Secret Santa
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Narrated by:
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Andi Arndt
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By:
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Andrew Shaffer
About this listen
The Office meets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in this fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy set during the horror publishing boom of the ’80s, by New York Times best-selling satirist Andrew Shaffer.
Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is desperate to work anywhere in publishing. Prestigious Blackwood-Patterson isn’t the perfect fit, but a bizarre set of circumstances leads to her hire and a firm mandate: Lussi must find the next horror superstar to compete with Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub. It’s the ’80s, after all, and horror is the hottest genre.
But as soon as she arrives, Lussi finds herself the target of her coworkers’ mean-spirited pranks. The hazing reaches its peak during the company’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, when Lussi receives a demonic-looking object that she recognizes but doesn’t understand. Suddenly, her coworkers begin falling victim to a series of horrific accidents akin to a George Romero movie, and Lussi suspects that her gift is involved. With the help of her former author, the flamboyant Fabien Nightingale, Lussi must track down her anonymous Secret Santa and figure out the true meaning of the cursed object in her possession before it destroys the company - and her soul.
©2020 Andrew Shaffer (P)2020 Blackstone PublishingHighly recommend, love the plot, characters, and writing. I'm definitely going to be revisiting this book near Christmas time!
Loved it!
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This was a brisk, darkly comedic horror novella that plays like an ’80s office satire crossed with a cursed-object creature feature. Andrew Shaffer leans hard into campy fun—think The Office meets Gremlins, but with publishing-world backstabbing, toxic workplace politics, and a creeping sense of supernatural dread.
The story follows Lussi, a newcomer to a cutthroat publishing house filled with petty rivals, corporate snakes, and people who would probably eat their own manuscript submissions if it meant a promotion. When she receives a strange (and deeply unsettling) antique doll as part of the company’s Secret Santa exchange, things begin to go… very wrong. Shaffer keeps the tone light, snappy, and self-aware, never taking the horror too seriously, which makes the gory bits land with a mix of shock and humor.
What works best is the satirical bite—Shaffer clearly enjoys skewering the pretentious edges of the publishing world—and the novella’s tight pacing ensures the mystery stays engaging. The scares aren’t terrifying so much as gleefully creepy, and the book’s Christmas setting adds a deliciously festive absurdity.
Overall: A quick, quirky, holiday-horror treat that balances office satire with supernatural mischief. Perfect if you want something fun, spooky, self-aware to read in an evening, and in a book club!
I will be reading more from this author.
The characters
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Surprisingly Good
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Silly pulp horror fun
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Luckily it’s also quite short.
Meh
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