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Andrew Shaffer: ‘Secret Santa’ and the gift that keeps on taking

Chris Well

She must figure out the meaning of the cursed gift before it destroys her soul.

The Office meets Stephen King, dressed up in holiday tinsel, in this fun, festive, and frightening horror-comedy.

In Secret Santa, a Christmas horror novel by satirist Andrew Shaffer, Lussi Meyer is desperate to find a job in publishing. While Blackwood-Patterson isn’t the perfect fit, 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 co-workers’ 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.

“Horror comedy is a constant tightrope act,” the author told SciFiNow. “Lean too much into the comedy, and the horror isn’t scary; make things too horrifying, and the jokes fall flat. Getting the combination right was the most difficult part about writing Secret Santa. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with my editor to make sure everything balanced out just so.”

Secret Santa
Andrew Shaffer
Penguin Random House
Categories: Fiction Satire, Holiday Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Horror fiction, Thriller, Dark comedy, Christmas Story, Paranormal fiction

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Reviews

“Shaffer has a great sense of comedic timing, and I laughed out loud a lot while reading Secret Santa. Chills, laughs and a little bit of Christmas spirit makes this a solid choice for a good holiday scare.”—Books, Bones & Buffy

“Entertaining and sardonic, Secret Santa has some Christmas fun as well as some creepy moments if you don’t like dolls. It’s not terribly scary, but it has more than enough 80s horror nostalgia to make up for it.”—The Library Ladies

“Secret Santa is fun, quick and acerbic. There is a motley variety of supporting characters who simultaneously feel misunderstood and corrupted. As Lussi searches for answers, including who might be her “Secret Santa,” anyone and everyone appears to be a suspect. Shaffer is a clever writer whose prose jumps off the page with wit and whimsy.”—Hollywood Soapbox

“Simply, it is a highly entertaining dose of nostalgia-filled fun that exudes a dark charm and I loved everything about it.”—The Tattooed Book Geek

“This is a very fun, very evil little horror story. Extremely quick pace. Everything was said and done and over before you even knew it! The plot is a clever use of a secret Santa idea. What an EVIL gift! I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the carnage take place at the office. There was something very satisfying about it!”—Creature From The Book Lagoon

“A touch of the supernatural, malefic colleagues and plenty of eccentricity.”—The Washington Post

“Shaffer writes with a keen eye for the tropes of the genre but also a sharply ironic sense of humour…provides chuckles and chills in equal measure.”—Financial Times

“Writing with a biting, dry wit, Shaffer blends old school, B-movie gore and sharp send-ups of office politics and the publishing industry. Fans of classic slasher novels will revel in this blood-soaked romp.”—Publishers Weekly

“[A] devilishly farcical ode to horror novels and publishing in general….Anyone who ventures into this snarky, dark novel will never look at a holiday gift exchange the same way again.”—Booklist

“A superbly crafted, impressively original, and inherently riveting read from cover to cover.”—Midwest Book Review

“Shaffer delivers chills and laughs — he is fundamentally a comedic writer — in a story that leads into Halloween and Christmas like a good Tim Burton film.”—The Gazette

“An offbeat nostalgia trip, a narrative steeped in 1980s pastiche and featuring a unique plot that keeps readers guessing what’s happening . . . Secret Santa is a wonderful read any time of the year, but it’s devilishly appropriate for Christmastime—or perhaps Christmas in July.”—Hollywood Soapbox

About the Author

Andrew Shaffer is the New York Times best-selling author of Quirk’s Obama/Biden Mystery series, and the Goodreads Choice semifinalist Fifty Shames of Earl Grey: A Parody, among other humorous fiction and nonfiction books for HarperCollins and Penguin Random House.

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