Candy Cain Kills

Killer VHS Series, Book 2

By: Brian McAuley

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Oh, what fun it is to die!

When Austin’s parents drag him and his little sister Fiona to a remote cottage for Christmas, he’s less than thrilled about the forced bonding exercise. But after learning that their holiday getaway was the site of a horrific crime, this family on the rocks will have to fight for their lives against a legendary killer...because Candy Cain is slashing through the snow with a very long naughty list.

©2023 Shortwave Media (P)2023 Shortwave Media

B MOVIE FUN - FUN - FUN

This is a B movie fun audiobook. If you like 80/90's slashers, creature features, and understand what you are getting yourself into, you will enjoy it. Fast listen. Fun times! I look forward to more of these!

Christmas jingles and death

I wanted to read this for the Christmas season, and lo and behold, I won an audible code giveaway from the author and Shortwave Publishing. The narration from Elisabeth Rodgers was very well done!

This is book two in the Killer VHS Series, but I believe they are standalone stories. It’s styled just like you’d think. It has everything you’d look for in a slasher film. Drama. Comedy. Surprises. Kills. I’d say Black Christmas sticks out as similar, but that’s likened to the Christmas atmosphere probably.

A Christmas from the past has shocking repercussions on one in the future. The same house, two different families, one hell of a Christmas stay. I enjoyed that the story linked back to the Christian side of Christmas, as that is somewhat absent at times, and it has the ability to be turned so super creepy when done right. This does it pretty flawlessly.

Another thing McAuley has achieved is taking something kind of silly, and making it creepy. Not to mention gruesome. The tagline, “Oh, what fun it is to die” is a perfect cheesy rip off the Christmas song, and drew me as a reader 100%, but it could very easily have fallen in the way that its B, C, and even D horror predecessors have gone. Don’t get me wrong, it most certainly is what it claims to be, I’m just saying the author has done so quite well.

Personally a 5/5*, I did not call the twist, therefore I was twisted.

A brutal, thoughtful holiday slasher.

McAuley has an acrobatic ability for writing kills Tom Savini would have blessed. Brilliantly paced and casted with characters you hope will survive—despite the looming body count.

More novellas. More slashers. More holiday horror.