Review by C.J. Bunce
Nobody is better at the horror story and England has no better writer of literary fiction of any genre than Kim Newman. For his latest tale A Christmas Ghost Story, he turns to the age-old British Christmas pasttime of telling ghost stories, specifically centering on the initial 1971-1978 run of the annual BBC TV event A Ghost Story for Christmas, similar in popularity to the annual Doctor Who Christmas episodes of today. But this novel is something bigger. This is Kim Newman’s own benchmark for the genre, a worthy follow-up to Charles Dickens’ definitive holiday ghost story A Christmas Carol. It’s also a 2020s take of sorts on the movies A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation–with a distinct British edge. Newman packs so much holiday content in his book it’s practically a big treasure chest of Christmas nostalgia in a small package.
Older British readers will have an absolute blast comparing notes to the days of Christmas past recounted in this novel. Americans will be able to follow along because of Newman’s brilliant writing style, and they will pick up all sorts of nuances they’ve never imagined were part of the English Christmas holiday from the 1970s to now, just as many overlaps with the American holiday are apparent. This story follows 15-year-old Russell “Rust” Wickings and his mother Angie as they prepare for the annual onslaught of holiday activity in Angie’s childhood home of Six Elms, just outside of Sutton Mallet. This town has Christmas decorating battles to rival any other town in the world. It also has bad weather and this Christmas that means Rust and Angie are going to be stuck with snow drifts trapping them inside.
But the real horror and ghostly nature of the story centers on Angie’s past. She may or may not be experiencing the Mandela effect, according to her son, who podcasts paranormal stories. Somebody is sending her strange Christmas cards with dark rhyming messages, very similar to a Christmas ghost story she’d swear aired on a (real-life) BBC series of the 1970s. As Christmas draws closer each day, the terror draws nearer in the first, best (only?) instance ever of a ghost story advent calendar in novel form. But just as every new piece of old, tasteless chocolate from their own advent calendar seems to be making Rust sick with each new day, his ability to rationalize what is happening in their house is dwindling, like Jack Nicholson trapped in the snow on a mountain in Colorado. Did I mention Rust’s mom is an author?
As the end…er… end of the story draws near, it’s anyone’s guess what direction Newman is going to take. Is Angie possessed by some spirit from her past? Is someone just goofing around with her?
A Christmas Ghost Story has its own meta vibe, as if Kim Newman himself experienced this exact same Mandela effect experience–as if he remembers this lost Christmas ghost TV episode. Along the way he shares his intricate investigation, through Rust trying to figure out what the heck is going on and make sure nothing is going to happen to his mom, who in turn fears for Rust’s safety because the cards are addressed to him. Is it the ghosts of Rust’s grandparents set to return for a holiday visit? Is it the ghost of his father, one of the only people who knew the details of past events somehow repeating? Or is it something even darker? It’s not for the faint of heart–some of the episode elements manifest some ghastly things into Rust’s dreams and maybe even his reality.
Along the way–in similar fashion to Newman’s use of props in his celebrated Anno Dracula novels–Newman shares snippets of scenes from that rumored episode of British Christmas television. What’s real? What’s not? The only thing for certain is the title says this is a Christmas ghost story.
So get ready for Kim Newman at his best. Don’t miss Newman’s A Christmas Ghost Story, now available here at Amazon, simply one of the year’s best genre novels.
Don’t miss the works of England’s master of horror reviewed previously at borg, including the definitive Dracula alternate history Anno Dracula, the James Bond send-up sequel Dracula Cha Cha Cha, the Genevieve Dieudonné stories in Genevieve Undead, the WWI story Bloody Red Baron, the perfect son of Dracula tale Johnny Alucard, the recently published turn-of-the-millennium Japan story Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, the comic series Anno Dracula 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem and novel Anno Dracula: One Thousand Monsters, and Newman’s otherworld Harry Potter-esqueThe Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School. And finally more horror mash-up fun can be found in Newman’s alternate Hollywood horror noir story Something More Than Night.
