Per Jacobsen (1) (1981–)

Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving "gifts" in the big red Christmas stocking on the barn door. Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the stocking's contents become more and more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling realization: they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of "Secret Santa", and if they want to show more survive, they will have to fight.
I guess there may be something seriously wrong with me, because I actually DO like books with stories of psychological terror! Inside this one I got 25 chapters...each one colder, meaner, and more paranoid than the last. Think of it as an Advent calendar for emotional collapse, with each daily “gift” bringing a new mental landmine, beautifully gift-wrapped in trauma and sprinkled with deadly holiday dread.

The reader is in no way, eased into this. You are tossed into a remote cabin that is filled with already broken people, and the door is slammed shut and bolted from the outside, leaving you without any safety nets. Forget about any cozy "Christmasy" type vibes. What you're going to get is cold snow, dark suspicion, and the "STAR OF THE SHOW"... ONE SINGLE RED STOCKING, that may or may not, want to feast on your soul for breakfast... and if anything is left over, have the rest for lunch and dinner.

We have Adam Gray. He's not at all a "bad guy". He's a husband, a father, and a motivational speaker, who believes that a snowy Christmas vacation with his "Very Not Okay" in any sense of the word... family, is just what is needed to heal their boatload of family trauma. He rents a cabin in the woods that has no signals, no backups, and apparently, no survival instincts either.

Then THE red stocking just shows up... hangs itself on the barn....and starts delivering its “gifts” to the trapped family. Not the "jolly Santa" kind of gifts.... not even the “slightly weird uncle” type of gifts. These are "psychological bombshells"...and they arrive like clockwork...one each day, just long enough for the tension to build, simmer and boil over between this family who already are wanting to scream and throw themselves into the nearest snowbank. By the time the family starts connecting the dots, it’s way, way, way too late. They're stuck... trapped in the woods, and you think that the next chapter just might kill them.

This story doesn’t scream at you...it whispers...it sneaks up and breathes on the back of your neck while you're reading. It waits until your guard down and then makes you question whether that creak you heard in the hallway was actually just the house settling, or something coming for you with a "gift", just for you, clutched in its hand.

The pacing of this story is brilliant and simply brutal. It's not fast, and it's not slow. Imagine a migraine headache made of ice, and you are getting close. Or as my neighbor, who also read this book, described it... it was like "driving on black ice with no brakes, with a screaming 2-year-old in the back seat". Good one. I believe that my neighbor should write my next horror read:), but I have to totally agree that indeed, this was horror done right. You don’t know who to trust. You don’t know what the rules are, or if there ever was rules, or if those rules have changed while you weren't listening...and you never know what’s coming out of that red stocking next. The story doesn't have monsters...only ordinary people. Scared, flawed, breaking people.... but simply... ordinary people...which made it SO much worse.

This quote from the book, pretty much ties up the family's fate with a "Big Red Christmas Bow": “Each day brought a new gift. Each gift brought us closer to the end.” That pretty much says it all.... short, sharp, descriptive, and drenched in doom.

If you like horror of this kind...you should read this...but maybe not in December unless you like screaming into snowbanks and accusing your Christmas tree of psychological manipulation. This story won't scare you just in a "fun way". You'll check often to see if something is watching you...It’s cold, hard dread and terror wrapped in a paperback cover with 25 perfectly wrapped, blood-soaked chapters. Oh...you might want to check your door for a big red Christmas stocking. show less

When I watch horror movies, I usually think "oh, this is really good", but then the ending comes and it's more "oh, well that was kind of lame". I don't imagine that horror villains spend much time with the director asking "but what's my motivation?" I don't want to give any spoilers, but since I was expecting this to be much the same, I wasn't as disappointed as others that have reviewed this book. I liked the concept and the differing view points. It was creepy and it held my attention. It show more was hard reading only a chapter a day. Some of it is very far fetched. Okay, a lot of it, but I still found it a fun quick read. show less

The concept of a Christmas advent calendar book isn’t something I had heard of before, but it sounded cool. I really liked this book up until day 23. I thought it was a great thriller/horror book I wanted to know what was coming next. I hated having to wait until the next day to read the next chapter. The writing was superb and the characters while being a little cliche were interesting enough. My problem is with the ending and how everything magically aligned for them to come out the show more other side. It felt like they struggled the whole book and the lead up was drawn out, just for everything to be rushed at the end. I was disappointed. Also the “one year later” was extremely predictable. Overall I liked most of this but felt the ending let me down. show less

This book grabbed me on the first page and didn't let up until I finished it, in one sitting! Great writing, action packed, and a very compelling story kept me on the edge of my seat. The writing was reminiscent of Stephen King in storytelling, but with no unnecessary words. I love King, but often, I have to skip both paragraphs and pages, because he is so verbose. This was my first Jacobsen novel, and it definitely won't be my last, especially because of the cliff hanger ending. If you are show more going to read this, do yourself a favor and have the entire trilogy on hand. show less