REVIEW: Candy Cain Kills Again: The Second Slaying (Killer VHS Series #5) by Brian McAuley

Rating: 10/10

SYNOPSIS

She’s making a list… and chopping it twice!

After surviving the horrors of Christmas Eve at the Thornton house, Austin, Mateo and Fiona head to the Church of Nodland to get some confessions from Pastor Wendell and his congregation. Little do they know that Candy Cain is coming to town to wish one and all a very merry axe-mas!

REVIEW

Slashing through the snow again, Brian McAuley returns not only to the Killer VHS Series but to fan favorite, Candy Cain Kills, and this time, it’s personal.

Picking up right where we left off, we get a Halloween Kills style opening that announces Candy Cain may be down, but she certainly isn’t out. While she takes care of some emergency personnel, and McAuley continues to flex his creative and imaginative slasher kills, the survivors of the Christmas Eve massacre head to town and decide to pay a visit to a certain church who’s congregation may have played a pretty big role in Candy Cain’s creation.

Lean, mean and full of crime scenes, Candy Cain Kills Again goes for the jugular, not just in the kills, but emotionally as well. Just when you thought you knew everything you needed to know about the legend of Candy Cain, McAuley reveals a whole new level of trauma and expands the story in ways I never could’ve imagined.

McAuley once again subverts the slasher genre, this time by injecting a surprising amount of heart that had me in tears for about fifteen minutes after turning the final page. I never would’ve thought this story could elicit such an emotional response from me. In other words, this novella fucking WRECKED me. McAuley now joins Stephen Graham Jones as the only slasher writers to bring me to tears.

So gather ’round the tree once again, Brian McClausely comes bearing another absolute gift of a novella. If you liked Candy Cain Kills, you will love this contiuation. Candy Cain Kills Again isn’t your run of the mill sequel, expanding the lore in new and exciting ways. The only time I’ll accept anything Christmas pre-Thanksgiving is when Brian McAuley’s name is on the cover.