This year (as you should have seen in my previous book news posts if you were paying attention), Matthew Cash released a selection of short stories each week up to Christmas.
I decided to review these, but due to them being so short I didn’t want to try to review them each on their own blog post because it’s far to easy to spoil them, or too difficult to write enough sometimes. So I thought I’d write about them all together and choose a favourite like if they were in a collection.
I enjoyed each of these stories in their own right, but I did have clear favourites. They’re all written with that Matthew Cash charm we all love, and the depth of the story is surprising for the length and subject matter. This is something I’ve come to really enjoy about Cash’s work and I was pleased to see it had held fast in the bitesize horrors here.
The Christmas Story was in with being my favourite for a while, but one just beat it to the top spot. The thing I really liked about that one is it reads more like a classic Christmas Ghost Story, and I’ve been watching the M R James adaptations so it was quite fitting for me with the theme I seemed to be following.
My favourite however, I actually started off not liking.
There’s No Lights on the Christmas Tree Mother, is written from a child’s perspective, and is written like a child has written it. I didn’t like that at first. However, the further I read that voice actually lent the story more depth and emotion, and the end of the story actually surprised me, and I like it when I’m surprised by a story.
Definitely give them a go, they are all really short stories that you can devour quickly with a coffee or while comuting and none of them are expensive. I quite enjoyed reading these as they came out since I preordered them and they popped up on my kindle throughout the month.
If you’ve already read them, which was your favourite and why? Let me know in the comments!
Rebbie Reviews 