fiction

The Nightmare before Kissmas by Sara Raasch

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5 out of 5 Candy Canes and Jack O’ Lanterns

Holy Christmas, Batman! I really enjoyed this one, and I read it to begin December, so it was PRIME Christmas storytelling-with a twist! Nicolas (Coal) and his brother, Kristopher, are the sons of Santa (or who we know as Santa, his name is never really given in the book). Coal, the oldest, is a bit of a troublemaker and we start the book with a major disaster that he created in an attempt to “help”, that came after the big break up between he and one of the Princesses of Easter. He’s known as a bit of a prankster, so it’s not seen as being helpful, just as him being himself and a screwup. Kris comes to find him in a bar and they get a phone call from dad, and just before Coal decides to go home, he ends up in the alley way and there is a hot guy back there – and things happen. But the guy disappears. Once Coal returns to his holiday, Christmas, there is a big PR stunt to get his image back by marrying him off to his best friend Iris (the other daughter of Easter)-who coincidentally is his brother’s crush. However, Halloween gets wind of this and objects, by sending their son, Hex Hallow, to Christmas to vie for Iris’s hand in marriage. The problem? Hex is the Alley Guy. Hijinks and conspiracies ensue.

I really enjoyed the idea that the Holidays are different realms with leaders, but that the people there are…people? Like Coal, Kris, Iris and Hex all go to universities in the real world (Yale, Cambridge, UNAM) and have actually studies and such. But they also have these realms of their respective holidays that has their own hierarchy, no dissimilar to royalty. I think the combination was super fun. I also loved that there was no Bi-erasure – Coal is bi. He likes women, he likes men, full stop-and it’s not seen as “other”, it just…is. Hex was so unexpected. After the alley scene, I totally expected him to be this badass, tough dude but he is a COMPLETE MARSHMALLOW OMG SOMEONE WRAP HIM UP! He was so sweet and so duty minded, but he was so afraid to show how he really felt about Coal at first. Iris is such a BAMF, she is so awesome. I need a story about her, honestly. She was such an amazing friend, but you could tell she absolutely needed someone in her corner. It would be cool to see what the fallout of the failed engagement between her sister and Coal affected Easter. Santa?? He can eat a bag of dicks. He was so awful. To an extent, I could see why he was doing what he did, but OMG he was such a terrible father to the boys in their later years. He definitely only used them for leverage instead of as his sons who were going to inherit Christmas. It was crazy.

I really did enjoy this. I actually met the author at a signing event for a different book entirely (not even in this series) and didn’t even realize it was her…and I owned this book already and hadn’t read it. I didn’t realize just how much I had missed out on! She is AMAZING and funny and so creative!!! I can’t wait to dive into more of her work!

First December read in the bag!

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Ok, so the first of my December reads is complete, and let me tell you…I hated it. I’m so sad too. Anyways, the review:

Title: Love is a War Song by Danica Nava

Rating: 2 stars

I had very high hopes for this. I wanted to like it. I had some good times in it! Really, I did. But OMG did I hate the FMC. Avery Fox is an up and coming pop star – who makes a SERIOUS faux pas with her music video, where she basically mocks Native American (or Indian, as they say in the book) culture, though she is Indian herself (Muscogee). Honestly, calling them Indians made me cringe, since many of my university colleagues have taught me to stray away from that, but the author is herself of the Chickasaw Nation and so I will defer to her own words as I go into this review. Anyways, her momager (think Kris Kardashian but like…meaner?) sends her to the reservation to be with her grandmother, Lottie…who she has NEVER met. Remember, this is a POP STAR who knows NOTHING about her heritage…being thrown into an environment where she ALREADY OFFENDED PEOPLE. Her mother made me so angry.
Enter Lucas Iron Eyes, ranch hand on Lottie’s Red Fox Ranch, where they board and keep some horses. Who already has preconceived notions about Avery and is so awful to her when they meet (though, not for lack of reasons).
Honestly, this whole book made me so frustrated because Avery would go from being a 20-something character to a spoiled 16 year old in like 2 sentences. I sincerely could not remember just how old she was throughout the book. Lucas, while he had some redemption in the end, was NOT someone I expected Avery to fall in love with (seriously? In one month??) but I definitely could see them as friends. I don’t think those two had a LICK of chemistry. Also, his parents suck too.
For those who are like “OMG ThE CeLlAr ScEnE”-again, there was NO CHEMISTRY, it was so wooden…I was cringing the whole time. I’ve seen way better spice scenes.
I dunno, this was just a whole lot of let down to me. I even didn’t really like Lottie. Like Avery was just dumped into this place where she knows absolutely nothing and Lottie does nothing to even help? What was the point of even agreeing to take her if you weren’t even going to try to make a relationship? Like I just…I didn’t like this book.

Apparently, the author also made a video for the song that Avery sings…so here is the link to the video if you care to watch it. I was just so underwhelmed by this. I wanted to like it SO BAD. Maybe I’m just jaded because of Stephen Graham Jones and Buffalo Hunter Hunter? IDK. This just wasn’t it for me.

On to the next! Probably some novellas, to kick start the holidays!

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

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So. After gathering my thoughts, and reading some other reviews, I realized I will not be as eloquent as some here. However, I enjoyed this book. SO MUCH. The folklore, the horror, the gore. How Cora was able to rise above that, make connections with friends after the horrific murder of her sister, with whom she had a complicated relationship with. Re-connecting with her Asian heritage through her one aunt after being forced into accepting Christianity by her white aunt. The racism. THE RACISM. Like holy smokes. During COVID, racism towards Chinese (and by extension, those in other asian countries like Korea, Japan, etc. since white people think they all look the same) was at an all time high. No different than after 9/11, when people (usually white) blamed ANYONE that even looked remotely like those horrible terrorists. For Cora, and by extension, her friends/co-workers, enduring that during the early days and then height of the pandemic and not do anything about it because they knew it would make it worse was heartbreaking to read.

Cora, after the death of her sister, becomes a forensic crime scene cleaner. The past few cleans, though, have shown a pattern of brutal deaths of Asian-American women, and the calling card of dead and mutilated bats. The last thing Cora remembers was someone calling her sister “bat-eater” before throwing her in front of a train and decapitating her. Remember, this story it GORY and it STARTS with that death. We then move into her and her co-workers trying to figure out just WHO could be doing this, when Cora divulges to them that she is being followed by a Hungry Ghost. Something Cora didn’t believe in because she didn’t really believe in anything from her Asian heritage. Not that I blame her, she was definitely in the category of “not Asian enough, not white enough”, since it was something she was basically told her whole life. Once they decide that they need to get rid of the ghost, who Cora believes is her sister, they think it’s over. But it’s just the beginning.

I can’t even decide just how much I loved this book. It hit all the feels, all the tropes, all the checkboxes for a great horror novel. Horror isn’t always gore and jump scares (which this had a LOT of and I’m so glad I read it during the daytime haha) but sometimes the horror is in the everyday people. Of the people you think should be protecting you (looking at you cops) who are instead, covering up crimes by those higher than them, at the cost of the people dying. It was a crazy read, but a great one. I would absolutely read this again.