“It’s looking like I’m in more of a mystery now than a romance. Or maybe I’m in both. It’s all very exciting, plus a little bit creepy…I don’t pray but sometimes I talk with my mother, tell her…I’m living in one of those novels she used to like, and it’s only a matter of time before I’m fleeing this house in my pajama bottoms and my UCLA t-shirt,” (Swanson 20).
American art student Ashley Smith spending a year abroad in London was planning on spending Christmas alone, but when she receives a last-minute invitation from her classmate Emma Chapman to spend the holidays in her family home of Starvewood Hall she can’t resist. It’s a dream week away. Spending time with a large family in a small English town, and then of course there’s Adam, Emma’s handsome twin brother. Romance begins to bud between Adam and Ashley, but Adam is being investigated by the police for the murder of local girl. And then there’s the strange person both Emma and Ashley have seen on the wooded path between Starvewood and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she’s in, a romance or a gothic thriller? Thirty years after that horrific week and a trip down memory lane from a familiar diary, past and present meet many Christmases later.
My sister read this book and was about to return it when she asked if I was interested. I originally told her no, but then she told me it was like Saltburn and so of course I had to read it. And I’m so glad I did! Saltburn is the perfect comparison to this little novella!
I don’t want to give too much away. At 96 pages there’s not much I can really say, but Swanson does an excellent job with this. The pacing and framing that he does really pulls this together. I also loved how the diary portions of the book were written. One of my biggest pet peeves when reading books that use diaries as a reference are how inaccurately written they are. They’re often formatted like prose novels complete with full dialogue conversations that just aren’t realistic for diary writing, but Swanson nails it. Take a page from him if you’re looking for tips on writing fictional diary entries!
The Christmas Guest is a perfect Christmas Eve read in the traditional sense. I loved the slow build of tension and how everything was revealed. An excellent little book that I’m so glad I read!
Publication: September 28 2023
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 96 pages (Hardcover)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Novella
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.
But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?
Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.
Sarah O'Connor 