Joséphine
Written on Jan 21, 2015
It took my over three weeks to finish reading this book, even though it's fairly short. I liked the idea of metafictive elements as the protagonist published a short story in her newspaper column every day in the lead-up to Christmas. An advents calendar but in the form of reminiscent stories. Trouble is, My Christmas Curse was very mundane.
Sure, there were sweet moments but on the whole, I felt very lukewarm towards the book. With such a title, I expected the book to be either funny or sad. It was neither. What got to me the most though was the constant moral preaching thinly veiled by the protagonist's personal experiences. I didn't appreciate that. It wasn't a terrible book by any means but it sure was bland and the holiday mood hardly touched me at all.