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A review by howlinglibraries
Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III by Kevin J. Kennedy
fast-paced
2.5
I love a collection of Christmas horror stories and I had high hopes for this one, especially with the way it kicked off. The first story, 'The Fourth Emergency Service' by Lex H. Jones, was an instant favorite for me. It follows a woman who works at a very unique call center and, while it was predictable, it was in a good way — one of those stories that leaves you eagerly flipping the pages to see if you're right and to watch it all play out.
Unfortunately, after the first story, the rest were a bit of a letdown. I mostly enjoyed 'Ho Ho Howard' by RJ Roles and thought the writing in 'Lords of the Sleigh' by Gage Greenwood was beautifully written, but none of the remaining pieces stuck out to me and I even found myself skim-reading the endings of a couple because I couldn't seem to get interested in them.
Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III has some good pieces and is worth picking up if you're an avid lover of holiday horror short stories like I am, but it won't go down in my "best of" list this year, sadly.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
Unfortunately, after the first story, the rest were a bit of a letdown. I mostly enjoyed 'Ho Ho Howard' by RJ Roles and thought the writing in 'Lords of the Sleigh' by Gage Greenwood was beautifully written, but none of the remaining pieces stuck out to me and I even found myself skim-reading the endings of a couple because I couldn't seem to get interested in them.
Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III has some good pieces and is worth picking up if you're an avid lover of holiday horror short stories like I am, but it won't go down in my "best of" list this year, sadly.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Gun violence, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Murder, and Death