25 Days

1.5 ⭐️

I loved the concept – 25 chapters for 25 days, a horror advent calendar. We start with our protagonists on December 1st and follow them in real time, day-by-day. The first half of this book really worked for me. I didn't want to stop reading and having to wait for the next day amped up the anticipation so much. But then it fell off.

In the afterword, the author says that they came up with the concept of an advent horror before thinking about the plot. I think that becomes clear the deeper we get. As we move further along with the family, it no longer feels like a full day is passing between chapters. We're supposed to believe Adam has dragged himself along for days with a gunshot wound -- in the snow, in the cold. He is barely able to cling to consciousness, yet he's able to get to his family and help to save them. Completely unrealistic!

At one point, the youngest daughter (who I believe is somewhere around 9 years old) thinks to herself “only to see it dissolve right in front of them like a fata morgana in a desert.” I'm 32 and had to look up fata morgana; I'm not saying I have the best vocabulary but I am saying a child is not thinking the words ‘fata morgana' to herself.

Things just felt increasingly far-fetched as the book went on. The tension was good in places, but for the most part I didn't feel very invested in the family's story. None of them felt like real people to me, and the unrealistic elements sapped a lot of my emotional investment. I got to the point where I truly dreaded picking it up daily and wished it was over. I only kept the advent schtick going because I had gotten this far, so I might as well keep it up.

I feel bad tearing this to shreds but the writing was just... not good. I think a lot of these elements would have been amusing on the big screen (so bad it's good, etc.), but having to read it took out any enjoyment I could have had. I'm not sure why it started good but fell off so badly – I think the author probably needed to spend more time plotting things out and putting more heart into the story. In the end, we're not even left with a villain or a motive. I'm glad the ending wasn't a happily-ever-after copout, but I was still left deeply dissatisfied with the time I spent on this novel.