A very imaginative story about grief and very scary Christmas Lights taking over the neighborhood and its people.
- Scare factor: ★★★☆☆
- Originality factor: ★★★★★
- Cosmic horror factor: ★★★★☆
- Christmas vibe: ★★★★☆
- Surreal factor: ★★★★☆
I Found Christmas Light Slithering Up My Street is a very unusual Christmas story. It’s imaginative, action packed, strange and creepy and hides a deeper meaning, symbolized by the very real, although they can’t believe it’s happening, events. With themes like friendship and grief there’s lots to explore in this little novella. But it’s an evenly creepy and entertaining read for Christmas.
It consist of 148 pages.
Plot
Eleven-year-old Douglas has lost his little sister Erica last Christmas and that has taken a toll on his family. Douglas loves his family and he still loves Christmas, although his parents don’t care for it anymore. So he decides to decorate a house that is still being build with Christmas lights and all sorts of decorations he could find. It’s a surprise for his parents and he hopes it will make them happy again, love Christmas again and love him again.
Things are about to take a dangerous turn when he finds strange not-purple colored Christmas Lights in the sewer drain and decides to use them for his decoration of the house.
There’s something strange about these Christmas Lights. It’s starting to act like Kudzu, slithering through the whole neighborhood and creeping up on other Christmas decorations. And it turns these decorations into something different. He and his friends Harold and David try to warn the people, when they find out that there are strange Carol Singers going through the neighborhood, absorbing the people on the streets, just like the Christmas Lights.
This Christmas is turning into a harrowing nightmare, as the whole neighborhood is in danger when they come in contact with either the Carol Singers or the Christmas Lights. It’s up to Douglas with help from his friends to stop it.
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Did you know I also make Art & Designs.
This Winter Wonderland design of an Eyes Cold Snowman is made with soft pastels. You can buy this design on a Unisex Sweater and other apparel and on other various products in my shop at Redbubble.
Short Review
It’s a very unusual and original story about Christmas. All the more because it’s a story about Douglas who feels empty inside after his sister died. He feels abandoned by his parents who are still grieving, but Douglas is grieving too. He tries to take action to bring joy to his parents, hoping things will be normal again. That they can celebrate Christmas like they used to, being a normal family again.
Although it’s a very thrilling and creative scary story with imaginative supernatural or alien entities that are slowly taking over the neighborhood, it’s also a very emotional story. It’s a metaphor for being empty, for wanting to be absorbed by something else, just to feel something. Douglas uses Christmas to hide away his emptiness, but the emotional ending shows him what’s really going on inside of him.
It’s a thrilling story that is fast-paced with a likable main character and his friends. The behavior of the Christmas Lights and the Carolers is very imaginative and scary and feels often very surreal. The way they turn the normal Christmas decorations into surreal nightmares is very creepy and unique and that makes it all very terrifying and dire. You certainly don’t want to be touched by it, the consequences are just horrifying. The friends have to figure out how they can hurt it, what it is and where it comes from.
Other themes are friendship, bravery and doing the right thing. It is well told with plenty emotion but it never becomes sentimental. It’s a cosmic horror story that combines the strange and the weird with difficult themes and they enhance each other creating a more profound story and therefore also a more scary one.
Although I Found Christmas Lights Slithering Up My Street is a rather short novella, this story is packed with action, strange phenomena, surreal nightmarish events, and themes that dive deeper into the character of Douglas and the heart of Christmas.
Read more reviews of books by Ben Farthing:
- I Found a Lost Hallway Inside a Dying Mall (2024) review
- I Found Puppets Living in my Apartment Walls (2023) review
Did You Know I Also Make Art and Designs?
you can buy my designs on apparel or stationary, mugs and more. You can learn more about it on my art & design shop page or go directly to one of my shops.