Christmas Horror read
I'm glad I saved this one to read in December. I've enjoyed several movie versions of A Christmas Carol and loved the original book, so the idea of someone having a seance to raise the spirits of Christmas was really appealing.
This has been done extremely well. The three female characters don't seem all that likeable at first, but like Scrooge, they experience flashbacks to their pasts that make it possible to understand them better and see their development into what are actually typical examples of a lot of young women today. But it's the changes that happen as a result of the ghostly visitations that really make the story.
I love how the progression mirrors that of Scrooge, yet is specific to each of these characters. I was drawn deeper and deeper into their lives and the terrible things they've seen or experienced. Naturally the third ghost brings it all to a frightening and even surreal crescendo before the end. I think I'll remember this story for a long time to come. I might even make it an annual Horror Christmas read.
