Synopsis
The countdown to Christmas has never been scarier than in this internationally bestselling holiday horror novel from Per Jacobsen.
Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.
Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling realization: they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.
Review
Huge thanks to Atria & Emily Bestler Books for the physical ARC. I’m stoked I had it for a seasonal read.
I started this a bit into December, so I didn’t read a chapter a day as an advent calendar as the author offers. I think personally I preferred reading it at my own desired speed. While the first few certainly felt like a dark and devious advent gift, once the book and certainly the climax get under way it just became your typical plot-moving-device chapter endings. Don’t get me wrong, they definitely up the tension and made me want to keep reading, it just didn’t fit the previous advent feel as well.
Adam has planned a December getaway for his family. A remote, mountainous cabin setting is scheduled in the hopes of restoring and rejuvenating the family mojo. Adam has been less present, his wife Beth has been disinterested, and their girls are the ones that feel the tension. But this trip will change things, right?
From the first night the tension builds. As much as a weeklong stay somewhere where the only responsibility is ensuring the animals in the barn (and yourselves) don’t starve seems cozy, the idea of no cell service and frequent snow storms that block the only route up the mountain would be an immediate “no thanks” from me. This family should have said the same. A Christmas stocking appears nailed to the barn door. When they search it, there’s a single slide in it. The kind of photo slide that fits into old school projectors…which they just so happen to have. The picture within, is of the house they’re staying in…but where did it come from? These “gifts” continue, some closer, some proving they were taken while the family was present. Then the gifts grow creepier. One thing the author does well is the tension for me. Even when the family is forced from the cabin and struggles to find safety, there is this air of terror about it that worked well.
Ultimately, the ending took on a tonal shift that I’m not quite sure actually works. The maniacal advent-gifter is actually a torture glutton, taking pleasure and pride in his assumed power and causing suffering. And while this certainly delivered on continued tension, it did feel like a thriller turned straight horror because someone didn’t exactly know where to take the plot. There are some injuries that seem too much to come back from and yet the cast is all plot armor…not that I wanted them dead though, the author did earn my caring for them…
I think the ending was supposed to instill fear. That sometimes horror and evil just happens. That sometimes terrible things just take place around us. I can understand the concept, but overall in terms of a story, I think readers just expect the big reveal too much. A story with no identity or motive is kind of hard to digest. If this was launching into a sequel or series, I could see it working out more, but as it stands I felt a little cheated.
Still a solid and wicked read
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