LUCKY GIRL had me at the back cover copy. However, this novel just wasn't for me. I wanted to be pulled in, but unfortunately, it left me not wanting to finish it.

Lucky Girl by M. Rickert is a decent novella that features a likable main character in Ro. There are some terrifying moments that occur throughout the story, but unfortunately, they happen too quickly. However, the quick pacing of the terrifying moments does add to the sense of unease and tension that permeates the story. The writing is solid and there are some interesting themes explored, particularly around the nature of luck and the role it plays in our lives.

M. Rickert's prose is excellent and gripping, drawing the reader into the story and sets a stage.

If you're a fan of horror and looking for a quick, entertaining read, Lucky Girl is worth a look.

I am not sure I was the right audience for Lucky Girl. I thought, going in, that I was in for something akin to Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, but in hindsight, it is ridiculous to expect an author to accomplish in 112 pages what took Straub something north of 500 pages.

Honestly, I really feel like that is my chief complaint with this story – it is just too short. There isn’t enough time to really become invested in the characters, in my opinion.

I like the premise – Orphan’s Christmas? Check. I often attend those myself (my parents are both still alive, but my family is unfortunately not very close). Spooky stories? Hell yeah! But, based on the way the book ends (by a long shot the strongest part of this tale), I think it isn’t near as impactful as it could be because we just don’t have enough time with the characters to build up our Give-a-Shit-Meters™️. At least I didn’t.

I will say this though – Rickert can definitely write. I just wish this story had been fleshed out a tad more.

it was a quick read for me, but I just wasn't into it like I wanted to be. I love a good horror story but this one just wasn't scary.

For a novella this didn't deliver a punch I wanted. The horror does creep on you with the ending, but the beginning just didn't make much sense. The whole Christmas with strangers theme - didn't understand the point. Maybe it's just me, but this was not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Book Summary:
"Ro, a struggling writer, knows all too well the pain and solitude that holiday festivities can awaken. When she meets four people at the local diner--all of them strangers and as lonely as Ro is--she invites them to an impromptu Christmas dinner. And when that party seems in danger of an early end, she suggests they each tell a ghost story. One that's seasonally appropriate.

But Ro will come to learn that the horrors hidden in a Christmas tale--or one's past--can never be tamed once unleashed."
My review:
Roanoke "Ro" as she likes to be called meets 4 strangers who over the years meet together at Christmas time, eat food, tell, interestingly enough, ghost stories, exchanging gifts. The premise of the short novel is sound, however, I expected Lucky Girl would be super scary, to me it wasn't even psychologically tense. For me, it was just too predictable. I enjoyed the fact that author, M. Rickert slipped in short ghost stories, turning a horror in Ro's early life into an extended ghost story, however, it wasn't what I expected and I was sad about that. Maybe, I just expected too much from the other books I've read of Rickerts.

For my first scare of Autumn, this being the first day of that season of scary reads, I felt Lucky Girl started that season out flat. if you are a teen looking for a scare, this isn't it. I've read many wonderful scary YA books- starting with The Grace Year by Kim Liggett. If you are an adult looking for a scare, maybe it is a good read since it's short and you could read it in a day, on lunch break, on the train to work, and again on the way home. However, it's not B.A. Paris' The Prisoner, or A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker books which Macmillan Tor/Forge also publishes.

Attracted by the cover, I was excited to jump into The Lucky Girl by M. Rickert. Unfortunately, this novella did not hold my interest and although I picked it up on several occasions, I had to force myself to finish. I wasn't drawn to the characters and the mystery of it all was lacking. Paragraph to paragraph became a rushed jump and the horror could only be imagined as it skipped over opportunities on several occasions.

All in all, this could be a good read for an airplane ride during the holiday season for the right person, it just wasn't me.

Many thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom and Netgalley for the ARC.

‘Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story’ by M. Rickert is an ebook about Christmas and monsters.

Ro is an aspiring writer spending Christmas in a local diner. When she joins an impromptu group of four strangers, she starts a tradition of gift exchanges and scary story swapping that will lead Ro down darker paths.

When it's all over, I didn't feel like I was very scared at all. There is a good idea here, but the story didn't feel completely done, but I really liked the atmosphere.

(i received an e-arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

while this story was creepy enough to hold my attention, it unfortunately fell a little flat. i personally love stories derived from terrifying folktales, but i feel that it would've been better, had the setting been different.

A fun and horrific read during the holidays for me. I especially enjoyed the isolation, the blizzard, and the idea of a reunion gone wrong.

An unsettling story in the best tradition of Christmas ghost stories, roving around from one tale to the next (though with more connection, in the end, than I'd anticipated). The story within a story, this lightly metafictional element, also feels very Victorian-Christmas-horror, as does the ambiguously unnerving ending. An excellent little book from M. Rickert.

Thank you Tor Nightfire for the advance review copy.

A quick and easy read, but I don't really think it's going to change everyone's life. Still might be great for someone looking for a fun holiday ready!

What are my feelings on this book? I am still trying to sort them out. I didn’t hate it but it did leave me wanting more. More chills, more character development, just more. I wanted the story to be more fleshed out. As much as I love short works not every story works in that format. This is a case in point- this story needed more time to fully develop. It needed to be a full length novel. I loved the premise but the story needed more depth that couldn’t be obtained in the novella form. Anyone else struggling to get much reading done?

Thank you to @netgalley and @tornightfire for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This is a book that calls itself a Krampus Story, but really the Krampus/Christmas season is more of a backdrop to the events of the story rather than a main theme.

The book starts out pretty messy. Five virtual strangers meet at a diner and decide to have a Christmas celebration so none of them are alone for the holiday, except that’s not clearly stated from the beginning. I understand starting during the action to draw the reader in, but I found myself easily bored by the first scenes in the book, trying desperately to set the scene and figure out what was happening and why the events were relevant. I also, as much as I tried to sympathize with her, found myself disliking Ro as a character. Maybe it’s to do with how rushed things felt through the story, and only getting small snippets of her backstory, that I had a hard time figuring out who she was. It felt like she didn’t know who she was. Later on, when she becomes ‘famous’, she’s changed everything about herself in hair and image, becoming a stereotype of a ‘dark, gothic horror writer.’

I spent a lot of the story trying to piece together why the scenes we were getting were important, from the ‘krampus story’ at the beginning to the significance of an item that ends up in Ro’s possession.

I think the most disappointing thing about the story was the promise it showed. It felt abridged, too short to accomplish what it set out to do. The scenes felt disjointed and short without truly connecting. I found myself craving more ‘meat’ to the story. Ro is an interesting character, much as I didn’t like her, and I would have liked to see her a little more, instead of what felt like snippets of a story that should have been longer. The plot never feels like it comes together, and the resolution at the end doesn’t quite make sense.

This story is a relatively short read that does have some good moments, and a bit of a creepy atmosphere to certain scenes. If you’re looking for a quick read on a cold winter day curled up by the fire, this ould be a good way to pass the time.

I loved this novella! Short and sweet and creepy. Perfect for curling up by the fire and having a nice quick read on a cold night.

Despite guessing most of what would happen, I still found myself overly intrigued with the storyline and wanting to give it a chance. I wanted to know what would happen next and see if my guesses and assumptions would end up correct. I devoured this book in a one-sitting read, and found myself at the end wondering, "what the hell did I just read?"

I found the story to be a bit confusing at times, and I also found it hard to connect with any of the characters. In the end, I'm always going to pick up a holiday horror and give it a shot, even if in the end, I didn't end up loving the novella, and probably wouldn't necessarily recommend.

This was really not for me. Even though the writing was fine and the tone was interesting, it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I wish I had liked it, but I know the readers that do enjoy this type of book are going to love it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

This is a fun story for Christmas time. I found it entertaining and creepy. It loses some stars for formatting/editing. This book could have been much longer. It would have given the reader more time to digest the twists and reveals. This novella had a lot of potential for a very atmospheric story but it jumped from screen to screen just as you settled in. As much as I liked this story, I fully believe that it would have worked better as a full length novel or at the very least a longer novella. The prose was beautiful at the start of the novella and lost some of its magic as the story went on. The ending of the story felt rushed.

This one was wild! The storytelling style was a little hard for me to get into, but I enjoyed the book overall. I might need to read it again to make sure I fully understood it.