I read 10 Christmas thriller books (BEST to WORST)
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2024
- book recommendations | mystery thriller books | reading horror books | reading mystery books | underrated horror books | horror book recommendations | mystery books for beginners | underrated thriller books | horror book review | mystery recommendations
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How fun!! I picked up The Christmas Guest completely on a whim, had never read Peter Swanson before, and I was so pleasantly surprised! And I'm totally with you on not being a Christmas person. Everyone loves Christmas but I get depressed because Halloween season is over 😭
RIGHT?! Omg I had the same experience with The Christmas Guest where I had never read a Peter Swanson and had honestly heard so many mixed things about his books I didn't think I was ever going to, but I am so happy I read The Christmas Guest!!!
OMGGGG you literally put it into words EXACTLY how I feel about the holiday season! 🤣👏💯 I get so sad because Halloween doesn't even get its full moment before there's xmas décor in the stores and then its just tacky Santa clauses everywhere and im like BRING BACK THE PUMPKINS LOL! 🎃👻🦇💯💖🙌
Your earrings are so cute 🎀🎀 wow, seems like so many books using a cute, cozy, Christmas cover/title that are misleading or using that trope to just sell books. I think my favorite christmas themed books are Krampus by brom, the new release Candy Cain Kills, and N0S4A2. I'm here for all the winter/isolation horror books though!
AW thank you so much!!! 🥰💖💗 I had to get these earrings for Christmas when I seen them!!
ALSO YESSS I really feel that way, that the holiday cozy cute covers is just a marketing gimmick because honestly the Christmas vibes in allllll of these was minimal at best!
YES I really loved Krampus by Brom too and I want to read Candy Cain Kills, and N0S4A2 at some point because Ive heard really amazing things!!!
I do not love Winter as a whole but I got to say I think that Winter reading may be my favorite!!!!
No holiday-themed books for me. I've been attending two book clubs and most of my reading has been those "assignments" and none of them were Christmasy. I've added a few of these to my TBR shelf. Thanks for posting and have fun around your cute tree!
Aw Yesss that totally makes sense!! 💗 I hope you are enjoying your book club picks and also thats so cool you are in two book clubs!!! I love being able to discuss a book with a group of people I feel like I get such a great perspective on a book!!!
I hope you have an amazing holiday!!!! 🎄🧑🎄❄️🌨⛄️💯💕🥰💗
0:59 yes exactly!! thank you! ugh I cannot stand that ish!! I don't need to see those scenes playing out in my head while I'm reading the book and certainly not after either!
YESSS right?! I am the same way it affects me too much! I will literally think of it for years to come and get PTSD flashbacks when Im trying to fall asleep from the scenes!
Mikala blessing me with a video on my last workday of the year!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
The Christmas Guest is definitely going on my TBR!
AWWW Lotta your comment made my morning I swear! I hope you have a great last workday of the year and then get to enjoy your time off and holidays!!!
Oh my gosh YES please check out The Christmas Guest I seriously think it was SUCH a standout holiday thriller/mystery book!!!!
Thank you for your service! I love reading holiday themed books but don't want to wast time on the bad ones 😂
YESS I agree I have so much fun reading for a holiday or season! I absolutely agree like I need help sifting through the worthwhile ones haha!!!
I forget if I’ve already mentioned this but I highly recommend Hark! The herald angels scream - it’s a great Christmas horror anthology ( a few duds but mostly 5 star stories for me).
OHH Thank you so much for recommending "Hark! The herald angels scream", I am adding it to my list I started of Holiday themed reads I really want to check out! There's so many more that I wanted to read this season, and this one looks fantastic as well!!!
Yay makes me happy when you post!! 😊💕📚☕️ I have so many holiday books to read but haven’t started. I’m been trying to finish up the ones on my library audio before I return. I really want to buy the September house and Christmas guest. I’m thinking of going to Barnes today ☕️📚🕯️💕😊
Thank you so much for your extremely kind comment, I have to say you absolutely made my day!!!!! I totally understand too because I had so many more holiday reads I had wanted to get to and I ended up having my holds run out without getting to them...and now I feel like I should wait until next christmas to read them LOL! 😅 Ohhhh YESSS The September House is such a Must Read!, and I SO enjoyed The Christmas Guest as well!!!! 💯💘💖🙌📚
@@mikalareads I enjoyed Christmas guest 😊 have you read the kind worth killing/saving. I haven’t yet but it intrigued me however per the synopsis it’s about a school shooting not sure if I want to read.
I purchased “our hideous progeny” per your recs it was 50% sale at barns. I also purchased don’t fear the reaper by Stephen graham jones but I haven’t read any books him. I will the purchase the first book first believe it’s called chain saw. Have you read his books? ☕️🕯️📚
You look like a Christmas doll btw! The curls, the headband, the earrings and the lipstick are all just so Christmasy!
Omgsh Snowball sounds super wild and creepy!
AWWWW Thank you so much Emily!!!! I spent forever trying to put together a christmas themed outfit for this video, I dont have any christmas clothes really but I just got these bow earings and tried to make the rest work hahah!!! 🎄❄🎅🤶
ALSO totallllly Snowball was SUCH a wild read - totally unhinged!!
Snowball!!!!! What an ending right?! I loved it! Five stars for me.
And I am here to inform you that you missed NOTHING by DNFing Christmas presents 😂 Like it was one of those books that was addicting to listen to but it was so under-developed and underbaked in so many ways.
Not Mikala having to take a long time reading her pre-sleep audiobook 😂😂
I DNFed the Christmas Guest! I wish I liked the main character but ehhh. It just didn’t pull me! Maybe I will read summaries of it to find out that twist and ending 😂
I loved secret Santa too!!! Read it last year! Probably the only occult book I really liked that I have picked up so far!
YESSSSS oh my gosh the ending of SNowball totally crushed me! I did not expect it! I really enjoyed that one so much!
OMG okay thank you SO much for letting me know about Christmas Presents!!!! I have heard some good things but I wasnt feeling it and now I know I was right to DNF early because I also think that author is not for me!
HAHHAH yessss oh my gosh I have kind of relegated my Agatha Christie reads as my "before bed" books because they are so slow and also not too heavy that they just lull me right to sleep everytime! 😅💗
OHHHH okay NOW i am so interested what you would have thought of the mid-point twist in The Christmas Guest! I also really disliked the main character for the first half I was making notes in my phone like this girl is driving me nuts!!!!
RIGHT okay Secret Santa was so good, I kind of want to read in next christmas now haha! I agree completely, best occult book hands down!
I pretty much failed at any Christmasy books I tried to read! I more went for cozy and it has been the loveliest December ever ❤
Love your little tree! I always get excited for the music and the movies and the hopeful family get togethers, but we also didn't do a big tree, and we actually survived 😂
YESS I think it can be so nice too to just read cozy vibes books this time of year and around the holidays! That is what I have been doing so far this January is focusing on really light hearted books and it has truly been making such a difference for my mental health!
I hope you guys had a fabulous christmas!!! I love the xmas movies every year, we always have to watch Elf several times and the Grinch!!!
@mikalareads yess those are a couple of our favorite Christmas movies too! I watched The Santa Claus atleast 40 times (my kids cling to movies and then won't let us move on lol)
I am loving the festive aesthetic!! 🎄
4:38 ew we hate to see it. I do kind of like the cover. It's kind of giving angst romance though
"Murder on the Christmas Express" LOL omg why is the title so funny to me? Oh no not the traumatizing tw's
The cover of Snowball get me every time 🤣🤣. It's too good
14:20 Agreed!! 👏
Oooo Secret Santa sounds like a great horrific holiday read! (in a good way)
I love your little baby tree!! We are also an itty bitty tree household. Ours is only slightly bigger than the one you have I love it!!! 💚❤🎄
Happy Holidays!! 🥂🎉🙌🎄
Thank you so much friend!!! I ordered a Christmas sweater I wanted to wear this year for xmas that was a tree made of books but it still hasn't arrived hahah 😅
The title, "Murder on the Christmas Express" is actually so funny!!! It's kind of misleading too honestly because the christmas vibes in the book were not really there at all so makes me want to change the title to "Murder on the Trauma Express" 🤔😅
HAHHA YESSS the cover of Snowball!!! What an intriguing cover! I felt like I HAD to read it just from that image!
I hope you had a fantastic holidays and also I LOVE that you also are an itty bitty tree household!! Every year I feel bad because we dont have a fancy tree and some people like to make it seem like you HAVE to in order to enjoy christmas! I actually did just buy us a larger tree on sale after christmas was over this year, so we finally will have one for next year. But my decor/ornaments I plan to do will be more woodland winter themed than santa/traditional I think!
You are the cats pajamas! Thank you for this video, thank you thank you!
AWWW you are such a sweetheart, thank you for your absolutely lovely comment it is so appreciated!!!!! ❤️😭💕🥰💗
im so glad I can come to this channel and it exposes the sexism in books so i know to avoid them before i read them
Oh my gosh your comment truly touched my heart, this is a reason for me to continue making videos anytime I doubt why I am here I will remember this. Thank you!!! 😭😭😭😭💖💘💗
I'm always skeptical about picking up holiday-themed books because I sometimes get the feeling that it's forced. So needless to say, I appreciate a list from worst to best, so I can make more educated decisions. 😅
Honestly, I'm not surprised about Killer Christmas's plot. Teenage relationships are awful.
Oof, that's disappointing about Murder on the Christmas Express. Yeah, I feel like If the appearance of a book is going to have a vibe like this, a list of potential triggers would be nice to have upfront...
I may have to read The Christmas Guest before the year is over, and I _need_ to read Snowball! I'm always up for a quick read.
EDIT - I did end up reading Snowball, and it was exactly what I needed! 🎉
YESSS okay I absolutely know what you mean about feeling hesitant to pick up holiday themed books for that reason! I feel like if theres one thing I was dissapointed with out of these 10 festive reads was a lot of them didn't really read "christmas-y" to me, like they were pitched as christmas books but it almost felt as just a marketing device but for a lot of these the books could have easily been set any time of the year and nothing would have changed, which was disappointing!
SO true about Killer Christmas! I dont know what I was expecting from that synopsis, I should have known I wasn't going to be a fan from the premise hahah!!! Also totally agree about Murder on the Christmas Express! I really wanted more of a "cozy" mystery but it was so much heavier than I expected!
OMGGG YAYAYYA I am so glad you were able to squeeze in Snowball before the end of the year!!!!!!! Also I remember at one point I feel like I remember you were looking for more books with the haunted object or like cursed puppet trope and so I feel like Snowball was SUCH a great recommendation for that trope! It was SUCH a quick read and actually really creepy too!!!
@@mikalareads Yeah, that was me! I'd forgotten I said that, but I did mention it about the creepy dolls in The Puzzle Master. 😆 Snowball DEFINITELY fit! I was not expecting it to be as dark as it was!
Ugh! Hate being blind sided by books. Especially when the vibes of the book are so cozy. Snowball sounds creepy. The Christmas Guest has been a book on my radar for a second chance author vlog. I read Nine Lives by Peter Swanson and did not enjoy it. I love the cover of Secret Santa! Glad that they shouted out Shirley Jackson. Might have to pick that one up next Christmas season! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays love!
I really hate being blindsided by books too, I feel like some of my most disappointing reads of the year were that exact thing where I was LOVING it but then hit over the head with something that wasnt in the premise or the blurb of the book so I just wasn't prepared!
YESSS so The CHristmas Guest was my first Peter Swanson book and I really was not interested in reading from this author before because I had heard so many mixed to negative reviews of his books so I was so actually happily surprised when I really ended up loving The Christmas Guest!
I hope you had a FANTASTIC holiday and an even better new years!!!!!!!🥰💘💖💗🙌💌
Christmas presents was so bad! I think I'm giving it 1⭐ 😂 i need to get to Secret Santa!
OMG KATRINAAAA thank you for validating me in this opinion because i have only seen people LOVING this book?! I'm like did I miss something??? (I mean obviously I did because I dnf'd it hahahha but still I am not seeing the hype!...I think Lisa unger is going on my absolutely-dont-read-from list LOL)
Omg i really wanna get into Sherlock Holmes too and I have no idea why! Please be that inspiration for me once you finsh Agatha Christie!!!
YESSS lets get into Sherlock Holmes together!!!! It's one of my goals this year to read some of the original Sherlock Holmes stories and I just am so excited to start diving in!
@@mikalareads I am in! Lmk when we start and I'm there!
@@mikalareads guess I'll have to just go ahead and buy the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition so I'm ready 🤣
These sound good for myself to try out. 📚☕🎄⛄🌨️🦇☠️👻🧑🎄
Yesss so many holiday reads this year that I enjoyed!!! 🎄⛄️🙌🌨🧑🎄💖👏💯
I'm convinced that authors who take chapters and chapters just for backstory and detail are doing it to stroke their ego. "LOOK AT ME! LOOK HOW WELL I CAN DESCRIBE THINGS FOR YOU! " It's like they don't trust us to take ourselves there.
RIGHT okay I feel like that really makes sense about why some authors can't edit themselves is because of ego!!! Like I know it's hard and they want to keep everything in, but sometimes don't they know it will make the book better to cut it down to just the best, most essential pieces 😅!!! arg!
I recently ordered Twelve Days of Murder based om a rec (channel Victoria Sampley) so I hope it's a good one. 😄 should get it very soon!
OMG I LOVE Victoria Sampley channel!!! OMG Twelve Days of Murder is one I REALLY wanted to read but I found it at my library after I already finished this challenge so I may read it in January because it looks super intriguing! I cant wait to hear your review!!!
@@mikalareads Hope I can squeeze it in by Christmas.. so many good books to get to still! 😅
Did you ever watch Anna and the apocalypse my favorite Christmas horror rip the creator
Ohhhh I actually have not watched this one!!! I'm googling it now though so I can check it out! I really need to watch some Christmas horror movies this season! (I still can't wait for "it's a wonderful knife" that you mentioned! Looks amazing!!!)