Horror is always at its best for me when it sneaks up on you. The dread in the back of your mind that builds and lingers until its hands are firmly wrapped around you, cutting off your sense of safety. Horror novellas are uniquely adept at this craft; they must strike faster than their lengthier counterparts in order to snare you well. The best of them still pack a surprise punch, even when you think you’ve got it all figured out.

Mary Rickert’s bite size Krampus story, Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer, is a slick and visceral winter tale sure to leave its mark. Partly a cautionary tale about the ways the relationships we build traditions around grow flimsy with age and how easily the social masks we use to maintain appearances can slip off into shadows, Lucky Girl is remarkably quick on its feet constructing a series of untrustworthy characters. In a house filled with strangers guised as acquaintances, how do you tell the monsters apart from the friends?

At just 112 pages and framed in classical holiday tradition of gathering to tell stories by the fire, Lucky Girl is the perfect single-serving size for a bitter winter’s night. Don’t let its mini stature fool you. Rickert came for blood, and blood she shall have. Bursting with twists to its final gasp, Lucky Girl is both a testament to horror as comfort and a perfect rug-pulling slasher sure to leave its claw marks on your imagination.

Just be careful of any bells…

Well… that was certainly different. I’m not really sure how to rate this. I liked it. It was an easy and very quick read. I could have easily read this in an hour or two if I had that kind of time to read right now.

It was creepy, and part of the story was actually fascinating. It felt like the really good parts were truncated and the rest was just a bunch of people getting together every once in a while to celebrate Christmas.

It was a Christmas story, but it didn’t really feel like it.

I felt like it was lacking in details and emotions. I think that’s why I couldn’t really relate to characters or invest in the story. It reads more like a short story than a novel.

It is a fun read, and anyone who loves Krampus or creepy Christmas stories should read it!

This book was not for me. It was well-composed, and the author achieved what I assume was her goal of making nobody likeable, but unfortunately they were <i>so</i> unlikeable that I found reading the POV character's deliberately-pretentious narration to be largely intolerable, especially over the space of a novella rather than a short story. It's a horror writer (M. Rickert) writing the story of a horror writer (Ro) living through her own horror story, and so a lot of the character's commentary on writing seemed a bit self-congratulatory in tone. Beyond that, it was predictable--the part that was meant to be a twist was telegraphed very early on, so I didn't find it very engaging as a mystery.

That said, I know a lot of people enjoy horror where everyone is terrible and thus everything that happens to them is deserved. It's a popular subgenre! If you enjoy the vibes of that type of horror, you may like this more than I did.

Quick read with very little suspense or spookiness. Definitely a dark atmosphere though. Those with little time to read but looking for a dark read might enjoy.

Well this was a fun Christmas horror novella. The story revolves around Ro, an aspiring horror writer, who has had her fair share of trauma. During the holidays Ro finds herself at a diner she has frequented that is closing. Here she meets 4 others who bond over shared loneliness and get through the holidays together with an impromptu potluck dinner and gift exchange. As the night is coming to an end, the group decides to tell horror stories. Because why not?! Here is where the story of Krampus is introduced. The “friends” agree to get together the following year as well. After that, everyone just drifts apart and losing contact, until several years later when social media is a thing. Life events happen for all parties, and once reconnected they decide to get together. From here there are so many twists and unexpected developments! The story is short, but packs in so much!

Lucky Girl by M. Rickert
.
A impromptu Christmas dinner with strangers is a great time to tell ghost stories, right?
.
This was a quick horror novella that kept my attention. I finished it in one evening. It wasn’t overly scary and I did read it at night. It was ghost stories, awkward reunions, and a nightmare come to life.
.
I really enjoyed the mystery threaded through the story and wasn’t expecting the way it ended.
.
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you Tor and Netgalley for this digital copy to read!

A delicious little nugget of spicy chocolate! This novella packs a punch and makes me wish it was a full length novel. The atmosphere and character development are masterful. If I can’t have a full book with backstories, answers and resolutions then I look forward to reading more from this author!

I think the writing was good. It was engrossing, disturbing, and the tension was there. To be honest, I got spooked.

But I don't know what it's trying to do? What is the actual story?
The messiness of the story is reflected very well in the title. Just looking at the title, I thought: Is it the story of how she became a horror writer? Is it a Krampus story? Is she a lucky girl because she became a horror writer of a Krampus story?
There's a "we're not really friends" group. There's a creepy church with a Krampus. There's also a creepy person from the past. And then, there's a vampire(-looking) servant???

One thing's clear, it is not a Krampus story. The Krampus was more like a motif.

Overall, a short, quick, and okay read. Even though the words flow well, the story is all over the place.

Strangers meet at a diner and develop an odd connection. They meet again on Christmas, give each other stolen gifts, and tell scary stories. Or at least they do for a year until one of them cannot attend their second gathering. Time passes and they agree to meet again at Grayson's home. But why exactly did he invite them and what kinds of secrets are each of them keeping? Is Grayson really their friend or will this holiday have a tragic ending?
At only 112 pages, I finished this story in a flash. I liked how it started, but somehow it became less interesting and to me, a bit confusing. I finished this two days ago and still feel like there might have been sections missing. I don't think that is the case though, more like the author was covering a large chunk of time in a novella. Did I enjoy it? Some parts but overall, I just don't think I was the right reader.

We follow Ro, a struggling writer, who knows all too well the pain and solitude that comes with the Christmas holiday season.

Ro meets four people at the local diner—all of them strangers and as lonely as she 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.

Based on one of those horrifying stories, Ro will write a novel about Krampus. Years later this group of strangers is supposed to meet again.

This was a really short story and it was not perfect but it had great atmosphere and I can recommend this for people looking for a short read for Christmas.

This was good but wasn’t great, in my opinion. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t scary and at times, I got a little bored. It’s a fun little novella and easy to get through, but I expected a bit more from it!

I wanted to like this book. Random meeting of four people at the closing of a go to diner is a curious story, especially when they decided to meet every Christmas and give each other stolen gifts. These people were like children; they told each other horror stories just to unsettle each other. But one story stuck with them.

Couple of years later, the participation had been dwindled and gradually they gave up. One day they got an invite from their rich friend to his estate. Narrator, now a successful horror author, didn’t know why she accepted the invite. She neither wanted to see one guy who used to hit on her nor the rich friend who sent her the bell calling Krampus. Yet there she was with three other listening to other Christmas stories that were bit more than a tale.

Sometimes I felt like I skipped pages thinking there was a gap in what I was reading. I would check and nope, no skipped pages. I wish there was more of a continuity. Little bit more detail, hows and whys,, would made this story more chilling

This novella grabbed me from the start. I liked the characters and storyline, but I felt the ending was rushed and this may have been better if it was longer.

This was predictable, boring and not scary. Not what I was expecting from this at all. Cannot recommend. Don't waste your time.

Thanks to NetGalley, M Rickert and Macmillan Tor Forge Nightlife Tor Dot Com for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/13/22

Thank you to Tor for letting me read LUCKY GIRL early. This book hits the shelves on September 13!

Krampus stories have always intrigued me and this one is no exception. This novella features all the creepy characters you’d expect and then some. I loved how this story came to life and I hated how these characters didn’t hear me screaming at them and I still definitely recommend it.

Four strangers meet in a diner and decide to hang out for Christmas to cure their loneliness. Ghost stories are shared as well as secrets from the past. Krampus can never be tamed.

Christmas and Halloween all in one? Count me in! I really enjoyed this short tale although I don't consider it a Krampus story and found that part of the title to be misleading. A group of strangers meeting for Christmas and exchanging scary stories was so much fun! I would have liked to learn more about who Ro is as a person. Also, I really wasn't expecting the twist this one took and enjoyed that. I'm not going to pick it apart as it's a novella and there's only so much you can fit into this format. That being said, I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed. It was fantastically creepy that I honestly wanted more.

A novella that’s part horror, part holidays, it’s exactly what I expected for this type of story. There were parts that were predictable and the ending seemed a bit rushed. Overall, a solid read I’d recommend for Halloween or for Christmas if you’re into spooky holiday tales.

A more accurate rating would be 3.5 stars.

I find it a bit hard to review this short story because I'm slightly confused by it even though I enjoyed it. I'm a short story writer, which makes it easier for me to appreciate the structure, but I can see many people being bothered by it. The open ending is a bit abrupt and while I know I'll appreciate it more the more I think about it, it can be seen as anti-climatic.
Also, the plot twist was not very surprising to me. And that is something that makes or breaks a story like this for the reader.

But let's focus on the positives now. The character development was excellent. In just a few sentences, we got a good description of who is who. With our main protagonist, there was a bit of exposition but nothing too long.
And the plot was good. It was a very interesting premise, but I don't know if it was explored as well as it could have been. I would have preferred more focus on the horror than on the personal relationships.

However, at the end of the day, it's a very short story which I can see people reading in one sitting and enjoying enough. So I do recommend it.

This was a really good novella. So good. I was disappointed the story was short. I don't read too many novellas for this exact reason. I wanted to know much more about the strangers in the diner who met and celebrated a few Christmases together, what happened during their lives between that first and last Christmas.

So many questions, alas, that's the beauty of a novella, right? Short and to the point.

I'm not too familiar with the Krampus Christmas monster lore, but this book made me become more interested.

While it's mostly set during Christmas it's a perfectly good story for the month of October.

It was also interesting how the character who had a traumatic past turned her own horror into best-selling novels and embraced her "weirdness."

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor Forge for an e-copy of LUCKY GIRL to review.

I rate LUCKY GIRL four out of five stars.

Being completely transparent, I was unaware this was a Christmas themed story until I started reading it. I have grown a lot in the past year, but I remain unchanged in my utter dislike for the holiday season—especially in August. However, a reverence for all things holly jolly is probably a disadvantage when it comes to reading a story with as much horror, murder, and fear as Lucky Girl has. Unfortunately, the ending just wasn’t my cup of tea.
If we’re going by structure, this book is teeny tiny. It is barely over 100 pages, and I very much enjoyed the first two-thirds of it. The tension was real, people were creepy, paranoia was creeping in. As a horror novel, Lucky Girl was hitting all the right buttons. However, the last thirty or so pages, where the conclusion was meant to start picking up, just fell sort of flat. They felt rushed, like the last key points of an essay question written in the final fifteen minutes of an exam. The plot started bulldozing through too quickly for anything that occurred to really resonate. It wasn’t enough for me to say I disliked the novel, but it was enough to prevent me from recommending it. It just wasn’t satisfying to be left feeling like I was reading a synopsis for an ending rather than the actual ending. It also opened up some pretty glaring plot holes that I don’t really want to get into because of spoilers. Just know that the person I would term as the main “villain,” some of their actions make no sense and are never explained.
Overall, not bad if you’re desperate for Christmas themed horror, but that might be a little specific of a niche.