The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas is a short story collection featuring as you have probably guessed twelve different stories, some are ghostly, some supernatural others are completely baffling and strange.

I haven’t read anything by this author before so all the stories were new to me, although I do know that this book features some stories from her previous books, just in case you have read them.

The book opens with Septimus and the Shaman which features elderly curator Septimus Strange telling younger Sam about his time in Iceland during the war when he was told to interrogate a local Medium upon a volcano who had predicted recent events before they occurred and his unusual encounter with the man and some predictions that he had made about his life.

The stories are of varying lengths, some are several pages, other just a few. As with all the short story collections that I have read, there are a few which I really enjoyed and a few which I found hard going. My personal favourite has to be the one shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Short Story Daggers, ‘Death Becomes Her’, which is nothing like the movie.

Death Becomes Her is about Police Officer Stacey Winters who can see death, she can see the people he visits and after trial and error realises that there is nothing she can do to stop him. It reminded me of something I read a long time ago about you can’t cheat death and that if you interfere in the process it will always find another way.

Another of my favourites is Snowy about an elderly lady alone at Christmas except for her cats, she is happy but longs to be with her husband who has passed away.

I wasn’t sure going into this book how I would feel about it as I like strange, unusual stories, yet I don’t particularly enjoy far-fetched horror books and often short stories are a let down too as there is not being enough in them to grab hold of me. However, most were enjoyable in this collection, although I will say that for the title most are not very festive.

Overall if you like books that are a little out there and different, this would be a great book for you.

About the Author

Before embarking on a career in education, Syd worked extensively in the publishing industry, fronting Channel 4’s book programme, Pulp. She was the founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine, and is co-creator of Super Strumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes.

Syd has also been a go go dancer, backing singer, subbuteo maker, children’s entertainer and performance poet, She now works for Metal Culture, an arts organisation, promoting arts and cultural events and developing literature programmes.

Syd is an out and proud Essex Girl and is lucky enough to live in that county where she spends her free time excavating old myths and listening out for things that go bump in the night.

What did you think of The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!