The Gift by Freida McFadden
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 30th December 2022
Published: 4th December 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
It’s Christmas Eve and Stella Hansen is broke.
She is so broke that despite working two jobs, she can’t even afford a present for her husband on their first Christmas as man and wife. But then a mysterious storekeeper at a pawn shop offers Stella an intriguing trade.
Stella wants more than anything to buy her husband the Christmas gift of his dreams. But will it come at a terrible price?
MY THOUGHTS:
I came across this book as a recommendation from one of my favourite authors Daniel Hurst so I thought I would check it out. After all, I absolutely LOVED Freida's psychological thriller "The Housemaid" and have the sequel on my shelf to read next month. But this? This is something else.
THE GIFT is a Christmas quickie like no other. Don't be fooled by its genial title...for what lays within is anything but.
Stella is coming off a twelve hour shift on Christmas Eve. Her feet are aching. Her blisters have blisters. She's tired and fed up and just wants to go home to her husband Justin. It's their first Christmas together as a married couple and she wants it to be special. The only problem is, she has no gift to give him as all her money went on getting the heating put back on after it was cut off.
So with less than 15 minutes left of their shift to go, Stella and Bessie are finishing up with waiting for the two remaining customers to leave. One down but the other remains. An elderly woman sitting in a corner booth at the back. And then Stella realises that neither she nor Bessie have served this woman. How long has she been sitting there? Waiting to be served?
With just 2 minutes left before they can close and she can go home to Justin (gift-less), Stella decides to tell the woman they are closing. But as she approaches the old woman and her attempts to rouse her fail, Stella then sees her once dark eyes clouded over and staring. And then she touches her. Her body is rigid. What the...?
UH-OH!
A creepy tale on Christmas Eve that is unlike any other Christmas story. It is chilling but deliciously so. Even so, it had the potential for greater things as a longer story but it sufficiently suffices with its well-earned creepiness as a short story. Still...I'd love to have seen how things panned out for those involved. And one hateful character.
A fast paced quick read that I devoured in half an hour. And that Epilogue? Brilliant. Though I saw the twist coming just before the reveal and thought how ironic and deliciously twisted it was. Just imagine how awesome it would have been as a full length tale!
If you enjoy creepy thrillers or are a McFadden fan, then you will love this short story.
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