Scan barcode
A review by beforeviolets
The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch
I absolutely adore books that are just silly brain-off stories. This book looked stupid and gay (complimentary) and I was so ready to have the time of my life.
Generally, I think this book had a lot of issues, but was indeed a really fun read.
I’ll go ahead and list the things I like:
-Despite being insta love-y (or maybe insta crush-y?) I think the romance pacing REALLY worked for me. The stakes and the meeting of the characters were set up in such a way that I really just bought it. If I was super drunk and having a breakdown in an alley and was kissed by a hot person who immediately vanished into thin air as if by magic I think I’d obsess over it too. I was so compelled by these characters on the page together and it was mainly what propelled me through this book.
-The friendly banter. The group chat elements of this story were really what reminded me of Red White and Royal Blue and made me understand that comp. The teasing and inside jokes were such a joy.
-The commentary about capitalism. So in this book, Christmas is sort of monopolizing holiday joy in a way that brilliantly mimics the way that business do indeed use Christmas as a way to capitalize off of people’s joy and are constantly steamrolling over other holidays because Christmas is such a great financial tool. We constantly see people nowadays complaining that it feels like Christmas is starting earlier and earlier (with decorations coming out practically at the same time as Halloween) and the way that this is manifested in this book is so funny and so smart.
But I did have some problems with this book’s writing and world-building. (Time for a lil rant.
-So I’ll start pretty simply with a writing issue, which is that we’re constantly told rather than shown information about the characters. And worse than that, that information is not actually often reflected in the characters’ behavior. For example, with Coal, he has this supposed history of insincerity and mockery and deflection, but we only ever see him being really caring and sincere. Even the inciting event of the story was supposed to be a “prank gone wrong” according to other characters, but it wasn’t ever actually a prank. It was Coal trying to do something genuinely very kind but was misinformed. So his character growth and relationship developments don’t work very well because we only ever see this “better” version of him.
-I’d say my biggest problem with this book, however, is its approach to religion (or lack thereof). This book is constantly trying to omit religion as a factor in the holidays. Which… doesn’t make sense because this book takes place in our world. Christmas is inseparable from its origins. It is practiced specifically by Christian people. So it feels weird for this book to talk about the way that Christmas is constantly reaching new countries and cultures that didn’t celebrate Christmas before while ignoring the inherent Christian imperialism and colonialism that would be tied to that outreach. I appreciate that it was trying to focus itself on capitalism, but to ignore the fact that this has a harmful (and historically violent) impact on real people felt really icky. Plus this book was constantly talking about the “other big joyous holidays” which were… just other Christian holidays. Literally non-Christian or secular holidays were NEVER mentioned. It just didn’t feel like there was room for non-Christian perspectives or religions to exist in this story and world (which is supposed to be our own) and it made me feel really excluded from it.
-And to continue off of that last point, despite this book attempting to omit religion from holidays, it utilizes heavy religious language! So as much as I would like to be generous and maybe suspend my belief to take this world as one that isn’t religious (which again, Christmas is inherently Christian and practiced by Christian people and can’t be separated from its origins and history but whatever), I can’t even do that. Romantic scenes between the leads constantly employ heavy religious description. There are constant mentions of priests and worship and idolatry and prayer. And so it creates this really uncomfortable friction in the world building to heavily utilize religion when talking about the way the characters feel about each other but to pretend it doesn’t exist when it comes to the function of religious holidays in the real world.
All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I think it was a really fun time and I would probably recommend it to Christian folks (or folks who participate in secular Christian culture), but I couldn’t really escape the pit in my stomach of feeling deliberately erased from this world as a Jewish person. I didn’t need to be included (I'm not a fool, I understand this is a story about Christmas), but to comment on the history of Christmas dominating cultures and countries while severing it from its religious origins, as well as creating an entire political sphere of holidays that exist in our world but not including or even off-handedly acknowledging a single Jewish, Muslim, etc. one just didn’t sit right with me. I’m not saying this book is “problematic” because I don’t think it is. But I think it wasn’t for me.
Thank you so much to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
CW: sexual content, grief, death (past), death of sibling (past), car accident (past), alcohol
Generally, I think this book had a lot of issues, but was indeed a really fun read.
I’ll go ahead and list the things I like:
-Despite being insta love-y (or maybe insta crush-y?) I think the romance pacing REALLY worked for me. The stakes and the meeting of the characters were set up in such a way that I really just bought it. If I was super drunk and having a breakdown in an alley and was kissed by a hot person who immediately vanished into thin air as if by magic I think I’d obsess over it too. I was so compelled by these characters on the page together and it was mainly what propelled me through this book.
-The friendly banter. The group chat elements of this story were really what reminded me of Red White and Royal Blue and made me understand that comp. The teasing and inside jokes were such a joy.
-The commentary about capitalism. So in this book, Christmas is sort of monopolizing holiday joy in a way that brilliantly mimics the way that business do indeed use Christmas as a way to capitalize off of people’s joy and are constantly steamrolling over other holidays because Christmas is such a great financial tool. We constantly see people nowadays complaining that it feels like Christmas is starting earlier and earlier (with decorations coming out practically at the same time as Halloween) and the way that this is manifested in this book is so funny and so smart.
But I did have some problems with this book’s writing and world-building. (Time for a lil rant.
-So I’ll start pretty simply with a writing issue, which is that we’re constantly told rather than shown information about the characters. And worse than that, that information is not actually often reflected in the characters’ behavior. For example, with Coal, he has this supposed history of insincerity and mockery and deflection, but we only ever see him being really caring and sincere. Even the inciting event of the story was supposed to be a “prank gone wrong” according to other characters, but it wasn’t ever actually a prank. It was Coal trying to do something genuinely very kind but was misinformed. So his character growth and relationship developments don’t work very well because we only ever see this “better” version of him.
-I’d say my biggest problem with this book, however, is its approach to religion (or lack thereof). This book is constantly trying to omit religion as a factor in the holidays. Which… doesn’t make sense because this book takes place in our world. Christmas is inseparable from its origins. It is practiced specifically by Christian people. So it feels weird for this book to talk about the way that Christmas is constantly reaching new countries and cultures that didn’t celebrate Christmas before while ignoring the inherent Christian imperialism and colonialism that would be tied to that outreach. I appreciate that it was trying to focus itself on capitalism, but to ignore the fact that this has a harmful (and historically violent) impact on real people felt really icky. Plus this book was constantly talking about the “other big joyous holidays” which were… just other Christian holidays. Literally non-Christian or secular holidays were NEVER mentioned. It just didn’t feel like there was room for non-Christian perspectives or religions to exist in this story and world (which is supposed to be our own) and it made me feel really excluded from it.
-And to continue off of that last point, despite this book attempting to omit religion from holidays, it utilizes heavy religious language! So as much as I would like to be generous and maybe suspend my belief to take this world as one that isn’t religious (which again, Christmas is inherently Christian and practiced by Christian people and can’t be separated from its origins and history but whatever), I can’t even do that. Romantic scenes between the leads constantly employ heavy religious description. There are constant mentions of priests and worship and idolatry and prayer. And so it creates this really uncomfortable friction in the world building to heavily utilize religion when talking about the way the characters feel about each other but to pretend it doesn’t exist when it comes to the function of religious holidays in the real world.
All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I think it was a really fun time and I would probably recommend it to Christian folks (or folks who participate in secular Christian culture), but I couldn’t really escape the pit in my stomach of feeling deliberately erased from this world as a Jewish person. I didn’t need to be included (I'm not a fool, I understand this is a story about Christmas), but to comment on the history of Christmas dominating cultures and countries while severing it from its religious origins, as well as creating an entire political sphere of holidays that exist in our world but not including or even off-handedly acknowledging a single Jewish, Muslim, etc. one just didn’t sit right with me. I’m not saying this book is “problematic” because I don’t think it is. But I think it wasn’t for me.
Thank you so much to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
CW: sexual content, grief, death (past), death of sibling (past), car accident (past), alcohol