’25 Days’ by Per Jacobsen – Advent Calendar Horror – December 1-7

25 days, 25 chapters. This December, the countdown to Christmas will chill you to the bone.
Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.
Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling realization: they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.

My imagination was captured by the idea of a horror story told as an Advent Calendar – one chapter a day from 1st December.

I’ve entered into the spirit of it by reading one chapter a day and writing down my reactions.

I’m having fun. The classic horror set-up is enriched by how well the family is drawn and enlivened by rotating the point of view through the four family members chapter by chapter.

Here’s what the first week looked like

December 1st

Well, that hit every note in the horror Dan-de-dan-DAAAN! chord.

It was a bit over the top but it did a good job of setting the scene and the mood. Told from Adam’s point of view, it sets up a fractured (for reasons unknown) family coming for a week in a remote cabin to try and brings some healing to their relatioships. They’re set up to be as vulnerable as chickens in a cage.

Adam is apparently clueless about the environment he’s brought them to. It seems he’s never seen mountain snowstorms before but has a ‘How hard can it be?’ approach that marks him and his family as easy targets. Still, I lost sympathy with him when his response to ‘All I Want For Christamas’ coming on the radio was to want to turn it up when I’d want to turn it off. Blood is spilt before the end of the first day – although it made me laugh rather than shudder.

Even so, I know that bad things are coming and no opportunity will be lost for jump scare moments.

I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

December 2nd

A happy family chapter. I like the change in POV from Adam to Beth. She seems more interesting than him and more observant. Some cute happy scenes but tinged with a hint of threat and a residue of depression.

And how scary can a christmas stocking hung on a barn door be? I can almost hear the manic laughter as I ask that question.

December 3rd

A sliver of a chapter but well done. Told from Abby’s POV it does a good job of showing the dynamic between her and her younger sister in a way that makes me like them and also shows me how vulnerable they are. The level of menace is sustained at low simmer by strange tracks in the snow and things not quite seen in the woods.

December 4th

I’m impressed by how well the two sisters are drawn. This chapter is from Cnloe’s POV. It does a good job of getting inside the young girl’s head.

Their reaction to the slide projector makes me feel very old.

December 5th

Why don’t people in horror novels leave the isolated place with an escalating but generalised sense of threat and go home?

Jacobsen’s answer is that going home will be the death knell for their marriage.

The argument between Adam and Beth was well written. Their disappointment in one another is a source of muted anger and unaxknowleged grief that has exhausted them. One more disappointment will kill their hope.

Loved the bomb shelter description. Even creepier than the normal cellar-with-an-old-boiler-that-may-be-a-gate-to-Hell trope.

December 6th

It shows me that a horror novel is working when a pleasant interlude feels like it’s casting a shadow of threat. Will the bunnies or the deer be safe? Will the maze come back to haunt the girls?

Then there’s that well-meaning decision that makes you want to shout – “No, don’t do that!” There’s a reason why cars are kept inside on mountains in winter.

Whenever a character in a novel is reading a book I don’t recognise, I search for it.. When I searched for the book Beth was reading, ‘The Flood’ by Randall Morgan, I couldn’t find it on GoodReads or Amazon so I extended my search and found that Randall Morgan is a fictional author and the lead character in Per Jacobson’s ‘Strung” trilogy. I have to give Jacobsen full marks for effective product placement. The trilogy boxset is now on my wish list.