I received a PDF [Portable Document Format] of A Christmas Tale by Austin Crawley through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. (I couldn't use the audio format I was supposed to receive, so I can't comment on the audio version.)

Three friends, Lauren, Amber, and Brittany, are alone in Amber's house on Christmas Eve. I took a dislike to Brittany early on, but Lauren and Amber were nice enough. Holding a séance was Amber's idea. Will it be as safe as she thinks it will? Of course not.

The first round of ghostly visits give us the young women's backstories. We find out why Brittany is a materialistic jerk and it's a good explanation. Amber's story is scary, but Lauren's is even scarier. No wonder she doesn't like ghost stories or horror movies!

The second round made me chuckle at first, but things quickly grew serious. Again, Lauren's was the worst. I'd have been screaming in hysterics too.

The third round starts off bad and gets worse. One hopes that two of the friends will be able to change some of what they encounter. The third friend's fate is left open to interpretation. I choose to think that it will be happy.

Chapter notes:

Chapter 2: Apparently the best friends are watching the Jim Carey live action movie version of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I recommend the animated version instead.

Chapter 11 has a reference to the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Chapter 13 has a reference to Toby Tyler. I've never read the book, but I have seen the Disney film based on it.

Right off the bat I was pleased that the author was considerate enough to include a pronunciation for 'Samhain,' because it takes me right out of the mood when a character says 'Sam-hane'. On the other hand, I wish Mr. Crawley had looked up 'sprinkle" and 'seditious'. I also wish that the story had been properly edited. Spellcheck can't keep you from having 'flea' when you mean 'flee,' 'herself' when you need 'she,' or 'anymore' for 'any more'.

As for the story itself, I got interested once it got down to business. I hope that no readers will have had any Christmases as bad as these ladies' worst. The most interesting part involved Krampus. Here in the USA, Santa Claus both rewards good children and punishes the bad. In parts of Europe, Saint Nicholas and Krampus divide the rewarding and punishing tasks. Krampus keeps the story from being just another updated version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. As for the ghost Lauren encounters, it makes Jacob Marley's seem downright genial.

We're also treated to a sample of the author's next release, Letters to the Damned. I like the premise of the postal box that has no official purpose anymore, but the villagers still use it. I'll bed Cris wishes he hadn't conducted those tests on the box. There's an ad for another book by someone else. It didn't attract me as the postal box story did.

Do I think A Christmas Tale has room for improvement ? Yes, but it's also worth reading for ghost and Christmas fans.

I like the cover. I wish the copyright page had named the artist. ( )

This is another one of those books that I thought I would like more than I did. I love A Christmas Carol so I was all for hearing a retelling. While the story was okay, I couldn't connect to the characters and I feel like a lot of what the girls did was in bad taste. It didn't make sense to me overall. 2 out of 5 stars. However, power to the author for putting it out there. ( )

I received the audio book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those frustrating books that starts with a truly interesting idea but cannot sustain that idea throughout. Three quick observations, which the author is welcome to treat as "constructive criticism" for future works: (1) Show, don't tell. When you have to explain, again and again, it means that the concept is inherently weak. (2) Maintain a consistent voice. Pick a voice for each character and stick with it. When the characters all start to sound the same, and the reader can't tell who's talking without the narrator chiming in and telling us, it is an indication that even the author doesn't have a clear picture of who they are. (3) Make your point clearly without sounding preachy. This work has a lot to say, but readers feel like they are being beaten with the moral lesson rather than being taught how to use the story to live a better life. On the whole, the author had a bunch of really good story ideas, but needs to develop a more stable writing style to do them justice. ( )

I received this audio book in exchange for an HONEST review...

I have always like the story "A Christmas Carol" and this short story is based on that tale. It is about three friends--all girls--that spend the night together and summon the Ghosts of Christmas for something fun to do.

To avoid spoiling it for those that will read it, I will mark the section with **SPOILER** that will give away the outcome of the story.

While the flow and the dialog in the story were decent, the three main characters were weak and uninteresting. They seemed to over-react to everything that was no big deal and dismiss things that should have been bigger issues. Things happened for no real reason (it seemed like) and many things were left "unsaid".

**SPOILER**

When one of the friend dies because of the ghosts, the other two friends meet again and open the dead friends presents--the story was so unmemorable I have already forgotten their names. Really??? WHo opens a dead friend's presents? That seem creepy to me.

Then, the girl that died was told by Crampus/Satan/the Devil that he came to make her his bride. She was a girl that was distraught for MANY MANY years because she ate someone's candy (licorice) when she was young. How does this make any sense?? Seems like the author just tried to think of something no one would ever guess and made that happen.

Honestly, I am not sure why the book/story was ever even accepted by a publisher. The author seems to have some writing skills but maybe he should stick to "ghosting" for someone and writing a story that other person makes up.

Since this is an audio book review, I will say that the narrator was the one thing that made me continue listening. A+ for the reader/narrator, D- for the story, C+ for the writing style/skill.

OVERALL - 2 stars (this got up to 2 stars because I weighed the narrator into the final score) ( )

A Christmas Tale is a retelling of Charles Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol. IN this version, three young women are having a sleepover on Christmas Eve, and decide (as a joke) to summon the ghosts from Dickens' tale. The girls awake in the middle of the night to find that their joke became reality, and they were in fact visited by 3 spirits. Unlike the ghosts in Dickens' tale, however, these ghosts show the girls their worst Christmas memories, including scenes of abuse and suicide. This is where the book became too intense and I had to stop.

While I liked the premise and the book (for the most part), the eerie, intense, and grey feelings were overwhelming. ( )