The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson @PeterSwanson3 @estherwane @HarperAudio

the setup…
Ashley Smith is an American art student from Sacramento who is studying in London. It’s 1989 and a junior year where she’s facing spending the Christmas holiday alone as her mother recently died and there’s no one left behind in California. When she gets a sudden invitation from another student, Emma Chapman, she’s reluctant at first (there’s a good reason for that), but the idea of Christmas in a manor home in the Cotswolds was too appealing to turn down. Once there, it first looks ideal and cozy but soon Ashley starts to feel like maybe she’s in the middle of some gothic mystery. Well, maybe.

the heart of the story…
It’s actually the format of the story that’s the thing. It’s delivered from the diary Ashley keeps and she’s quite expansive in her writing (you can actually hear the pages turning). I got a clear picture of Starvewood Hall (the manor home), Emma, her family and a strong sense of foreboding from those pages, despite Ashley shrugging it off. She starts falling for Adam, Emma’s brother, though he doesn’t seem all that engaged. I kept thinking, “run.” The story then takes a sharp turn when it shifts to the present day, thirty years later.

the narration…
This was my first time listening to this narrator and I loved her performance. She’s a great storyteller and gave subtle distinctions to the primary characters.

the bottom line…
This isn’t your typical Christmas story, an anomaly amongst the fare of sweetness and light. It was a nice change of pace as throughout the reading of Ashley’s diary, there’s this growing sense of something undefinable and eerie amidst the normal of the holiday. The twist that showed up in the present day was quite clever and poetic. It’s a novella so brevity here is a must. Just know that this is a creepy little holiday gem that I definitely enjoyed and is best served up on audio.

Book Info

• Release Date: October 17, 2023
• Narrator: Esther Wane
• Audio Length: 2 hours, 48 minutes
• Publisher: HarperAudio

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