’80s slasher, but make it Santa with a giant candy cane. The Christmas Morning Massacre is book 1 in the Raven Hill Butcher series, and this Santa will have you praying for coal in your stocking. Let’s dig in!
The Christmas Morning Massacre Book Summary
Christy and her five friends have just finished up university exams, and all they can think about is letting loose. The girls are planning an all-you-can-drink Christmas weekend at the old Morrison mansion, a remote home that’s been in Christy’s family for years. It’s the perfect getaway. Except for Christy’s creep brother crashing the party. And the snow. And the creepy ghost stories. And the fact that no one can find Mary.
It doesn’t take long for the girls to realize something is really wrong, and that ghost story David has been telling? Might not be such a ghost story after all. The Butcher is inisde the house. There’s too much snow to escape. And somehow, the girls must try to survive the night.
The Christmas Morning Massacre is a slasher horror novel by Nasser Rabadi and it also happens to be available on KU.
What I Liked…
I had such a hard time rating this book, and I don’t want the 3.5 star rating to discourage anyone. The book is fun. It reads very much like a traditional ’80s slasher movie. The structure is great, the chapters are the perfect length, and it’s got just the right level of camp. There are a lot of very classic horror movie mistakes (if we’re worried someone is in the house why are we all sleeping in separate wings of Stately Wayne Manor?). The violence/threat in the book is introduced quite early on, which I think is really great news for a shorter novel like this. And when doubt is cast on other characters after the first disappearance, it’s done in a really believable way. It is a very fun, classic book, and if you’re into slashers, I definitely think this is a must-read for Christmas.
That being said, there were a few issues that stopped this from being a 4-star read for me. Specifically?
… And What I Didn’t
If there’s one thing I want to die (and not come back to slaughter my friends and me on Christmas morning), it’s the trope of women never getting along. I hated the way the women in this book were written so much that it knocked at least one star off the rating for me. We’ve got six women who are all vacationing together, are supposedly friends, and are constantly at each other’s throats. We’ve hardly got any conversation that isn’t about men, and the conversation that is ends up just being about how much they hate each other. There’s a portion of the book where they actually say, “Well, this is why women couldn’t be in Lord Of The Flies!” As opposed to, I assume, the completely cooperative and emotionally sound boys the book was written about. There was no need for it. If you don’t know how to write women as just normal human beings, just write men. I’m sure boys are just as likely to throw their friends in the path of a killer as us gals. Fear— the great unifier!
Apart from the war crime that was the women in this book, there actually wasn’t much that I disliked (which is a real bummer). There could have been a bit more of a description of the layout of the house for me (all the bedrooms were in one hall except when they weren’t). And I think if we were going to have so many characters, it might have been worth it to dig more into them to make it easier for me to tell them apart. But overall, this is a fun read. You’re not meant to think too much about it. You’re just supposed to enjoy Santa chopping these kids to bits, and I definitely did.
Final Thoughts
If you want a little ’80s slasher with your Christmas horror, this is an easy choice. The writing is easy to follow, the cheese is great, and it’s just gory enough to keep you wanting more! If you’re not as picky with your leading ladies, this might be a wonderful pick for you!
Have you read The Christmas Morning Massacre? Leave your thoughts below, or reach out to me on Instagram! And if you haven’t read it, be sure to pick this holiday horror up on KU.