lucky girl, how I became a horror writer: a krampus story - Book review

Book review

Star rating: 5/5 Stars

Book title: Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story

Author: M. Rickert

Page count: 66 pages

Publishing date: September 13th

Looking for a short thrilling creepy Christmas story filled with trauma that will give you chills and nightmares? This novella is definitely for you!

In this story, you follow Ro who weirdly ends up hosting a Christmas party for a small group of strangers that become acquaintances and share ghost stories. Ro is also a horror writer and we follow her and these acquaintances throughout the years.

Going into this, I wasn't aware of what the Krampus was and it was new to me. I loved my experience of this book. Plotwise, the use of a large timeframe was very brilliantly done and everything made sense in the end. Even though there were some red herrings, everything put in this story had its reasons. The pacing was quick, which helped set the chilling/thrilling mood of the book. I think the author did an amazing job of walking the line between reality and fantasy (believing in monsters) and kept balancing between both worlds in an amazing way. The characters were not particularly likeable but I was still invested enough to continue reading on.

I did have a tiny issue with the beginning of the book which is, I believe, the weakest part. I was confused at first, but pushing through, things did make more sense and I ended up with litteral chills at the end of it. And I really did enjoy the ending. If you are interested in picking up this book. I would definitely checkout trigger/content warnings for violence, murder, childhood trauma, etc.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge. Tordotcom for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.