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brennanlafaro 's review for:
The Thirteenth Day of Christmas: and Other Tales of Yuletide Horror
by David Allen Voyles
3.5 stars rounded for Goodreads.
Christmas stories in August? No thanks. Christmas ghost stories literally any time of the year? Twist my arm, I. am. down. In this collection, David Allen Voyles hits us with twelve stories and a novella that examine the holiday tradition of telling ghost stories a la the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. While not all the stories are straight ahead ghost stories, most of them do lean towards the supernatural.
This collection's strongest showing is its' title track and novella, The Thirteenth Day of Christmas. Presented in 13 chapters, one for every day following Christmas, we get the story of a small isolated town, cut off from power and outside communication. That's when the bodies of townspeople begin to show up. The story starts as a sort of whodunnit with some very subtle hints at a potentially supernatural antagonist, but what really worked for me was the extreme escalation. Shit gets real bad, real quick.
The stories that I found most successful were generally the shorter ones. Stories I could imagine being told around a fireplace on a cold winter night. The Toymaker is a particularly good example of this and gives us a glimpse of what can happen to children who find themselves on the naughty list. The Ghost in the Graveyard and the Haunted Belfry are the exact types of ghost stories I had hoped for when I opened the book, the latter being pretty grim. I also really enjoyed The Bloody Wall for it's creepy atmosphere and clever ending twist. There were elements to it that brought Poe to mind.
A couple of the stories glow with promise and offer up a terrific idea but go on just a little too long. The prime example being a story called The Christmas Present, where a child is transported via a nightmare box and Mephisto unleashes hell on the boy's loved ones during a performance at a macabre theater. It's disturbing and a really original idea, but there are parts before and even during the performance that feel unnecessary and detract from the overall effect.
As of this writing, the paperback is available for $8.95 and the e-book for $2.99. Holiday horror is a pretty tight sub genre, and if you're into it, this collection offers some good stories and a thoroughly worthwhile novella. I'd also wager that collection would make for a good Christmas present for twisted person in your life.
Christmas stories in August? No thanks. Christmas ghost stories literally any time of the year? Twist my arm, I. am. down. In this collection, David Allen Voyles hits us with twelve stories and a novella that examine the holiday tradition of telling ghost stories a la the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. While not all the stories are straight ahead ghost stories, most of them do lean towards the supernatural.
This collection's strongest showing is its' title track and novella, The Thirteenth Day of Christmas. Presented in 13 chapters, one for every day following Christmas, we get the story of a small isolated town, cut off from power and outside communication. That's when the bodies of townspeople begin to show up. The story starts as a sort of whodunnit with some very subtle hints at a potentially supernatural antagonist, but what really worked for me was the extreme escalation. Shit gets real bad, real quick.
The stories that I found most successful were generally the shorter ones. Stories I could imagine being told around a fireplace on a cold winter night. The Toymaker is a particularly good example of this and gives us a glimpse of what can happen to children who find themselves on the naughty list. The Ghost in the Graveyard and the Haunted Belfry are the exact types of ghost stories I had hoped for when I opened the book, the latter being pretty grim. I also really enjoyed The Bloody Wall for it's creepy atmosphere and clever ending twist. There were elements to it that brought Poe to mind.
A couple of the stories glow with promise and offer up a terrific idea but go on just a little too long. The prime example being a story called The Christmas Present, where a child is transported via a nightmare box and Mephisto unleashes hell on the boy's loved ones during a performance at a macabre theater. It's disturbing and a really original idea, but there are parts before and even during the performance that feel unnecessary and detract from the overall effect.
As of this writing, the paperback is available for $8.95 and the e-book for $2.99. Holiday horror is a pretty tight sub genre, and if you're into it, this collection offers some good stories and a thoroughly worthwhile novella. I'd also wager that collection would make for a good Christmas present for twisted person in your life.