The Christmas Guest follows two university students, Ashley Smith and Emma Chapman, as the duo spend the Christmas season at the residence of Emma’s family, the Starvewood Manor. Ashley is shocked as she enters the large estate and becomes uncomfortable at the rude comments made by Emma’s parents. As Ashley begins to grow close to Emma’s brother, Adam, rumors of his possible influence in the murder of a teenage girl start to make Ashley question who the Chapman family is. Amidst this terror, the girls also find themselves threatened by a masked man in the woods. Ashley realizes she has stepped into a real-life horror novel as she questions how safe she really is in the cold, looming halls of Starvewood Manor.
Swanson’s The Christmas Guest is a spine-chilling novella that leads the reader on a downward spiral full of more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. The first part of the novella occurs within the diary of Ashley Smith, an art student staying at classmate Emma Chapman’s family residence which sets the gothic scene of the story, whereas the second part of the novella is told from Emma’s point of view. This leaves the reader with a horrifying discovery and stunning conclusion, thus proving that not everything is as it seems. Although many aspects of the story add to the horror theme, romance is also present within the novella between Ashley and Emma’s twin brother, leaving you wondering whether or not this is a horror, murder mystery, romance book – or all of the above. Although The Christmas Guest is a short read, each page has the unique ability to entice the reader leaving them to finish the novella in one sitting.
