This short novel comes with plenty of body horror and a fascinating main character, a professor of probability and statistics who struggles to keep living in a world where freakish events (Low Probability Events) have become common -- and fatal. Very much worth reading.

Chuck Tingle does it again! Sufficiently scary and gross while also ending with a heartwarming resolution. As someone with depression I related a lot to the protagonist's journey and struggles, and I was happy she was able to find some hope in the end. Entertaining read that kept me on the edge of my seat!

WOW that was amazing. The combination of surreal horror and every day horror was insane. I devoured this book. This is probably my favorite release from Chuck Tingle now.

I really enjoyed the mystery and the descriptions of horror that really made everything feel real and truly terrifying, but even so there was hope there even under it all. When nothing matters, everything matters.

This review is admittedly a little bit biased, as I am fully a member of the Tingle cult and will happily read whatever he gives us. This particular novel was an incredibly smart, existentially horrific book. It takes more of a sci-fi turn in the second half, which is different from what Tingle has typically done in his traditionally-published novels, but he does so with the finesse that you’d expect from the World’s Greatest Author. The imagery of the scary moments is what Tingle really excels at, equal parts campy and unimaginably terrifying. I also loved how the story was a queer parable, and great bisexuality rep, as expected for Tingle’s work. Chuck Tingle will never cease to amaze me with his outlandish writing and undeniable talent.

Chuck Tingle books, my beloved! I had such a great time with this book. The pull of emptiness of nothing against the chaos of luck, both good and bad both externally and within the main character were compelling the whole way through, and the scenes of horror were genuinely horrifying. The low probability events were unsettling and strange while being just this side of surreal, which is perfect. These things aren't impossible, just astronomically unlikely, especially when stacked together.

Chuck Tingle has once again used horror as a way to prove love is real, and I can't wait to read whatever he's writing next.

Hooked from the first page, I found myself spiraling into Chuck Tingle’s latest nightmare—a world where the most horrifying monster isn’t a creature, but nothing itself. In Lucky Day, Vera, a former statistics professor, is forced to confront a reality where probability has gone rogue, and Vegas might just be the epicenter of the next catastrophe. Tingle masterfully balances cosmic terror with sharp satire, proving once again that reality is the strangest fiction of all.

With his signature blend of absurdity and genuine terror, Tingle crafts a story that is as unsettling as it is darkly funny. The stakes? Reality itself. The villain? The kind of randomness that turns luck into doom. If you thought Tingle’s surreal horror couldn’t get any weirder—or smarter—think again. Lucky Day is a jackpot of existential dread wrapped in Chuck Tingle’s signature style.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tor Nightfire for providing me with an eARC of Lucky Day prior to its publication.

Chuck Tingle the author you are.

While Bury Your Gays takes a while to find its footing, Lucky Day takes off so quickly (and gorily!) that it had be jaw-slack while reading. After then, I was hooked. Not to be personal, but as someone who has been experiencing existential crises for what feels like months now, it scared me more than I think it would've. The concept of accepting true nothingness made me feel so much for Vera because I've been there too. Just maybe not in the way Vera made it to that point.

To begin, the crux of this nothingness and nonexistence being related to the potent distrust and disbelief in bisexuals is so so good. It's a tired argument and hearing Vera defend herself was validating. Even faced with nothingness she still finds a little bite in herself to push back. We aren't at a crossroads. We're right here.

Also, watching Vera hit that emotional rock bottom and slowly find herself clawing herself up... man. I know that really well. The book didn't wax too poetic with this (and that's not particularly Vera's style to begin with). It stayed in those moments just long enough for you to feel it's depth and weight before moving forward, dragging Vera along with the plot whether or not she wanted to go, which I think was better for the pacing of this story.

I also want to put a special highlight on how all of the concepts of tangible fate and luck are explained. It's complex, but not in a manner that is completely devoid of understanding and doesn't keep you for too long. A long, drawn-out discussion of a magic system or strange phenomenon is a sure-fire way to lose a chunk of your audience, something this book deftly avoids. It's easy to fall into this book, become enraptured, and, like Vera, find yourself engrossed in its existentiality and hope without even realizing you needed to hear it. Like Chuck Tingle says, love is real but so is hope.

5/5 stars. I definitely need to read Camp Damascus now.

Chuck Tingle does it again! Everything he writes is solid gold. This is a short read, but such a fascinating one. I loved the main character and their attempts to make sense of a completely unlikely situation. I loved the body horror. I loved it all. We are buying for the collection as we have a growing population of Tingle readers now.

This was absolutely incredible. So much queer rep, what it means to be queer, how it can be daunting to come out, challenges queer people face and more. This was horror done IMPECCABLY. It wasn’t overly gory for the sake of being gory, it was laugh out loud funny at times, and it was so out of this world weird that I literally could not stop turning the pages. When I had to go to sleep or even when I had to put my kindle down to go to the bathroom I was thinking of this book. The main character was everything and I loved being in her twisted little head. This is a top read of the year!

This book is amazing. I could not put it down. The author does a great job of blending horror elements with reality. Readers who love the moments of total reality mixed with the inexplicable will love this book. The voids in time, the portals ... excellent! There is a solid plot with engaging characters. The idea of luck is a fantastic plot line to follow and investigate.

Chuck Tingle, the enigmatic and brilliant mind behind some of the most unexpected genre fiction out there, has done it again.
In Lucky Day, he takes on the concept of actual luck—and what happens when probability stops playing by the rules.

Four years ago, Vera’s life was shattered by the Low-Probability Event, a global catastrophe where over 8 million people died in freak accidents: monkeys on the loose, exploding cars, and countless bizarre tragedies. As a statistics and probability professor, Vera was left not only grieving her mother, but mentally and emotionally paralyzed by the impossibility of what happened.

Now, numb and disengaged, she wants nothing to do with the world—until Special Agent Layne shows up with shocking evidence that suggests the Event wasn't random after all. As Layne begins to unravel something deeply strange and possibly supernatural, Vera feels a flicker of something she hasn’t felt in years: interest. Hope. Maybe even belief.

This is Tingle at his sharpest—genre-bending and full of high-concept weirdness that somehow works. It's a book about grief, about control, and about the terrifying chaos of real randomness. A little dark, a little funny, and absolutely unforgettable. Tingle is our generation's Tom Robbins and if you haven't read him, it's your Lucky Day!

#TorPublishingGroup #ChuckTingle #LuckyDay #SciFiThriller #GenreBendingReads #TinglersForLife

This is my first five star read of the year.

I think this actually changed my brain chemistry. I, probably unfortunately, related to Vera’s way of trying to make sense of the world and her struggle to care even when it hurts. It is so hard to care when everything feels like it’s falling apart, and I feel like this book captured everything I have been feeling since the election perfectly. The commentary on bi erasure and the state of the world was incredible. This is maybe not the book to read if you’re in an existential crisis, because I think if I hadn’t been able to read it in one day, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep from anxiety.

This just hit in the exact right way at the exact right time for me. I cried. There is so much to unpack here, I will probably have to do a reread before it’s released.