When a down-on-his-luck shopping mall Santa is abruptly fired just days before Christmas, he decides to unleash holiday hell on the staff who wronged him. As the body count rises, shoppers at Merryvale will soon discover that this Santa’s got a bag full of wicked surprises – and he’s ready to deliver!

IN A NUTSHELL
This was a misbuy on my part. It’s too much of a gorefest for me. I enjoyed the start of the novel when the situation and the characters were being established. I thought the Santa’s origin story and his relationship with Mrs Claus were inspired. Once the novel became a succession of bloody slaughter scenes, I lost interest.

This was a buddy read. I used this post to share my thoughts as I went along, so the chapters appear in reverse order.

Chapter 13 in which Santa slaughters his replacement and I set the book aside

This was a gorefest. It also didn’t seem feasible. You cannot take the top of someone’s skull off with a rusty hacksaw. And why was it rusty? Didn’t Santa just buy this at the hardware store?

It seemed to me that Santa as a character had disappeared, the observational humour had evaporated and, all that lay ahead were more scenes of manic slaughter.

I’m not interested in reading any more.

Chapter 12 in which we get some comic relief and no one dies

No one gets killed in this scene between the security chief and the DJ/Influencer but the whole chapter is a protracted sneer at how pathetic both men are.

Chapter 11 in which Santa slaughters a helpless woman

Yeah, that was about as much fun as it sounds. No wit. No irony. Just a defenseless, terrified woman being sliced up on camera by a very large, very angry man.

This was when I started to think that this book wasn’t going to work for me.

Chapter 10 in which the manager gets stressed out by the chaos at the Mall

It was quietly satisfying to watch the manager’s world fall apart as his Mall became crowded with people who’d come to see the DJ rather than spend money. AND no one got killed in this chapter.

Chapter 9 in which Santa shaves off his beard and makes his first kill

I liked the start of this, with Santa feeling like he was cutting away his personality and his memories of Christmas happiness as he shaves off his beard with an open razor.

Then the kill came.

Yes, the guy who Santa kills is a very unpleasant man but he’s not one of the people who fired Santa.

This is a rage kill. Described in blow by slice detail.

I had a mixed reaction to this. Firstly I thought, did we really need an additional kill beyond the four main characters responsible ending Santa’s career. Then, when I read: “Blood sprayed from the wound, splattering across the cubicle walls and floor, coating Santa’s hands in thick, dark red.”, instead of being grossed out, I found myself thinking “Blood from an arterial spray shouldn’t be thick and it shouldn’t be that dark either.”

Chapter 8 in which Santa goes to the hardware store

This was a little odd. Santa visits the hardware store to the things he means to use to maim and kill people. He indulges in a little fantasy involving superglue and glass shards that seemed entirely expoitative. And why the hardware store? Why not go to Walmart and buy real weapons instead of hacksaws and nailguns? This isn’t where I thought this would go.

Chapter 7 in which Santa’s delusions become murderous and musical.

When Santa wakes on Christmas Eve morning with no Christmas spirit to look forward to, his mind slips its gears, and he gets messages from the cadaverous Mrs Claus, playing on a broken piano, and sharp-toothed elves crowding at this window, 

I think this is the point where the story either stops working for you or you choose to be swept along by its manic and murderous energy. For me, the thing that kept me moving was the menacing absurdity of the songs. They made the madness undeniable.

Here’s the final verse that lets Santa’s madness bubble up inside him.

"New traditions, new delight!
On this merry, blood-soaked night!
Sharpened sleighs and screams of fright,
Oh, Christmas Eve will be a sight!"

Chapter 6 in which we visit the ghost of Santa’s childhood past

This was a change in tone. Nothing to smile at here. Six-year-old Santa, then known as Sam Clarkson, suffers abuse and neglect on Christmas Day. Grim without being exploitative, this chapter lays the foundation for Santa’s manic attachment to Christmas.

Chapter 5 in which the shopping mall owner dreams of profit but courts disaster

The shopping mall owner, Kieran, and his events manager, Liz, and wannabe cop Head of Security Conner, are pantomime villains. Kieran is arrogant, greedy, and unpleasant. Liz is his anxious sidekick, and Conner is a swaggering incompetent. 

They’re great as figures to hiss and boo at, knowing that they and their plans are doomed. Planning a crowded Christmas Eve with a prima donna social influencer DJ using foam cannons. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Connor and his merry band of undertrained rentacops, probably. 

Chapter 4 in which we meet Mrs Claus and many things become clearer and much scarier

This is the chapter where any lingering sense of this being a retelling of ‘Miracle of 42nd Street‘ or a Hallmark Christmas movie is dispelled. Santa has a mania for his job. This chapter reminded me the people with manias are… maniacs.

Mrs Claus, in a her own unique and surprising way, sets Santa on the road to revenge.

From here on in, nothing is going to be pretty.

Chapter 3 in which we meet the unlovely people who want to cancel Santa

I enjoyed the rogue’s gallery of people who assemble to fire Santa. The current owner of the Mall is described as:

” …a young man with more inherited wealth than wisdom”

Who believes he is:

…some kind of business pro, rather than a guy who’d stumbled into his father’s empire by sheer luck.°

Then there’s the media savvy woman who wants Santa gone because he’s…

“…guilty in the court of public opinion. They have …. cancelled you.”

Then there’s the actor who will play Santa whose…

“…most notable recent “performance involved being the rear end of the horse in Werrington VIllage Hall’s ill-fated adaptation of Black Beauty.”

Finally, there’s the security guard/wannabe cop who:

“…strutted in with a swaggerr that screamed of someone desperate for authority”

I’m looking forward to seeing these guys get what’s coming to them.

Chapter 2 in which Santa goes viral but the truth is not out there.

The description of Santa’s decrepit house was a little heavy on the pathos but the descriptions of how an edited version of Santa’s outrage went viral were spot on. It showed the hate-pit that social media has been re-engineered to be in an effort to keep people on line. Santa becomes rage bait.

I liked that Santa was enraged to find that:

“…no one -absolutely no one – seemed to care about the truth. The reality of the situation simply wasn’t as interesting as thee narrative being spun around him.”

The Oxford word of the year for 2025 is Rage bait : online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.

Chapter 1 in which Santa loses it.

I found the messaging that this Santa REALLY liked Christmas, seeing it as his vocation, a little more labouted that it needed to be but I liked Santa’s interaction with the kids, especially the five-year-old Emily who, stuffed bear held close to her chest, tells Santa she wants “a Denny Demon action figure with a moving chainsaw add-on,a rotating head and extra blood vomit cartridges”.

The scene where the foul-mouth teens sexually harass the woman playing Santa’s Elf was well done. Sadly, it was easy to believe, as was Santa’s outraged reaction.