Staff Picks for the Holidays

Lauren’s Pick

The Longest Night
by Lauren Carter (Freehand Books)

As a perennial recommender of Lauren Carter’s debut novel Swarm, imagine my delight to see her returning to her survival-horror roots with The Longest Night. This twisty, dark novel that begins when 19-year-old Ash seeks shelter after being locked out on a freezing-cold December night will make me even more grateful for cozy holiday times ahead.

Colleen’s Pick

Thyme Travellers
edited by Sonia Sulaiman (Fernwood Publishing)

This holiday break, I’m setting out to read Thyme Travellers, an anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction from fourteen different authors. The first of its kind to be published in Canada, this collection features stories that are each unique, yet share an often otherworldly depiction of Palestinian folklore, history, and futures. I’m very much looking forward to reading it in one snowy afternoon. What better time is there to enjoy speculative fiction than in the annual limbo between the holidays and the new year, where time and routine cease to exist?

Mandy’s Pick

Skin
by Catherine Bush (Goose Lane Editions)

Both Selena Mercuri and Greg Rhyno recommended the short story collection Skin in our Gift Guide this year for many reasons, one of which being its ability to lean into the beauty and discomfort of intimacy. I enjoy stories that consider what it means to be a person in this fraught world—what touch, care, and connection mean right now—and Catherine Bush seems especially attuned to fragile, charged moments and the human condition. I’m looking forward to taking in these stories slowly, and cozied up, over the holidays.

Tan’s Pick

Old Souls
by Jackarais (Cloudscape Comics)

Living alone, talking to my plants, wandering the woods at night. I admit this scenario has some appeal during these chaotic times. But I plan to read Old Souls, a graphic novel about strange bodies found while walking in the woods alone at night, next to a roaring fire in a home filled with people for the holidays. It promises to be quietly menacing and wholly absorbing. If gothic tales are part of your holiday traditions, I invite you to join me in the woods…

Barb’s Pick

As We Forgive Others
by Shane Peacock (Cormorant Books)

I’ve just come in from my second massive shovel of the day, so it’s only fitting I got notification that my holiday read has just come in! I am looking forward to reading Shane Peacock’s As We Forgive Others, the first of two in his new Northern Gothic Mystery series. This was the winner of Crime Writers of Canada Award Of Excellence—Best Crime Novel Set in Canada 2025.

Hugh Mercer has come to a small town in Ontario, far away from his broken career, broken marriage, and broken life in New York. He’s expecting to take advantage of what he’s sure will be a peaceful place in the middle of winter to begin to make some sense of the situations he’s left behind. Before he has a chance to settle into his rented farmhouse, a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes a startling prediction: Elizabeth Goode, a local, is about to disappear under bizarre circumstances and her life is at risk.

The next one in the series, A Place of Secrets, takes place over Christmas, so hopefully I’ll be able to pick that up over the holidays too (are you listening, Santa?).