songcatchers's reviews
810 reviews

'It is a genial, festive season, and we love to muse upon graves, and dead bodies, and murders, and blood.' - Told After Supper by Jerome K. Jerome

These classic ghostly tales set around Christmastime were written between 1868 and 1955. I enjoyed the writing and the variety in this collection, from the spooky to the sentimental to the uncanny. They are full of atmosphere and perfect for reading cozied up with a blanket by the warm glow of Christmas lights.

'It is nice to choose to be frightened, when one need not be.' - Green Holly by Elizabeth

'“Hello, I am ROZZUM unit 7134, but you may call me Roz...."'

I adored every minute of this quiet, sweet (sometimes bittersweet) story. Roz and her son Brightbill are unforgettable, and their story and the story of all the animals on this wild island brought me a lot of joy. When I turned the last page, I wanted to hug the author in appreciation.

'“Mama! Mama!” peeped the gosling. “I am not your mother,” said the robot.'

'"Isn't that how your mysteries work? Everyone's got a motive. Everyone's got a secret?"'

Ernest Cunningham is THE most reliable narrator. In this, he calls mysteries 'a team sport', and the author certainly makes it feel that way. The breaking of the 4th wall might be a gimmick, but it's a fun one and a big part of why I enjoy this series so much. I'm firmly on team Ernest and hope this amateur detective continues with his sleuthing in mysteries to come.

'Agatha Christie and Arrhur Conan Doyle both caved to the whims of the popular desire for holiday murders, though Sherlock Holmes only picks up his single festive case on December 27.'

'I’m afraid to go to bed.'

Propulsive is an understatement. I couldn’t read this fast enough. It's mysterious, full of foreboding, and I devoured it! The premise of waking up each morning exhausted, injured, and not knowing what you are doing in the night is SO GOOD. And very creepy.

'I’m exhausted when I wake up. But I’m not only exhausted. I have aches all over my body. I feel like I’ve been helping someone move.'

'"You remember my speaking of my friend Poirot? The Belgian who is here? He has been a most famous detective."'

Classic locked-room mystery with a poisoned body, red herrings, and a clever man to solve it all. Hercule Poirot is quirky and quite comical, and my favorite thing is when he refers to himself in the 3rd person as Papa Poirot. 

'To-morrow the daily papers, all over England, would blazon out the news in staring headlines: 
"MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY IN ESSEX" "WEALTHY LADY POISONED"'

'‘Let me tell you about Christmas Eve in Little Slaughter.'

What a fun, action-packed ride! Set on Christmas Eve in a small English village pub with the halls festively decked and a cozy fire in the inglenook. They're having a murder mystery evening that is full of surprises and revelations. It's a bloody good time, and I love where it went.

'‘Every Christmas Eve, the whole village gets together. We have a murder mystery, a meal, a few drinks… Of course, this year we’ve got fewer players than we’d like.’'

'Crap. Of all the used bookstores in all the state, he had to stroll into mine.'

She's a bookseller who runs a quaint used book store. He's a ghost hunter traveling through. This quirky romcom is set at Christmastime in Vermont, among snowy cemeteries and cozy bookshops. It has a bookish atmosphere and a very good dog named Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Redeeming and heartwarming. 

'Shin- high snow and weather- obstructed views couldn’t keep us indoors. Not on a night as gloriously blustery as this.'

'Six seventy-seven is not a house to come back to, but here I am, back anyway.'

This elicits an emotional response similar to reading poetry. It's raw and grief heavy and so beautiful on the sentence level. Three chronically haunted adult siblings confront the childhood home that left them with scars. 

'Places become marked by the things that have happened to them, the things they've done.'

'I think candy canes were stuffed in my ear because it almost sounded like she said I would be the one entering the Christmas Kringle contest.'

This is basically a perfect holiday romcom. Heavy on the humor, falling snow, and small town Christmas atmosphere. These enemies-to-lovers hilariously and uproariously try to best each other through the various competitions to win Christmas. This is a creative and spicy play on The Grinch, and it is SO MUCH FUN!

'All’s fair in love and jingle jangling . . . right?'

'When she first moved into Hobbie House, everything about it seemed sinister.'

Holly Hobbie meets A Christmas Carol, sort of. Evie is back in this sequel, trying to save her friend from the shadow world while uncovering the mystery of what went down in the mines all those years ago. 
There is a tie-in to Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which is fun and well done.

'All three of them, Sarah, Holly, and now Evie herself, were connected— not only by the house, but by something else, too. Whatever it was, it wasn’t finished yet.'