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A review by ellenareads
Candy Cain Kills by Brian McAuley
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Holiday slasher about a family deciding to go to a remote cabin for a Christmas getaway after a rough couple of months as a way to reconnect. This book showed up on my StoryGraph feed, so I tagged it as a possible read for those winter months and it definitely did not disappoint.
The first chapter set the tone for the rest of the book and it just got better from there. I really loved the introductions to our characters and how we got a POV from every member of the family. All of the character relationships were so realistic. We saw from each perspective how the characters feel about the current family situation and how their actions can be viewed as selfish on the outside.
Also, there was disability and LGBT representation so a plus for that.
The main issues I had with this book came in the last part of it. I really loved all of the build-up to the slashing part but I feel like the ending suffered a bit from the length because the ending felt rushed. Several emotional moments fell flat for me at the end because I didn’t have time to process them. But that is usually how I feel with novella-length stories so I was willing to give it a pas until that last scene. I really didn't like it. That said, I loved all of the reveals and twists. The slashing was also done in a way that I hadn’t read so far in my limited slasher experience, so I really enjoyed reading this book.
If you are looking for a wintery read with Christmas themes pick this up. It really packs a punch in such a short amount of pages. I’m definitely gonna try something else from this author in the future.
The first chapter set the tone for the rest of the book and it just got better from there. I really loved the introductions to our characters and how we got a POV from every member of the family. All of the character relationships were so realistic. We saw from each perspective how the characters feel about the current family situation and how their actions can be viewed as selfish on the outside.
Also, there was disability and LGBT representation so a plus for that.
The main issues I had with this book came in the last part of it. I really loved all of the build-up to the slashing part but I feel like the ending suffered a bit from the length because the ending felt rushed. Several emotional moments fell flat for me at the end because I didn’t have time to process them. But that is usually how I feel with novella-length stories so I was willing to give it a pas until that last scene. I really didn't like it. That said, I loved all of the reveals and twists. The slashing was also done in a way that I hadn’t read so far in my limited slasher experience, so I really enjoyed reading this book.
If you are looking for a wintery read with Christmas themes pick this up. It really packs a punch in such a short amount of pages. I’m definitely gonna try something else from this author in the future.