C. J. Daley

This was included with audible until the end of the year, so I grabbed it for a Christmas season read.

This is a Christmas mystery novella. I have read one story by this author, but both were due to their relation to Christmas honestly. A group of friends are meeting for a long weekend during December. After dinner one night, a very rude comment is made to one of the women about how she’s only interested in the master of the house for his status. Without further thought, everyone goes to bed. However, the following morning, the offended woman is found dead, thrown from the bridge to the icy water below. The hitch here though, is that the bridge was designed so that no one could simply fall. Was she pushed or did she jump?

It is proposed that the guilty party should possibly be forced into a crusade or exile instead of involving the police. If they achieve the job they accepted, all would be forgiven. It would be as if they had survived their term of exile. Naturally, Lady Vispasia, who has absolutely nothing to lose, agrees to accompany them on this journey as a friend. The journey itself is rather harrowing, as they’re going further north during the month of December, but I found the whole exile thing to be pretty odd.

After their journey, the novella wraps up into probably one of the most confusing and infuriating endings ever. They have retrieved the mother of the deceased. The letter they brought her from her daughter detailed more of the situation than they realized, perhaps even pointing the finger at someone other than the accused. Then it just ends with—and I can’t stress this enough as the real ending—“Hell, it’s Christmas! The season of forgiving. Let’s party.”

Huge thanks to Scholastic and Scholastic Focus for the physical ARC! So cool to have one of these.

This is really cool. It’s set up as if you are the investigator, and with the help of your Black Swan Scientific Investigations Handbook you are prepared to research the existence of a prehistoric beast! Comb through the evidence, read through the witness accounts, and try hard not to form an opinion! I can see this being such a huge hit with kids and if their imagination is good, there’ll be no end to the fun they can have.

For me, the actual scientific research included was my favorite. From the first sighting all the way to the latest in 2024, the author has delivered an opinion free dissection of what’s been seen and recorded. Whether you’re a believer, or want to stick with the science, the information is so interesting that I think both sides can read for enjoyment.

Is it a prehistoric plesiosaur, that not only survived the last 66 million years undetected, but also survived the fact that the loch was frozen 18,000 years ago? Or is it a new species that has evolved since the loch thawed and perhaps is unrelated? Perhaps a giant eel? Perhaps even something invertebrate that wouldn’t leave huge bones behind to be found?

And while there is no concrete evidence to push forward as proof, there’s certainly nothing definitively proving it’s not real or possible… and if it’s not, why do people keep spotting it?

Found this while browsing Skybound’s Black Friday sale. I didn’t know there were in-universe stories I hadn’t read yet, so I rectified that real quick. This one and the YA Clementine trilogy, which I really look forward to.

This is a one off story featuring Jeff. Jeff is looking to find himself, do a bit of traveling while he does, and sadly finds himself quarantined inside Barcelona when the zombie apocalypse starts. He’s a good guy, which the reader finds out quickly, as he tries to save a kid from being attacked. He isn’t successful, but luckily he is saved by a Spanish armor wearing woman with a halberd. (That really got my mind racing on some museum robbing zombie stuff). Someone to ally with, and also someone with a plan to get out of Spain.

This was awesome frankly. Not only is it a canon story, it’s the first time we see something outside of America in the Walking Dead. There a mixed rumors that foreigners both brought the illness in, as well as America having the cure figured out. Readers of the series will know that’s not true, but it was cool to see another part of the world. This seems pretty close to break out as well, as Jeff seems kind of like an amateur still.

You’ll end up with lots of wondering about what could have been if this one off didn’t end. And what a solid reveal that I did NOT know about.

I really enjoyed the black and white art mimicking that of the full series, and the splashes of red were just perfect at the end.

Grabbed this for a seasonal read on audible’s cyber Monday sale and dove right in.

This is an enjoyable anthology that features different holiday creatures, traditions, and locales. From the Christian Christmas, to folkloric creatures and the winter solstice. I particularly enjoyed that each story was finished with a small snippet of the author describing where they came up with the story idea. Which read like little behind the scenes inclusions.

But with a lot of these large anthologies, I have to wonder if creating them just for a large chunk of them to go to invited authors is the best move. Especially when many of these were just okay. My wonder is if the authors are writing just to be included off the invite, rather than a desire to write the story…which I could be entirely wrong, and enjoyment is subjective. That’s also not to say that I disliked any of them outright, and I appreciated how well rounded it was with its diversity of traditions, but maybe I was just looking for more of a Christmas-centric horror collection, which would be on me!

Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, and Gemma Files are a few standouts, with stories that I particularly enjoyed, as well as their reasonings for writing.