Holiday

by M. Rickert

Ghosts and mythic beings populate this holiday-themed collection of eleven tales to read by candlelight. "Holiday," a story of all holidays for a dead girl and the man who sees her, is followed by New Year’s Day and "Memoir of a Deer Woman," a woman’s transformation into a deer leaves her husband desperate for her words. Valentine’s Day is celebrated with "Journey into the Kingdom," winner of the World Fantasy Award, where a young girl falls in love with a ghost. A May Day wedding in "The Machine" is a tale of innocence lost and terrible revenge, a story not for the faint of heart. Mother’s Day brings us a future where women who have had abortions are punished in "Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter’s Personal Account." Father’s Day is marked by asking what is lost forever when a stolen boy returns, in "Don't Ask." In a story for Independence Day, a nine-year-old girl’s first act of independence is also an act of revenge, in "Traitor." Not all anniversaries are happy occasions and in "Was She Wicked? Was She Good?" one family copes with the damage that remains after being victims of a home invasion. A surreal Halloween story, "You Have Never Been Here," asks if the body is the mask we all wear. A Veteran’s day story, "War is Beautiful," features a soldier in the Vietnam War who befriends a local girl — or is she a ghost? The collection ends with a Halloween to Christmas tale, "The Christmas Witch," where a lonely, little girl struggles to survive in a town of children that collect bones.
Holidays are days of honor. These eleven tales, eerie, mysterious, and creepy, honor the human experience of death and redemption. They might keep you up at night, but why not extend the celebration?

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction

164 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

M. Rickert also writes under the name Mary Rickert. How did this happen and why, you might ask. It is a reasonable question but that does not mean the answer is reasonable as well. There was a time when M. was a young writer, scribbling in notebooks and on the back of envelopes, who thought she wanted to disappear behind the stories she wrote. (She still feels that way, and rather enjoys writing about herself in the third person as if she were someone else.) After years of rejections M. began publishing under the mysterious moniker, and was happy doing so, until she began to feel that she was repeating herself, or (and this is the weird part) repeating someone else who she once had been. At the age of 51 she decided to go back to school and earned her MFA as well as the rest of her name. She also wrote a novel, The Memory Garden, to be published in May, 2014.

Reviews

[Gregory Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

M. Rickert's stories do not take the path you think they will. Stories of transformations, of ghosts, of strange journeys lead you in a way that few other authors can. She is a stunning short story writer who deserves more appreciation both in and out of the fantasy genres.

[Mely]

I admire these stories more than I like them; I can't escape the feeling that I don't admire them as much as I should. I am put off by the reliance on the unreliable narrator, especially when the unreliability is Is this real?/Is this person delusional? -- when it pivots on more ordinary reliabilities, such as the child protagonist of "The Christmas Witch," I like it much better.

There's something about the way Rickert handles (persistent) themes of molestation/rape/murder that bugs me, but I'm not sure what. So many abuser POVs? That the only child POV we get is people blaming an innocent man? (I am fairly sure. I suppose with Rickert everything is in doubt.)

She's been compared to Shirley Jackson, which is fair. Jackson is less sentimental, I think, which makes her paradoxically easier to take.

The framing device is considerably less annoying -- and detracts less (not at all) from the stories -- than the one she used for Map of Dreams.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll buy anything with M. Rickert's name on it. Indeed, most of these stories are from issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction that I bought precisely because... well, you know why. The three or so stories I hadn't read were well worth the price of admission.

If I had one quibble, it's that the "holiday" theme seemed a little forced to me. I blame the book's World Fantasy Award for Best Collection this year on the theme (though I'm the first to admit that Karen Joy Fowler's What I Didn't See was no slouch).

[Carly Laughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this book because I liked the idea of dark stories inspired by different holidays. I liked M. Rickert's writing, but for most of the stories, I would say I enjoyed the journey more than the destination. Many of the stories featured characters who were misunderstood and treated horribly, which had me anticipating vengeance or redemption, but many of the stories were unresolved or had bleak endings. I do enjoy the author's style though, and would like to read more of her work.

[novelteathoughts · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not really sure what to think of this book. I picked it up because I needed something to read for a readathon challenge that had the word Holiday in the title and because this is supposedly a fantasy book. I wouldn’t say any of the stories in this book are Fantasy, just people with disturbed minds and lives. The stories deal with rape, child molestation, cancer, death, war, murder, etc. None of them correlate with the supposed “holidays” they are connected to.

The only story I completely enjoyed was “Memoir of a Deer Woman” and quite possibly “You Have Never Been Here” (still thinking on that one).

If you’re looking for a “holiday” book, don’t pick this one up. The author is supposedly a “dark fantasy” writer, but I’d have to say she just writes dark, disturbing fiction in general, sans fantasy.

[Des Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rickertian as new literary ambiance. HOLIDAY is a major collection for lovers of dark fantasy or weird fiction. [The holiday titles? I haven’t fathomed their import yet. Perhaps they are, as holidays are, restful pauses in a symphony that are often more important than the actual notes surrounding the pauses.]

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.

[MandalorianChick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful dark fantasy anthology!

My favorites were “The Machine”, “The Christmas Witch”, “Traitor” and “Journey Into the Kingdom.”

The weakest pieces for me were, “Memoir of a Deer Woman” and “Was She Wicked? Was She Good?” Although overall, this was an amazing read.

[Sheena Forsberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read this collection, I’d catch myself thinking that I’d be perfectly happy reading just Rickert. I ❤️ that the stories in this collection is subversively centered on holidays. It’s a clever concept & was so well executed. Rickert is one of the most interesting authors for me. Even if there’s a story of hers that doesn’t resonate with me, I’m always left thinking about it; they creep up on you. A must-read for anyone with a taste for the weird, melancholy & the cerebral.

An overview of the stories below (I’ve marked my favorites with an “*”):

-Holiday:*
A young man working on a memoir about his convicted father finds himself haunted by murdered children who he entertains. There’s things in this story heavily alluding to a couple of high profile cases, but in a way that is centered around the humanity of them rather than being exploitative in any way. Extremely well executed and elegant in its telling and it’s dealing with abuse.

-Memoir of a Deer Woman (New Year’s Day):
A dear dies after a hit and run; a woman starts to show the beginning of antlers. A near-lyrical and ethereal short story about passing; be it words, life, states.

-Journey into the Kingdom (Valentine’s Day):*
A girl living in a light house falls in love with a ghost (who unbeknownst to her is of the breath-stealing kind). A man finds a book detailing the girl’s life & becomes convinced that the waitress is her. -Quirky, sad and comforting in equal measures.

-The Machine (May Day):
Why does the nightingale sing? Asks an open ended question of why people suffer, to what end, through Greek mythology. Brutal, sad and frustratingly relevant.

-Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter’s Personal Account (Mother’s Day):
A dystopian short story where conservative religious nuts have won and women who have had abortions are executed (and you can watch it live or televised) and the rest have been brain washed to the point where they’re bitter if their guilty mothers have escaped their “just fate”. Ruthless, close to the bone and chilling considering recent developments. Reminded me of Croatoan by Ellison, but with the dark turned all the way up.

-Don’t Ask (Father’s Day):
Boys missing for years return changed. A werewolf story blessedly devoid of tropes.

-Traitor (4th of July):
One of the more ambiguous stories of the lot for those who like to keep guessing Alika is a little girl with a memory defect of sorts and a strange distant relationship to her mother. What is in that backpack and why is her mother asking her to take a highly unconventional route to school? And what kind of army was her mother recruited to after a traumatic episode in her childhood? This one is left open for interpretation after a somewhat explosive ending.

-Was She Wicked? Was She Good? (Summer Anniversary):*
A child tortures fairies while her parents try to keep her safe from them as well as her murderous impulses.

-You Have Never Been Here (Halloween):
A very special hospital or just an elaborate dream? Body switching or a mad person’s delusion to not deal with guilt?

-War is Beautiful (Veteran’s Day):
A man reminisces about his time fighting in Vietnam. The fact that the story is so beautifully told is in stark contrast to the brutality and unnecessary violence committed.

-The Christmas Witch (Thanksgiving/ Christmas):*
Children with a strange obsession with collecting animal bones. The town legend of a witch killed by the town, and a little girl who finds that talking to adults sometimes lead to trouble.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holiday is a themed collection of short stories and novellas by Mary Rickert aka M. Rickert, winner of the Nebula, International Horror Guild, World Fantasy and Crawford Awards. Dark fantasy, magical realism, myth and (quiet) horror -- though, I dare you to read Mary's stories and fit them into just one tidy little box. And don't expect simple, literal "holiday" stories; think, Joe Hill's exploration of "ghosts" in 20th Century Ghosts. From the Introduction:

Not everyone has happy holidays; the stories collected here are not, for the most part, what I would call happy. I am inclined not to call them sad either...People sometimes find my stories strange, but what could be stranger than life? For me, I choose to celebrate the strange, the misshapen, the forgotten, even the inevitable death. For many people this is not what holidays are all about. For me, this is what everything is about. (ix)

I absolutely loved that I had no idea where each story was going. So often I find myself, without conscious effort, predicting what's happening, where it will end. Not the case with Holiday. I'd recommend this collection to anyone who favors the darker side of fiction with deeper meaning, heart and maybe even truth, but only if they don't mind mashed up genres or ambiguous endings.

4.5 stars

After The Memory Garden and now this collection, I must read everything I can get my hands on by Mary Rickert.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving in a way that reminds me of looking into a mirror under water. Plucked from the library display at random for the gorgeous cover, which made me mistakenly suppose it was for children. It is not.

[Rebecca Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Assigned reading from Paolo Bacigalupi at the ArmadilloCon Writer's Workshop! Affecting stories that are both fantastic and realistic. She often employs a more distant voice giving many of these stories a fairy tale feel.

[Sara Saab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feverish and full of beauty and death. Gets stronger midway through with a series of spectacular stories, of which the following are standouts: "Don't Ask", "Was She Wicked? Was She Good?", "You Have Never Been Here", "War is Beautiful".