The Gift by Freida McFadden

This book is considered a Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, etc. 

It is also a Christmas Short Story. 

Trigger Warning: 

This book deals with murder, poverty, and manipulation.

"You don't know what it's like to meet the man of your dreams, then meet his beautiful wife."

It is Christmas Eve, and Stella Hansen is dead on her feet. Despite working two jobs to help support herself and her husband, they are barely making ends meet. Stella is devastated by the thought of their first Christmas as a married couple being so pitiful. 

As Stella and her coworker close the dinner, a mysterious woman is sitting at a back booth. No one saw her come, and neither of them waited on her. The mysterious woman is a storekeeper; she owns a pawn shop. And she insists that Stella stop by her store on her way home. 

But what does Stella have to trade? She can't afford anything from the woman's shop, and all she has is her beautiful hair. 

The Review

This book is a dark twist on the classic, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Unfortunately, it felt very flat for me. If you aren't familiar with The Gift of the Magi, it is a beautiful tale about true love. Della nd Jim have fallen on tough times; they can barely afford their new apartment, their car has broken down, and life is just one big expense after another. In order to buy each other Christmas gifts, Della chops off her hair to get Jim a chain for his pocket watch. Jim sells his pocket watch to get Della a comb for her beautiful hair. In the end, they both laugh it off and realise the most important thing about Christmas is being together. 

This story is not like that. It has a "Freida McFadden twist". Which could have been interesting, but unfortunately, I didn't find it very unique. I read one comment on GoodReads saying it felt like a creative writing course assignment, and I have to agree.  

SPOILER ALERT

When Stella gives her husband her gift, he is a bit underwhelmed. It seems like he doesn't really understand her gift. Stella tells him it is a chain for his watch, but it seems like a necklace in this story, and the husband doesn't really understand why she would buy that for him. The husband didn't buy Stella anything. Instead, he tried to make homemade brownies for her because they were her favourite. He ended up making a mess and burning the brownies. Which set Stella off. 

She felt he was being too cheap and didn't even consider her. She cut off all her hair for him, and he burnt brownies! Stella noticed the suitcase in the hall closet, and she knew after his rant that her husband was planning on leaving her. So she stabbed him. 

I borrowed the audiobook from the library through the Libby App. 

Rating and Recommendation

If you have never read The Gift of the Magi, please read that first. It is such a beautiful story and a classic. If you have never read a Freida McFadden novel, please read any of her other novels (I recommend The Housemaid). This would definitely put most people off Freida McFadden, I think, and that would be a shame. If you are a fan, prepare yourself. This is not the type of writing you are used to. If you treat it as a little short story to get the creative juices flowing, you will probably enjoy the little story as a palate cleanser before going on to something else. But don't expect a masterpiece here. 

I wouldn't buy this book. It really isn't worth it in my opinion. And quite frankly, if it had been longer than an hour (audiobook format), I wouldn't even recommend listening to it. 

Conclusion

I am not really sure what to conclude about this book. I guess the best thing I can say is, if your library has it, check it out. The worst case, you waste an hour of your life. If you like it, buy it. If not, cure me and move on to something better. 

You can find The Gift in its respective mediums below: 

* Book cover image retrieved from GoodReads. All rights belong to the author and/or publisher. 
* All the "stickers" in this blog were provided by Bookish (presented by NetGalley).

* Knife Photo via Pixabay, and used under the Pixabay Content License
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