I won't be reading this. I've tried multiple times and haven't gotten into it. Thank you though for the opportunity. If I read it in the future I will come back and change this review.

Like the best Ghost stories for Christmas, Newman's novella combines eerie, atmospheric writing with festive charm, and unnerving suspense. I don't care what anyone says, Newman is a God, and this is getting full marks from me!

A Christmas Ghost Story is a delightfully demented chilling mysterious ghost story within a story. It's dangerously addictive as you begin the haunting climb to the unexpected ending. It's a book which should be read in the daylight only... at night if you are brave!

It's the Christmas season in England for Rust, a teenager and his mother Angie, a struggling novelist. It's just the two of them and they don't have much but come Christmas they splurge! But this Christmas everything seems to be off, and they don't quite understand what is going on. Their first hint of a problem is when on December 1 Rust opens the first day of his advent calendar and there is something wrong with the taste of the chocolate.

Then, they begin to receive unsigned Christmas cards with ominous poetic writings in them. Rust wants to throw them out but Angie for some reason feels scared by doing that, so they begin to put them on their mantel. Each day.

They try to figure out if this is some sort of a sick joke and even attempt to fool the writer of the cards and try to see who is putting them in their mailbox and on their property with no luck. They begin to feel it must be a ghost, but really, they are both too sensible. Each card is more frightening than the previous.

Worse, strange things begin to happen to them and their surroundings. Rust feels sick after eating the chocolate. A strange plant begins to overtake their backyard. And the Christmas turkey, well it just goes bad in the refrigerator.

But Angie fears she knows what's happening and it has something to do with when she was a child, and she secretly watched a Christmas horror story on the television without her parents knowing after they had gone to bed. More importantly is if she is correct, Rust is in danger. She must figure out how to stop this.

As she searches the internet for clues of the story she watched, she finds nothing. It's as if it never existed. Did she imagine the whole thing? And as the days towards Christmas get closer, her fears grow because she knows what happens on December 25. How do they stop this?

A Christmas Ghost Story is a spine-chilling tale in which you won't know the outcome until the very end. How can such a happy time take such a terrible turn? Well, you will certainly find out!

Thank you #NetGalley #TritonBooks #KimNewman #AChristmasGhostStory for the advanced copy.

Lynda and her teenage son, Rust, are preparing for the holiday season, but their festive spirit is quickly dimmed. Sinister Christmas cards begin arriving—lacking in cheer and full of unsettling messages. They remind Lynda of a show she watched in her youth, and soon, an eerie sense of dread settles over them…

I wanted to love this one. The premise is unique, bizarre, and dripping with unease, and the author does an excellent job of creating an ominous atmosphere where something always feels off. Unfortunately, the story didn’t quite work for me. It had potential, but in the end, it didn’t fully come together the way I had hoped.

I absolutely adore a spooky ghost story, especially one themed around christmas. This book was seasonal, fun, and mysterious all at once. I thought the story unfolded in a way that kept me hooked from start to finish, and I could not recommend this book more. Very fun.

I can see that reviews are rather mixed on this one.....but actually I found it intriguing. A mix of the supernatural and ghostly, with a hint of weird, and moments of humour.
I read this on Christmas Eve, and I appreciated the festive season setting.

Lynda and her teenaged son Rust are preparing for Christmas, decorating the house and opening the first door on their advent calendar. Then they receive a Christmas card. The sender's name is absent, and the image feels a little unsettling.

Then, each successive day, they receive another unsigned Christmas card, with the images similar and progressively more frightening. Lynda remembers a Christmas show's episode from her childhood in which something similar happened, but there's no sign when Rust searches for it that this particular episode ever aired.

This feels like a haunting, and a ghost story, and when we finally get to the resolution after pages and pages and pages of scene setting and atmosphere building, I just did not care. This whole story could have been a short, instead of a novella. I liked Rust, and the in-story creepy tale, but again, I think this could have been much shorter and evoked a real sense of dread in me, rather than boredom.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Titan Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

DNF'd at 30%, just not for me, sorry. I liked the opener describing the battle of the Christmas lights, and was intrigued by the lead character and his mother, but the interludes jolted me put of the story.

A CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY almost lost me in the first two dozen of so pages...It was just a tad TOO British for my liking, or my understanding. Newman, as he is sometimes wont to do, throws the reader into a maelstrom of Brit slang, rhymes, catch-phrases, and references, which rendered the opening portion of the book all but impenetrable to me. I either got used to it, or he toned it down, because I found myself greatly enjoying the middle section, before getting to an ending that seemed, to me, rushed and abrupt.

The relationship between the mother and son is well-defined and enjoyable, and the meat of the story drew me in, but Newman kind of lost me at the end, taking the book from "EXCELLENT!" territory to "I can just about recommend it.". It made for some fun reading in the nights leading up to Christmas, for sure.

This was a quick Christmas Eve read for me, and I did enjoy it. The only issue I had with the book was that the ending felt a little rushed, and I wish there had been more time spent with the mom dealing with her past. I could see where Kim Newman was trying to go with the story, but I just felt that it didn't hit the mark with me. Will I pick up their other series? Probably, but not anytime soon.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me give my honest review

This was a fun and creepy story perfect for the holiday season. I liked the relationship between Angie and Rust - it felt like an authentic mother/son pairing, with exasperation and love in equal measure. The horror element of the story built suspense well, getting progressively more ominous as the narrative went on, which I appreciated. I found the end a little bit disappointing, but overall, had a good time with this one.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have never read anything else from this author. I admit that I requested this book because it had an interesting synopsis. I was disappointed because after finishing it left me wondering with things left unsaid or undone. I was hoping for more, but overall it was a good book. I want to read more from this author to see how the next book is.

Thank you Net Galley ARC!

2.5 stars rounded up. This was one of those books that left me wondering what I just read. Not in a particularly good way, unfortunately. It had an interesting premise and style. It's the kind of story that I'm sure would work better for other readers - some of them anyway. It was just too out there for me.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

This was an interesting read. Sort of literary in writing and execution, but mysterious and horror-leaning in plot. The writing was jarring and took a moment to sink into; it’s intentionally choppy and sharp and doesn’t necessarily make for smooth reading. The story builds suspense quickly, which kept me reading. There is a fever-dream tinge to the horror which can be really hit or miss for me but definitely worked here.

A Christmas story that quickly spirals into insanity. "Cruels" instead of carols; jingle bastards instead of jingle bells; and instead of reminiscing over warm holiday memories, Angie ANF her son succumb to the darkness of the season.

This was dark and atmospheric but also funny in a strange, dark humor way. This story has so many good elements and is so promising but it loses its way in execution. It needs so much more fleshing out. The characters require more development.

This was spooky and funny, my favorite combo. Eerie atmosphere with a bizarre mystery (that if I’m being honest I don’t really understand, and expected more from), reminiscent of old Victorian Christmas ghost stories, spiraling into insanity. This was really strong for me until the end, it went a bit off the rails and didn’t give me the closure I’d hoped for.

From the publisher: “From the acclaimed author of Anno Dracula, the perfect gift for those who love the dark fantastic imaginations of Neil Gaiman and T. Kingfisher, this is a nightmarish tale of a haunted Christmas set deep in the British countryside not too long ago. Cosy traditions are made twisted and terrifying as a mother and son grapple with their painful past.

December 1st. Angie and her teenage son Russell (Rust) prepare for Christmas, stringing fairy lights around their isolated home on the Somerset levels and decorating a tree with traditional ornaments. The first door of the advent calendar is opened, but the chocolate inside tastes off. Rust receives his first Christmas card; it’s unsigned, and the message is ‘pinch, punch… first of the month’. The robin chirruping on a bough in a snowy woodland picture looks like a nasty piece of work.

The cards keep coming, one each day and each more sinister than the last, and a frightened Angie recalls ‘The Cards’ – a seasonal TV show from her childhood that featured similar happenings, and while she remembers it vividly, there is no evidence that it was ever broadcast…

Christmas cheer is gradually poisoned, with ‘cruels’ instead of carols, the turkey rotting in the fridge, unwelcome visits from the Merciless Gentlemen and the Jingle Basterds, and Rust becoming increasingly unwell. Angie begins to wonder if her childhood Christmases were in fact as joy filled as she remembers…

A frightening tale of seasonal dread from the acclaimed author of Anno Dracula. Cosy traditions are made twisted and terrifying as a mother and son grapple with their painful past.“

In these days of lengthy series and books running to hundreds of pages, it is occasionally worth remembering that there’s much to be said for a short yet sharp shock of a story. And at 162 pages, Kim Newman’s latest is that.

This is one that builds, from something as gentle and as evocative as a snowy Christmas postcard scene, into something quite.. unusual. Newman knows how to build suspense, going from what seems to be a fairly mundane and peaceful beginning to a rather nerve-shredding conclusion.

What this book, even of this size, gives is a taste of Kim’s enthusiasm and energy. It is so tightly written, it could be a script from the Gilmour Girls. Each line, sentence, phrase has meaning, skilfully crafted. If you blink, you’ll miss a wry comment, a witticism, a detail. Being a Newman book, it is also filled with his trademark cultural details on television (the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas, for example), films and books (Dickens, M. R. James etc). Kim also manages to make some wry comments on self-publishing!

It is also thoroughly contemporary, combining podcasts and social media with references to Christmas events and traditions of the past. I can see people reading this on the countdown to Christmas – a horrible advent calendar!

Alternatively, if you want to give someone a fright after their Christmas turkey? With the lights down low and a roaring fire nearby, this might do the trick. It really gave me the creeps! Recommended.

Book Review: A Christmas Ghost Story by Kim Newman
Rating: 2.5/5

Kim Newman’s A Christmas Ghost Story attempts to blend festive charm with eerie supernatural elements, but it struggles to find its footing. While the premise holds promise—ghostly intrigue set against a holiday backdrop—the execution feels uneven.

The atmosphere is suitably spooky at times, with Newman’s trademark wit and historical flourishes adding moments of intrigue. However, the pacing is sluggish, and the characters lack the depth needed to anchor the story. The scares, though occasional, don’t deliver the emotional weight or tension expected from a tale of this genre.

For fans of Newman’s work, there are glimpses of his signature style, but A Christmas Ghost Story ultimately falls short of being truly memorable. It’s a decent read for die-hard enthusiasts of holiday ghost stories but doesn’t quite live up to its chilling potential.

I really disliked the writing style in this book. It made it very hard to get immersed in the story, so unfortunately, I ended up quitting on it.

3.5/5

Christmas has long been a time for spooky ghost stories – hauntings, dark tales, even time-travelling, life-changing beings. But, I’d never previously read anything where someone was being haunted by a ghost *story*, yet that’s what we get here.

I’ll admit, this one took a little while for it get its hooks into me. While I loved the Britishness of the opening third, I was getting ever so slightly bored with it before the first card arrived and things changed for the better.

So, the cards…our main character Russell – sorry, Rust – is starting his family’s traditional Christmas celebrations on 1 December with his mum when he receives a weird and somewhat sinister card in the mail. He gets another on the second, and third, and so on. It turns out that these cards are mimicking the story of a spooky tale Rust’s mum swears she saw on TV when she was a kid. And yet…that show never existed. As the story progresses, Rust and his mum are further possessed by this odd and increasingly spooky ghost story takes over their house and their lives.

Once this got moving, I really enjoyed it. The quirkiness stayed throughout and, while I’ve read plenty of things that were outright scarier, I really appreciated the building of dread and sense of Something Not Right that was building throughout. I’m also fascinated and creeped out by the milk float delivering the cards with its festive horn…how did it manage?

This is a fun read as we get closer to the big day and something a little different too. It also made me think a lot about the traditions we each build in our own families and why we do it. Oh, and it *also* made me want some mince pies stuffed with too much mince.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy – out now!