured, was vividly drawn and fleshed out with consistent motivations and quirks. I felt like a fly on the wall, observing their personalities and actions.
🗺️ Ambiance: I loved the cinematic worldbuilding. I was immediately immersed in each setting, thanks to the succinct, atmospheric descriptions. It was a world that felt real and palpable (it also captured to 'feel' of Canada lol). Even the motivations and dynamics of the town’s past, and mixed feelings about the future felt believable. There seemed to be a lot of thought put into the worldbuilding detail and sensory descriptions, which I love.
🔥 Fuel: The suspense comes from knowing just a bit more than the characters at times, and less at others. The story kept me guessing with twists and unexpected developments, and some well placed ‘wtf’ moments. There were a lot of action, escape, fight-for-your-life, cat-and-mouse scenes which I normally struggle to stay engaged with but had no issues here. They were written in a way that we keep the immersive fast-paced momentum so it’s easy to follow the…violence? The fast-paced scenes are interspersed with slower moments for reflection and regrouping.
🎬 Scenes: The action scenes were vivid and impactful, devoid of unnecessary heroics or gore (there is gore though, prepare for lots of gore, I just mean it didn’t feel gratuitous). The horrors are startling and swift, then it’s back to building suspense and wondering who will survive. The looming dread is worked in to every scene and I loved the portrayal of Christmas traditions mixed with dark origins to add the eerie layer.
🤓 Random Thoughts: I thought this was a ‘fun’ read, but on reflection it was also kinda deep. It played with the idea of Christmas cheer masking darkness and being used for evil purposes. And it touched on themes I’ve rarely seen in horror, like the ‘freeze’ response many have in crisis situations, challenging the traditional notions of heroism and masculinity.
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Content Heads-Up: Medical (heart). Murder. Gore. Body horror. Brainwashing. Sexual assault and harassment (unable to consent; insinuated; on page). Step-incest (fantasizing; lusting).
Rep: White, Black, and Chinese Americans and Canadians.
👀 Format: Advance Reader's Copy from Blood Bound Books and NetGalley
“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Murder
spidervan's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This had an interesting premise and I was excited for it, but it fell short for me. This had a lot of descriptive language and switched between the POV of a lot of characters which would be a selling point for some but made the pacing feel too slow for me. Also, the characters really fell flat for me, especially the women. While I love horror and love Christmas books, I don't think I was the target audience for this.
I was glad the women didn't all get killed off and that Ling got to do something big at the end, but for most of the book the female characters had no depth and almost all of them seemed to exist just to be something that the male characters wanted for Christmas. I can tolerate a lot of things that make you well aware that a book was written by a man, but there were parts of this that felt unnecessary and uncomfortable in a different way than horror typically is.
I did not enjoy reading a child's POV of Santa sexually assaulting his mom and besides that being unnecessary (especially when it was actually that that was what he was seeing while really Santa was some demon thing killing and eating her), I found it extra unnecessary to explicitly write that scene out and from that POV. I also really could have done without the whole recurring storyline about how Kendra's stepbrother didn't think of her as a person and had just always wanted to sleep with her and had asked for her for Christmas and all of the gross almost incestuous rapey vibes that were repetitively there and Kendra's whole storyline as an object Devon wanted. While I'm glad that eventually a couple of women got to do a bit of stuff near the end, it was not enough for me after all of the sexual assault/sexual harassment and women just existing to give the male characters depth in positive or negative ways for the most part thing and I definitely advise people take trigger warnings into account before reading if they're going to.
I was glad the women didn't all get killed off and that Ling got to do something big at the end, but for most of the book the female characters had no depth and almost all of them seemed to exist just to be something that the male characters wanted for Christmas. I can tolerate a lot of things that make you well aware that a book was written by a man, but there were parts of this that felt unnecessary and uncomfortable in a different way than horror typically is.
I did not enjoy reading a child's POV of Santa sexually assaulting his mom and besides that being unnecessary (especially when it was actually that that was what he was seeing while really Santa was some demon thing killing and eating her), I found it extra unnecessary to explicitly write that scene out and from that POV. I also really could have done without the whole recurring storyline about how Kendra's stepbrother didn't think of her as a person and had just always wanted to sleep with her and had asked for her for Christmas and all of the gross almost incestuous rapey vibes that were repetitively there and Kendra's whole storyline as an object Devon wanted. While I'm glad that eventually a couple of women got to do a bit of stuff near the end, it was not enough for me after all of the sexual assault/sexual harassment and women just existing to give the male characters depth in positive or negative ways for the most part thing and I definitely advise people take trigger warnings into account before reading if they're going to.
mafaichney's review
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
readwithkyladawngail's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
If you’re looking for gore this Christmas then look no farther. All the death scenes were bloody and brilliant.
kaitlinliz's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Do you love Santa? Christmas? Want to never look at Santa the same way again?
This book had me from the first chapter. The story of Santa Claus that is told at the beginning, caused me to gasp. Absolutely loved it! The book was gory but much needed. It wouldn't have had the same effect if the deaths weren't described the way they were. There were certain (nondeath scenes) that made me gag as opposed to the super described murder scenes.
John McNee absolutely KILLED it in this book!
This book had me from the first chapter. The story of Santa Claus that is told at the beginning, caused me to gasp. Absolutely loved it! The book was gory but much needed. It wouldn't have had the same effect if the deaths weren't described the way they were. There were certain (nondeath scenes) that made me gag as opposed to the super described murder scenes.
John McNee absolutely KILLED it in this book!
charm_city_sinner's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
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