Title: You’d Better Not Pyout
Author: Nancy Pickard
In: Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Christmas, Vampires, Werewolves
Dates read: 29th December 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Gollancz
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: A silence descended on the strange scene.
They’ve discovered the Santa is a vampire. What these two young Russian undead don’t realise is that he’s ancient for a reason. And really not interested in their help…
Any story that starts with a discussion about how Santa is a vampire is going to draw me in and make me incredibly happy from the very beginning. There is just something about the idea that is both sensical and terrifying. Definitely funny though. Especially the way in which it’s described…
As much as I loved Santa being a vampire, the part of this story I loved the most was that it featured African Painted Dogs. I absolutely adore those endangered creatures and the fact that they take out Santa’s reindeer… might be one of the more perfect stories I’ve read. It was just brilliant.
This is definitely one of those stories which takes our traditional tales and gives them a completely absurd spin. One that makes a weird kind of sense and makes you not really want to think about the original for a little time. Especially when even Rudolph gets a disturbing supernatural spin in this story!
Earth and Skye 
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