The Office meets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in this fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy set during the horror publishing boom of the ’80s, by New York Times best-selling satirist Andrew Shaffer.

Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is desperate to work anywhere in publishing. Prestigious Blackwood-Patterson isn’t the perfect fit, but a bizarre set of circumstances leads to her hire and a firm mandate: Lussi must find the next horror superstar to compete with Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub. It’s the ’80s, after all, and horror is the hottest genre.

But as soon as she arrives, Lussi finds herself the target of her co-workers’ mean-spirited pranks. The hazing reaches its peak during the company’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, when Lussi receives a demonic-looking object that she recognizes but doesn’t understand. Suddenly, her coworkers begin falling victim to a series of horrific accidents akin to a George Romero movie, and Lussi suspects that her gift is involved. With the help of her former author, the flamboyant Fabien Nightingale, Lussi must track down her anonymous Secret Santa and figure out the true meaning of the cursed object in her possession before it destroys the company—and her soul.

My Review

“Horror took you right to the precipice, where you could stare into the darkness without falling in. Without losing yourself. She enjoyed that feeling, giving death the finger.”

This was cheesy 80’s holiday horror at its finest!

It’s no secret, like at all, that I don’t like Christmas. It’s one of the worst holidays in my opinion. But will I wish people a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and celebrate the holiday with friends and family? Yes, I’m not a complete dick. But I do love horror and by that I mean, I love everything horror. And that’s right dear readers, even Christmas Horror.

The cover is what caught my attention with this book. It reminded me of Black Christmas mixed with Critters with a dash of Puppet Master. After that, I knew that I needed this book in my life and part of my collection.

Andrew takes you right into the weird and the bizarre from the first page. There’s no leading up to anything with him, it’s like diving head first into an icy pond. And if you make it past the prologue and think that it was weird, wait until you get further in. It only gets better and weirder as the pages go on. I was hooked.

Secret Santa was a fantastic read. It was full of dark humor and a bizarre little critter who you can’t help but root for. This short read was bizarre, funny, and pure holiday gold. I love when authors don’t hold back on anything and write exactly what they want to. I really hope Andrew continues to write for the horror genre because I need more books like this one!!