Thank you NetGalley & Tor Nightfire for the advanced digital copy!!

Chuck Tingle really said stats, sci-fi, horror, and existential dread? Yes, all in one book—and somehow made it work. I mean, who else would write a story about a statistics professor unraveling a mystery because a “Low Probability Event” (LPE) kills millions in the most bizarre ways imaginable?

Vera, our cynical number-loving heroine, teams up with chaotic sunshine Agent Layne to investigate said disaster—which leads them straight to a Vegas casino (naturally). Their Sad Cop/Happy Cop dynamic was chef’s kiss, and the setting? Perfectly unhinged.

The book dives deep into “woman vs. the void” vibes with a dash of hope and a whole lot of chaos. The ending left me stunned, but like Vera, I guess that’s the point: even when you do everything “right,” life is still one big question mark. Tingle’s weird little masterpiece had me horrified, moved, and oddly inspired.

I just finished Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle. I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Vera Norrie is about to have a great day. The youngest professor at U Chicago, today is the day she celebrates publishing her book. Her mom is coming to celebrate, her beautiful fiancee Annie by her side, it's the culmination of years of hard work. And then it happens, the Low Probability Event. Chaos, death, meaninglessness. In the aftermath, Vera's entire world is turned upside-down as the Statistician loses faith in the whole world. Until a special agent comes to offer her an opportunity to figure out whose fault this all was. Vera gets swept up in an investigation that is so much bigger than she could have predicted.

Lucky Day pretty much hits right from the start. Vera is an interesting protagonist- both reluctantly hopeful and so jaded it hurts. There are moments of extreme gruesome-ness scattered within the investigation itself which were rather fun. I think Tingle tackled a lot of social ills in this one (not dissimilar to Bury Your Gays), from government/police accountability to corrupt corporations, even touching on bi-erasure. He weaves a story adeptly that doesn't feel like it's preaching at you, but let's you draw your own conclusions. He's really carving out a special place for himself in this horror-sci-fi-mystery blending genre that is so much fun to read!

I love when people pair a mellow song to unhinged situations. *Cue ‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed*

We all know and love Tingle. From his fantastic titles to his Queer horror, Chuck can do no wrong. Keep fighting the good fight!

This one I have to say was so-so. I enjoyed it but there was something that wasn’t fully connecting. The first half of this book was utterly insane and completely wild. I’m still in shock as to how this all started. I may still be in disbelief. Then sixty percent in, I started to lose interest a tad bit.

The writing style was top notch, the characters were interesting as all hell, they definitely keep you entertained but there was something about that last part that lost me. Still an enjoyable read.

While ‘Lucky Day’ wasn’t my favorite release by Tingle, I’ll read everything and anything he releases. I’ll always have the Tingle spirit!

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle was such a unique and surprising read—one of those novels that completely defies expectations in the best way. While it’ll likely be shelved as horror (and yes, there’s some graphic gore to back that up), at its core this is a mind-bending sci-fi story with a philosophical heart.

The book follows Vera, a brilliant probability expert and survivor of the “Low Probability Event” (LPE), a global catastrophe in which countless wildly unlikely things happened all at once—think fish raining from the sky, violent escaped zoo animals, freak accidents, all colliding in one massive burst of chaos. Traumatized and withdrawn in the aftermath, Vera is pulled back into the world when she’s recruited by a new government agency that investigates bizarre post-LPE anomalies. Together with an agent, she heads to Las Vegas (because where else would a story about luck and probability be set?) to get to the bottom of the phenomenon—and hopefully stop it before it happens again.

This novel asks some truly fascinating questions: What does it mean to be lucky? Why do our worst memories often feel more defining than our best ones? And, maybe most importantly, is the sheer fact of our existence the weirdest longshot of all? The story is quick-paced and sharply written, with just enough action and weirdness to keep things moving while still pausing to explore some deep existential territory.

I’m new to Chuck Tingle’s work, but Lucky Day definitely has me curious to see what else he’s written. This one was smart, strange, and completely engrossing.

When statistics professor Vera survives the Low-Probability Event, where eight million people were killed in absurd ways in a single day, she struggles to pick up the pieces…until Special Agent Layne shows up at her door needing her help to figure out what happened that day.

This was gory, fast-paced, full of heart, and so much fun.

This book cements Chuck Tingle as an automatic-purchase author for me. I love his voice, his characters, the social commentary aspect of each of his stories. The two main characters felt real and dynamic in a way that is so important in 2025, the central conflict of the story felt extremely relevant to how our society and economy operates in the United States. I can't wait for this book to release so I can start talking to other readers about everything I loved here, and I can't wait to see what Chuck puts out next.

"Don't try making sense of it. You won't find meaning in nothingness."

Okay, so imagine Final Destination, but instead of death killing people that escaped its grasp, it's bad luck killing people just because. More specifically, imagine that there's a day when everything impossible to happen, happens. And kills a lot of people. From fish falling from the sky to balloons making people float, to an escaped rabid monkey carrying a heavy typewriter. That's kind of what this book is about, and everything you should know about it going into it!

I loved Chuck Tingle's Bury Your Gays last year, so I've been looking forward to reading more from him. I also love everything he does and his weird erotica. Which I've never read and probably won't, but I RESPECT IT 🙂‍↕️

Something that I love about Chuck Tingle's horror, which probably comes from the fact that he writes weird erotica, is that he's willing to GO THERE. He's willing to get weird, messy, and wild.

I also love that he always tries to include a discussion of the queer experience with the horror. I haven't read Camp Damascus yet, but I imagine it also features that from the synopsis. Bury Your Gays discusses queer repression and how the media can influence that. This one looks at the invalidation of bisexual people with a main character who internalized that to the point that she's convinced she might not exist.

This book is very short and very fast-paced, so it goes by so quickly, and because of that, I think I didn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. But I still really enjoyed the wild journey that this book went on!! A lot of fun and deliciously gory!!! Everyone make sure to check it out when it comes out in August !!!

ID: a white hand holding up lucky day by chuck tingle up to a bookshelf.

Chuck Tingle has done it again! Love is real! With no one else can you get absurd apocalypse, existential crisis, sensational character, corporate greed villainy, and cosmic interference and still get your happy(ish) ending. The character depth, growth, and interplay drives the story through a series of ever increasing improbable plot with skill and love. Top tier!

Unsurprisingly this was another solid horror novel from Chuck Tingle, I wouldn't say it's as good as Camp Damascus or Bury Your Gays but it was still an incredibly unique, creatively executed piece of horror literature that very beautifully touches on the idea of purpose, meaning, and the beauty of living in spite of the chaos of both. I really loved Vera as a character from the first page, and her struggle in finding purpose in the world and in her own existence after the deeply traumatizing 'Low Probability Event' was paired beautifully with the discussion had in this book about biphobia and bi erasure that exists both within the queer community and outside of it. The only real problems I had with this book had to do with the character of Agent Layne and how he as a character felt incomplete at times, there were several instances where it felt like we were given information about his character's past and his beliefs that needed to be discussed beyond a comment in a single sentence but instead were dropped almost as soon as they were mentioned. This was kind of a let down since I wanted to be interested in his character and his motivations but instead the things we know about him that were discussed in detail were probably the points I cared the least about in comparison to everything else, it just kind of felt like facts about his character were dropped in at random to make him seem more fleshed out but instead made him feel more like the incomplete draft of a character. I did however still enjoy the complicated dynamic that Layne and Vera had and while I didn't love Layne I still enjoyed his scenes due to the banter and constant pushback he had from Vera. Another point in this book that I loved but will not go into too much detail on in order to avoid spoilers was Vera's relationship with her mother- it was messy and complicated and honestly one of my favorite aspects of the story. From the way Vera spoke to her and thought of her to the importance of their relationship echoing throughout the entire novel I really am amazed with how Chuck Tingle was able to so accurately capture the complicated parent/child dynamic of someone you look up to so much also being the person who let you down in the biggest way. This was a really great book, I can't wait to see what weird idea Chuck Tingle will turn into horror next.

What a bizarre little book!
Following a probability and statistics professor on the day of a major chain of absurd and horrific events is wild enough, but then you go an add an X-Files-like vibe. I am obsessed!
This story manages to be oodles of fun, terrifying, and emotional without becoming too heavy. With such phenomenal writing, hand selling Lucky Day will be a breeze. 5/5.

I read Bury Your Gays last year and absolutely loved it. It was wild, imaginative, bizarre-- really the list goes on. Of course, Tingle has a reputation, or more accurately I should say a legacy, so it's always going to be exciting when he releases something not in the Tingleverse, doubley so if it's horror. I was extremely pleased to finish this with the same level of awe I did for his previous books. Tingle is so dang creative, frankly a powerhouse of creativity and originality, and honestly I could go on and on about how cool he and his writing is.

Now for the actual writing itself. Lucky Day was fascinating. It has a wild and interesting premise, the setting for most of the novel being the world in the aftermath of what came to be called the Low Probability Event. Mid-air plane collisions, a man beat to death with a typewriter wielding chimp dressed like Shakespeare, salmon flying through windshields in the middle of a densely populated city, all of this happening in one day and resulting in the deaths of about 8 million people, world-wide.

Our main character is Vera, a survivor of this event who has fallen into a deep 4 year depression since then. A statistics and probability professor and newly published author, the day of the LPE she was celebrating with her fiancée, mother, and friends before all hell broke loose. Accompanying her is Agent Layne, another survivor and strange government official, a heavy hitter for an organization that's investigating a casino -- the very one she wrote her book about those four years ago.

Furthermore, because frankly I can't stop, the science fiction and horror aspects are neat as all heck. These pages are blood soaked, and Tingle's descriptions are straight up disturbing for the horror scenes. Most notably are almost immediate, and are even hinted at in the description of the book: the balloon ropes and the chimp with the typewriter. Tingle didn't have to include that the typewriter makes a different sound once it cleaves through a human skull and brain matter and meets the floor, but he did and that was awesome.

This book was fantastic, and for me at least has surpassed Bury Your Gays for my favorite book by Tingle. It's a constant struggle between nihilism and hope, in trying to find meaning in a world where the laws we previously understood to be true and real are upended and turned on their heads. It is a pendulum that swings from depression and hopelessness to carefree and weightless nonchalance. In the face of chaos, do you say "nothing matters :(" or "nothing matters :)"? What do you do when you lose absolutely everything?

Thanks a TON to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review. This one was so cool and I'm very thankful.

Whoa. This was my first Chuck Tingle book, but it won't be my last. I fell so hard into this story - 2 hours went by without me realizing it.

One day in May a terrifying "Low Probability Event" occurs, killing millions of people (mostly American adults) in horrifyingly bizarre and highly unlikely ways. Vera, a professor of Statistics and Probability, survives, but she's not living. Holed up in her mother's house she's barley managing to exist when a Low Probability agent knocks on her door. He doesn't have to abide by any laws or follow any rules, and he's certain Vera is going to be the one person to finally explain the event that continues to elude even the most brilliant of minds.

Full of terror, twists, and fantastically bizarre events, this is the book you can't turn away from!

So much gore and terror, but still hopeful. This is the first book I've read by Chuck Tingle, although I've been a fan of his for years. Amazing story. Love is real.

It’s May 23rd otherwise known as the Low Probability Event.

I first fell in love with Tingle’s writing with Bury Your Gays, as a bisexual the literal invisibility of one of the bisexual characters really spoke to me. Especially as a bisexual female presenting person in a heterosexual presenting relationship. Lucky Day carries this theme further.

The central event of this novel centers around two things, the Low Probability Event and the surrounding trauma Vera grapples with as a result and a supernaturally lucky casino in Las Vegas.

I loved this! I got the approval on NetGalley and immediately opened it up and started. All throughout Tingle’s work is the theme Love is real, love is what saves each character.

I officially read the three Chuck Tingle horror novel! I give Lucky day 3.5 stars.

Tingle have a very special creative mind i must say. His novels are in the horror section but, i think the line is thin with science-fiction. Once again we are going on a journey with odds events that make you say ''wtf did i just read?''. I got it for mostly all Lucky day but in the end, this is a really well written book.

Vera is a statistic professor who is in a meeting with all the improbable things you can imagine and her life is now upside down. I think this novel is a great exploration of life and the uncontrollable side of it. Vera was such a true and relatable character, big highlight. Overall very good weird book with just the good amount of gruesome horror.

This was so good, it absolutely blew me away. Vera’s grief was so visceral and interesting to wade through. Everything clicked together incredibly well, and I’m fascinated by the concept of historical inertia.

Chuck Tingle wows me again! I love his unhinged, crazy, and absurd events in this book! A major disaster occurs called the Low-Probability Event in which nearly 8 million people die in absurd ways. The FMC, Vera Norrie, gets involved in a part of this Low-Probability Event ordeal after publishing a book about a casino. Special Agent Jonah Layne is investigating the casino and needs Vera to help so another event won't happen again. I absolutely loved this wild ride, which was fast paced (IMO) and is just an amazing book of unhinged people and events that I tend to gravitate towards. I feel like Tingle is becoming an auto buy author for me.

🍀 Book Review 🍀

Ever since loving BURY YOUR GAYS (top ten of 2024, woop woop!), I didn't hesitate one second to push all my chips in and gamble on Chuck Tingle's lastest novel, LUCKY DAY. And this tug of war between the logic and the improbable paid off.

At its center is Vera, a woman who has tried to make sense of the world through statistics, probability, and rationality. Her entire worldview is built on predictability until a single, wildly improbable (and horrific, grotesque and completely bonkers) event called the Low Probabiliaty Event shatters her sense of order. From that point on, Vera dives headfirst into a reality where reason gives way to chaos, and absurdity reveals deep, unsettling truths.

Themes of free will, fate, luck, and historical inertia are woven throughout the narrative, raising big questions without offering easy answers. While the story doesn’t shy away from grief and dread, it resists falling into nihilism. Instead it suggests that sometimes, just *existing* is enough. Fellow fans of Bury Your Gays will recognize familiar themes of existential horror, along with a few callbacks to a certain TV series. I got serious X-Files vibes, with a dash of Final Destination and Jordan Peele’s Nope thrown in. One reveal had me literally gasp, “NO WAAAAY” 🤯 but apparently yes, f’ing way. Tingle proves once again that they’re not just a master of surreal horror, but a fierce, compassionate observer of what it means to be alive in an unpredictable world.

I'll end with a quick stat: at the time of this review, 9 out of 10 readers gave Lucky Day 4 or 5 stars (according to my completely elementary math), so your odds of enjoying this one are looking very good. Highly recommend for my horror folks, just be sure to check content warnings as always. LUCKY DAY comes out August 12.

Huge thanks to @NetGalley and @TorNightfire for the free eARC.

Rating: I enjoyed it! 👏🏼

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is a cosmic horror with comic moments of absurdity so bizarre you have to laugh, despite the tragedy. I found myself relating to main character Vera a lot, her fits of rage and her depression among other emotions. This book is a must-read for horror fans, for Chuck Tingle fans, and for everyone who knows love is real.

I have been a fan of Chuck Tingle for a while and started off really enjoying the concept and writing of this book. However, near the end, I felt that there were elements that could have been investigated further as I was confused. I felt like Tingle jumped to certain outcomes without laying the foundation - from character decisions to major plot resolutions. I think there is a great book in here but it needs a bit of finessing.