And I haven’t even mentioned the ghost of Jon Bennett Ramsey. It is, without a doubt, one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. The story charts his seemingly inevitable slide into the terminal velocity of a vicious cycle of abuse and horror until, at the end, he stands revealed in a Gacy-esque clown costume, smiling at the distant laughter of children. The protagonist (and I hesitate to call him, or, really, any of the characters in these pages, hero) is a survivor of childhood abuse. “Holiday,” the short story that gives this collection its name, provides a taste of what’s to come. It is, though, a collection for those who enjoy meticulous stories, full of engaging characters coping with the appalling horrors lurking just out of the corner of their eye. Which is to say, this is not a collection for the weak. Provided, of course, your idea of a holiday is something in which you’re battling constant, overwhelming feelings of dread as the inevitability of crushing horror sneaks up next to you with a large, spiked hammer dripping red and gooey. Rickert, is the perfect book to curl up with as the actual holidays approach. Holiday, the new collection of short stories by M. “Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter’s Personal Account”
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