Over the past few months, I have sadly fallen behind on my ARCs (‘advanced reader copies’). But publishers kept sending me them (because they are patient and lovely) and now I have a big stack that I really need to get through. Some are even leftovers from years previous. I’M TERRIBLE, I KNOW! I will work hard to redeem myself. I’m determined to get through them all. So, welcome to a new series; “ARC Catch-Up”, where I try to read through the stack, while also reading new ones that get mailed to me.

A massive thank you to all the publishers and authors who send me copies of these books, I feel genuinely lucky to get the chance to read these, and I won’t take it for granted.

First up is You Better Watch Out written by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth. This was a finished copy sent to me by St. Martin’s Press.

On the back of the book, a blurb from Clay McLeod Chapman (hey gurl! love you!) states “Ho, ho, oh no - It’s Saw in Santa’s workshop!” and that was all I needed. As a massive Saw fan, apologist, Ted Talk-er, Jigsaw enthusiast, I am very easily led into consuming things if you just slap a “Saw meets *insert vibes* here”. I will be first in line.

(Seriously, I love Saw so much. On my old blog I ranked all the Saw movies and traps, wrote an article on this site about how perfect Jigsaw is, and will talk for hours about the franchise to anyone who will listen…which is no one, hence why I write articles.)

But is this really Saw in Santa’s workshop? Not necessarily. It has Saw vibes for sure. There are traps, the main characters have questionable backgrounds, and that’s where we end.

This story follows mainly two characters; Jess and Eddie, who wake up in the middle of what appears to be an abandoned town after seemingly being kidnapped. They find other people in the town in the same predicament. But quickly, one after another starts dying in more and more elaborate ways while Jess and Eddie fight for a way out of this nightmare. Who set this up? How deep does it go? And what if Jess and Eddie don’t deserve the redemption they crave?

Oh yeah, and it’s Christmas Eve.

“I wasn’t a saint in my past.” “No shit. That’s why you’re here.”

“But deep down, Jess knew that for him to be here, trapped along with her, Eddie was harbouring dark secrets of his own. And those secrets were bound to surface, sooner or later.”

This is a short book, clocking in at 225 pages. I plowed through it in two evenings. It is very fast paced, we get a lot in a short page count, and it is a very fun concept.

But it’s pretty predictable. I started getting suspicious on page 73, and by page 162 I wrote down my prediction that Jess was actually apart of this whole scheme and lying to everyone, and most likely the real killer, which was confirmed by the end of the book. And I’m usually pretty shit at picking up on twists, so let that tell you something. I could sort of constantly see a few moves ahead throughout most of the story turns and character arcs.

I did love the traps though. My Saw-filled heart was very satisfied with the more and more elaborate traps that began taking place. The trap in the access tunnels was pretty diabolical and the carousel trap was absolutely savage. There’s some pretty gross scenes that I very much enjoyed and overall I did have a good time reading this.

It’s a quick Christmas horror romp that is worth picking up for sure. The Christmas vibes are immaculate, the blood is flowing freely, and I think Jigsaw would approve.

“This town is our reckoning.”