Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III – Kevin J. Kennedy

4/5 stars

Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III was a very quick read, but Kevin gathered a blockbuster set of authors for this collection!

The Fourth Emergency by Lex H. Jones was the opener, and it sucked me right into the book. It was an extremely satisfying read, and I’m intrigued by the world that surrounded this story. A call center for the recently deceased is a unique twist on the Ferryman legends and breathed fresh life into a tale that everyone knows.

The Legend of Ho Ho Howard by RJ Roles followed, and what a delightfully naughty story it was. Who needs Krampus when you have Ho Ho Howard? I like the idea of an anti-Santa, and I’m really curious what his story is. Did he get too many lumps of coal in his stocking, and it twisted his enjoyment of Christmas into extreme hatred? Was he cursed by Santa for being too surly on Christmas? There’s lots of different ways his story could go, and I’d love to see more of this.

The real showstopper for me was Gage Greenwood’s Lords of the Sleigh. The loss of innocence of the three boys that led to them taking matters into their own hands was heartbreaking. It really shows how little help people in bad situations get and the lengths they’ll go to when they have no hope left to change their situation. My heart broke for Sawyer and his mom; despite everything that happened, at least they were together when everything fell apart.

Kevin always takes so much care when putting together his collections and delivers a great experience for the reader! Whenever I pick up one of his books, I know I’m in for some fantastic reading and that I’ll be introduced to more amazing authors!