Looking for trip ideas for next December? Does getting swatted by a furry monster sound appealing? Head over, e.g., to Munich Christmas Market, where hundreds of Krampuses walk the streets, or to the small Alpine village of Gastein for a more traditional and less cordoned-off event.

Moving from Krampus's origins and how it relates to St. Nicholas to regional variations of the events and the relationship between traditionalists and those who want to modernize, Ridenour also gives plenty of information about related figures and folktales. He doesn't quite keep all the threads organized and, at times, wanders a bit too far from Krampus, but as far as I know, this is the most comprehensive coverage of the creature. It's also fantastically illustrated with a large collection of photographs.

A wellness cruise on a luxury yacht with inane party games. What could go wrong? Using the wellness aspect could have been more interesting. As is, this is unbearably predictable and very relationship-forward (which I don't usually go for).

3.5 stars
Volume three leans slightly towards humorous stories and Dickensian ghost stories (one of them suspiciously similar to A Christmas Carol). I don't usually read comical or satirical fiction, but I enjoyed this as much as the previous volumes.

Favorites:

19, Great Hanover Street (1889) by Lillie Harris
This one isn't supposed to be funny, but I kept imagining the plop sound at the end when the thing dropped off. Would make a great episode in a horror anthology show.

Walnut-Tree House (1878) by Mrs. J. H. Riddell (aka Charlotte Riddell)
Child ghosts are always creepy, and here, the excellent atmosphere is enhanced by an added melancholy.

The Haunted Oven (1877) by W. L. Blackley
Written in Irish dialect, this was fun once I figured out the pronunciations. Not scary by any means, but offbeat and whimsical.

The Devil's Own (1895) by Lilian Quiller Couch
Another child ghost, but a more demonic one. Very eerie, and the ending was somewhat unexpected but great.

More consistent than volume one, volume two was equally nice for this time of year. A story here and there in between cooking Christmas dinner and doing chores, or one with hot cocoa before going to bed. Ghost stories were an annual tradition in Victorian newspapers and magazines, so maybe it'll be one for me as well?

Favorites:

Number Two, Melrose Square by Theo Gift aka Dora Havers (1880): The woman protagonist, a translator working at the British Museum (love!), rents an apartment in Bloomsbury and encounters unpleasant visitations. Genuinely creepy and spine-tingling.

Haunted! by Coulson Kernahan (1885): Feels like a nightmare or a fever dream, where you're drawn into the narrator's madness.

Christmas Eve in Beach House by Eliza Lynn Linton (1870): Set in the Cornish coast, this is moody and atmospheric. A married couple buys a house, but it comes with the unpleasant company of a dark character.

"To capture the Victorian ghost story experience is to whisper by candlelight, to feel the tendrils of December's chill reaching from the darkness outside the hearth's glow."

3.5 stars. I expected stories that would be suitable for this time of year, perfect with a cup of cocoa, but there was mostly quite a bit of narrative that bogged down the atmosphere (the first story, Walter Scott's The Tapestried Chamber really set the tone in that regard). Despite the unevenness, I still think this is worth checking out. Maybe compare it with British Library's fantastic Spirits of the Season and see which one you prefer? I did find a few that hiked up the overall rating, though:

The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell (1852): Women wrote a good amount of ghost stories, and the apparitions were often combined with social criticism. Gaskell's story is one of the best examples.

Horror: A True Tale by John Berwick Harwood (1861): Slightly too wordy, but the best scenes are very spooky. I would probably be outta there quicker than speed of light.

Old Hooker's Ghost by Anonymous (1865): Also very wordy, but I liked the light-hearted tone and the descriptions of Christmas and Twelfth Night festivities.

The Captain of the Pole-Star by Arthur Conan Doyle (1883): I've read this before, but here it really stands out. Set in the arctic ocean, it's beautiful, atmospheric, and eerie.

The Doll's Ghost by F. Marion Crawford (1896): Lovely final story that started spooky but ended up book-ending the collection with touching Christmas spirit.

3.5 stars
Easily the best of the Getaway collection. The Newport mansion works well as a light Gothic setting (I need to read more books set in New England), and although the plot is a little predictable, it takes an unexpectedly dark turn at the end.

This introduction to a new series, Steinbeck and Reed, is saved from being just another detective story by the premise, the characters, and the twist. Pretty good despite the odds being stacked against it since I usually like only hard-boiled and cozy fiction in addition to my crime shows.

Similar idea to His Happy Place, except the isolated location is in northern Sweden, and the ending actually makes sense. Pretty predictable, but the oppressiveness that comes from the couple's power dynamics is palpable and gives the story tension.

A couple staying at a secluded cabin for the weekend could have been very creepy. However, there were no high stakes because the confusing ending was used as the prologue, and nothing interesting happens in between to justify that. In the end, you're left with more questions than answers.

Over-written, rambling, confusing, pointless. Not the right place to try to fit a story like this when all the others in the collection are simple genre fiction.