Chuck Tingle is fast emerging as a unique voice with horror literature.
While I didn’t totally vibe with his last novel Bury Your Gays, I have to appreciate the wild swings he made. The same can be said for his latest effort, Lucky Day.
What begins with a global disaster, becomes something entirely different.
Lucky Day feels like a disaster story to begin with but almost becomes a sort of caper as it evolves. We follow Vera, a survivor of something known as a low probability event, which wiped out a huge chunk of mankind across the globe, including her partner and her mother.
Vera is at odds with her mother, who feels very prescient today with her views to queer lifestyle etc. You get the picture.
Vera is sought out by an agent known as Layne who offers her some meaning in her life after she hits beyond rock bottom. Tingle isn’t afraid to have his lead fully collapse and need to be rebuilt, which encompasses a healthy part of the first half of the book.
I feel like Lucky Day will be a marmite story, with some people really digging it but others perhaps not fully getting the tone Tingle is going for.
As I said previously, Tingle’s all-or-nothing stories feel refreshing in what can be a convoluted space, but it could leave him with a smaller, niche but loyal audience rather than widespread adulation.
I would certainly encourage you to read Lucky Day and make up your own mind.
Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is available now in various formats from Titan Books.
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