Funny, and a fun story, I enjoyed it. The plot is a little goofy, but the characters are likeable and believable.

This was so extremely weird, wild, and fun in the best way! Definitely falls into my weird girl fiction category. I didn't necessarily love the characters, but they were well fleshed out, and the character development was great. The plot was very unique and unlike anything I've read before. The writing was excellent, immersive, and atmospheric. I also loved the parallels to real-world issues. This was my second Chuck Tingle book that I absolutely loved and I can't wait to read more. The narrator was fantastic! She did an amazing job at bringing the story to life. Her tone and voice inflection were superb.

I went into Lucky Day hoping to love it, especially since I had such a blast with Bury Your Gays. But this one just didn’t land for me. It read like someone writing to meet a deadline rather than telling a story with real fire. It wasn’t queer enough, it wasn’t messy enough, it wasn’t anything enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the early copy, but unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me.

4.5
this was such a captivating read---perfect for bringing and disconnect from the horrors of the world with some fictional horrors.
mara wilson's work was impeccable as always, and i found myself waiting for more after the book was done playing.

<b>Hmmm…4⭐, I think?</b>

Even after sitting on it for a good 24 hrs, I still don’t entirely know how I feel about <i>Lucky Day</i>. I keep swinging between “that was brilliant” and “that was bizarre,” with PLENTY of other thoughts in between.

The concept is incredibly creative and well executed—I’ve truly never read anything like it. But it’s also a very challenging read. Vera lives in a place of heavy nihilism in the aftermath of the Low Probability Event, and the reader sits with her through long stretches of that headspace.

While she’s not actively planning to end her life, she's still in a place where if someone jumped the curb and hit her, she’d consider that a <b>good</b> outcome. If this kind of material is triggering for you, you’ll want to be in a strong mental place before picking this one up. It might even be best to skip it all together.

One of the things that worked for me was the contrast with Layne, the government agent. He survived the same event but came out of it with the opposite mindset—Say Yes! Embrace Life! and the interplay between their outlooks makes for an interesting balance.

I also appreciated the queer rep. Vera is bisexual, and the book doesn’t shy away from showing the stigma she faces—bi-erasure, an unsupportive parent, and so on. The dissolution of her engagement to her fiancee after the LPE adds a lot of depth to her character and to the story.

I won't give spoilers on the ending except to say that there's a moment of growth and hope. It's exactly what a story like this needs.

<b>🎧 Audio-Specific:</b> Narrated by Mara Wilson, who was EXCELLENT. She captured the protagonist’s nihilism with precision—emoting (and often not-emoting) in a way that felt unsettlingly authentic. You’d expect this level of nuance from a professional actress, but it’s still worth noting how good she was. I really enjoyed her performance.

<b>📌 TL;DR:</b> A strange, bold, deeply creative novel that left me feeling things I still can't entirely parse out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Audio Review: No complaints, lovely audio, would recommend.

Review: Wow, Chuck Tingle just always knocks it out out the park. I loved this book. There's so much depth and characterization that I don't think I can do it justice in a review. There's commentary on difficult family dynamics, depression, hopelessness, feeling different and on the outside, the meaning of life, what to do when things feel meaningless, so much. There's good humor, a grumpy sunshine friendship, outlandish scenes. This book continued to surprise me and slowly uncovered it's secrets. My only very small complaint is that the ending was a bit too long winded (this is a person complaint of mine I just prefer slightly more straightforward explanations). The book as a whole is the perfect length and ends on a very hopeful note. There's a lot to think about in regard to this one, would recommend reading it would others and discussing. Lastly, there is slight pet loss trauma that some may want to know about and nods to suicidal ideation (with care and subtle).

Chuck Tingle manages to tap into current cultural topics and mix in plenty of weird, wacky horror. After the Low-Probability Event four years ago, in which 8 million people died in nearly impossible terrifying accidents, the world suffers from more random LPEs and our main character Vera believes nothing matters anymore. Tingle's imagination runs wild in this story as Vera and Agent Layne investigate a very lucky casino and try to put an end to the LPEs for good. Mara Wilson was a good narrator.

5 ⭐ 0 🌶️ 5 🎧

This is my favorite Chuck book yet. The absolute chaos that ensued was fantastic and the horror imagery was perfect (the pool scene actually made me queasy 😅). I really enjoyed Vera as a main character and the side characters were phenomenal too. This one leaned into sci-fi horror and I loved it.

I really enjoyed Vera and her existential crisis. I just loved this idea of someone who thrives off probability falling into despair when a low probability event happens to her and she realizes that she can't predict or live her life based on math. Watching her come to terms with her new world was really fascinating and I loved how this one ended.

The audio was great. Mara Wilson did a wonderful job with these characters and I really enjoyed this listen. Thank you so much Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy!

This is the wildest roller coaster Chuck Tingle has taken us on yet, so strap in! Like in each of his previous books, Tingle delves into timely and relatable ideas with his signature brand of improbability. Ever since my girlfriend picked up Camp Damascus for me, I have been obsessed with Tingle's creative worlds.

Four years after the cataclysmic Low-Probability Event—a single day that saw eight million people perish in bizarre, statistically impossible accidents (think: balloon ropes strangling victims, exploding manhole covers, a chimpanzee wielding a typewriter)—Vera, a former statistics professor, is left hollowed by trauma and plunged into existential despair. The event shattered her belief in order, meaning, and the reliability of the universe. Twist after twist, Vera hunts for answers to how—and why—such impossible events could occur. After all, no one knows the odds better than her.

Mara Wilson does a beautiful job narrating and bringing this story to life.

Vera is so relatable, and I couldn’t help but see pieces of my partner and me in her and Annie’s relationship. Her quest for meaning in what feels like a meaningless world is something I know a lot of people can relate to right now. Chuck Tingle always writes his characters with so much care, and you can definitely tell this character was close to his twisted heart.

My favorite horror novels are horrors with heart, and this book definitely falls into that category.

There is quite a bit of descriptive body horror and graphic violence, so please take care while listening.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ALC of this title!

Holy Moly! I had no idea what i was getting into with this book. This is my first Chuck Tingle book and whoah.... I'm not even sure how to describe this crazy book!

Maybe that's the first thing I'll say... this story is crazy! Straight up nuts. But i mean that in the nicest possible way. The story is absurd. The scenes are gory. And I mean... really gory. I was listening to the audio and occasionally had to pull the ear buds out and hum loudly till the description passed. But I'm a wimp, so take that with a grain of salt. I found myself laughing out loud one minute and being totally grossed out the next. The plot was silly, ridiculous and yet very engaging. I'd recommend to any horror comedy fan.

What did I just read?! This book was just not for me. I didn’t feel connected to the characters at all, I often felt like I had no idea what was going on, and there were several ideas or themes that felt like loose threads. Topics like bi erasure were brought up in relation to the MC in ways that felt like it was a theme to observe, then it never was brought up again.

I also felt like Tingle made a powerful point about the way society moves on from tragedy, but the story didn’t make room to fully appreciate the point.

The statistics talk was not necessarily too much, but on top of the chaotic writing style and lack of a clear theme or thesis left me annoyed with this one overarching theme.

Ultimately I couldn’t connect with the characters or understand their motivations. I was very grossed out by some of the scenes depicting mass deaths, to the point of gagging. There were some elements here that I could have loved, but ultimately this book felt like the MC’s favorite food pie: ranch dressing, cherries, and Oreos. Each delightful on its own, but a weird ass nasty mess when combined. Maybe some people will love it, but sadly this book wasn’t the one for me.

Mara Wilson narrating was the highlight of this experience for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this audio ARC! All opinions are my own.

I love how wild and bonkers this story is and how while all of the weird stuff is happening, the main character is dealing with existential dread because her profession as a professor of statistics seems to have gone out the window as probabilities no longer seem to matter. She survived a global catastrophe, called the low probability event, and now finds herself wrapped up in an investigation of how this is all happening. The pace is nonstop and considering what is happening that is perfect.

Mara Wilson absolutely killed it is as the voice of Vera and as the narrator of this bizarre story about luck and trying to stop the end of the world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @tornightfire for the eARC and @macmillan.audio for the ALC. All thoughts are my own.

This served as my introduction to Chuck Tingle’s writing and let’s just say I’m now a fan!

I actually read the blurb about this when I requested it on NetGalley, but the summary did not prepare me for the wild ride that was Lucky Day! If you have any expectations about what will happen, just set them aside and prepare to have fun. Yes, even horror can be fun!

I really liked our main character, Vera. I was really drawn in to the whole, “what happens to somebody when their whole world, and existence, turns on its head”. I just really like how the conflict between lucky events (or low probability events) and Vera’s background in probability and statistics is played out as the story progresses.

All this being said, I do want to highlight that Mara Wilson’s narration of this book really made it the most enjoyable for me! I would highly recommend trying the audiobook option if you’re an audiobook reader!

Overall Rating | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for proving me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up

Chuck truly never misses! Lucky Day feels like exactly the story we all need right now - it's about how the world is often both absurd and horrific, and that's traumatic. But also there is hope for good, for better. It follows a bisexual statistician who experiences an extremely low likelihood event that kills millions of people, including her mother. It's about her loss of faith in the order of things, and her journey to still finding meaning. With a lot of absurdly gruesome things along the way! I know people don't expect horror to be hopeful, but this one is and I loved it. It's a quick read, but I get what he's doing with it. The audiobook is excellent! Narrated by Mara Wilson. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

First of all, I want to say that Mara Wilson’s narration of this was oddly soothing, even when things were going nuts in the story. And believe me, things go nuts in this story. This was my first read of Chuck Tingle’s and I did not quite know what to expect. It was definitely out there and trippy and Lucky Charms marshmallows are falling from the sky (my favorite cereal so I actually enjoyed that scene very much), but I really don’t think I can describe this with adequate words, you really need to read this one yourself. It was a wild and crazy ride and I definitely enjoyed it.

Thank you to @Tornightfire #partner and @simon.audio for the copies to review.

Ah yes, the haunting specter of bad luck.

The beginning of the book kicks off with a wild global catastrophe and was definitely my favorite part. Vera is an endearing and relatable protagonist (i’m depressed ok) and I enjoyed her dynamic with her polar opposite temporary PiC Layne as they head to the luckiest place on Earth: a casino in Vegas. Overall, a wild ride indeed. Equal parts horrific and absurd. If Final Destination is your brand of horror and you like a cosmic twist, this is for you. The audio is incredibly done! As a 90s kid and fan of Matilda, I was truly tickled and she was the perfect narrator.

A completely unique experience….just like the author! Vera is an orderly statistics professor launching a new book, when suddenly, the world stops making sense. On one fateful day, millions of people die in absurd, cartoonish, horrific ways, defying all odds and probability. Vera essentially shatters. Nothing matters. She gets reluctantly brought in to investigate a casino in Vegas that’s both lucky and sinister all at the same time. While unraveling this mystery, Vera might find more than she expected. That’s where I’m going to leave it, keeping it kind of vague, because I didn’t really know much about it going into it and was so delighted by the creativity of this story! All I knew was Chuck Tingle wrote it, and that was enough for me. Completely different than anything you’ll ever read, horror mixed with sci-fi, some wild scenes, but underneath it all is this beautiful message that really resonated with me. A message that Chuck also spoke about when I got to see him on tour for this book. A message of hope. Why not try?

Thank you Chuck for being you. You’re a real gift to this world. Also I laughed because I ALWAYS order Shirley Temples when I’m out!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC. Book released 8/12/25.

Chuck Tingle has solidified himself as one of my favorite horror writers after this one. How does he come up with this stuff?? The novel follows a bisexual statistics professor who, after experiencing a highly statistically unlikely and tragic event, falls into a state of complete nihilism, questioning whether she even exists and why anything matters. Turns out that as these very unlikely events keep happening, there may be a wild explanation for it all…
This was perhaps the most original horror book I’ve ever read. Somehow, Tingle was able to base a horror premise off of the concept of luck: who has it, who doesn’t, and how to continue living and finding meaning in a world where seemingly random unlucky events and tragedies happen. While a lot of it was outrageous and campy in Tingle’s signature style, it was also somehow existentially horrific.
I also really appreciate the play on the “bisexuals don’t exist” nonsense.
This premise was so unique that I don’t know what to compare it to, but it certainly had final destination vibes.

This book was bonkers—in the best way possible. One of the things I absolutely love about Chuck Tingle’s writing is how the horror hits fast and out of nowhere. You’re not easing into dread; you’re slammed into it headfirst, just like the characters. It’s chaotic, terrifying, and ridiculously fun.

The story follows Vera, a woman who survived a catastrophic disaster that wiped out 8 million people in a single day—including her own mother. She’s been living as a recluse for the past four years, until Agent Layne knocks on her door with a wild proposition: help him investigate a suspiciously lucky casino that might be tied to the tragedy that changed her life.

Mara Wilson nails the narration. She brings so much emotion and complexity to Vera, making the character feel fully alive—even as the world around her spirals into total madness.

This book is like Final Destination meets The X-Files, with a heavy dose of surreal, queer chaos. It’s gory, strange, and bursting with Tingle’s signature imagination. And in true Chuck Tingle fashion, amidst all the horror and sci-fi mayhem, there’s a powerful, affirming message: Bisexuals exist. Loudly, proudly, and yes—right in the middle of a conspiracy-laced nightmare.

If you love horror that’s fast-paced, weird, and unapologetically queer, this one’s a must-read. Highly recommend.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Oh wow! So this was my first Tingle book, it will definitely not be my last. What is a low probably event? Basically they are freak accidents or should I freakish accident. This was a fun wild ride of a horror novel. I got the vibes of the Final Destination films. Tingle has crafted a non stop horror that is a train wreck. Very fast past and engaging, extreme and bloodly, and very often hilariously funny.