From international bestselling authors James S. Murray (better known as “Murr” on the hit TV show Impractical Jokers) and Darren Wearmouth, comes You Better Watch Out, a suspenseful, serial killer thriller that leaves you wondering, is Christmas really the best time of the year?

Forty-eight hours until Christmas, Jessica Kane wakes up with blurred vision, ears ringing, and in excruciating pain. A gash in her head and blood running down her face, the last thing she remembers is going for a run and something or someone hitting her in the head. It doesn’t take her long to realize she is trapped in an unknown, deserted town with five other strangers who share similar stories of being attacked and stranded there. Unsure why and how they got there, she knows one thing for certain, she has to find a way out. That becomes nearly impossible when someone is meticulously orchestrating their deaths, one by one, and the only thing Jessica can do is watch the life leave their eyes. The fenced-in town is the killer’s very own playground and there’s nowhere left to hide… she better watch out because she could be next.

I’ll be honest. When I first heard that James S. Murray from Impractical Jokers co-wrote a horror novel, my expectations weren’t exactly sky high. I figured it would lean goofy or gimmicky. I fully expected someone to pop out of a closet yelling “Gotcha!” But wow, I was wrong. Very wrong.

This book is a full-throttle Christmas thriller that wastes no time throwing the reader straight into chaos. I decided to pick it up this season on a whim, and I’m glad I did because this was a whole lot of bloody fun. It’s fast-paced, violent, tense, bloody, and surprisingly smart. (And no slapstick in sight.)

We open with a guy attempting to rob an elderly couple, only to have it go horribly wrong. He then wakes up completely disoriented and trapped in what looks like a ghost town. He then stumbles upon a woman who is also injured and disoriented. But they’re not alone. They soon find that five other strangers are stuck there too, all of whom were attacked just before waking up in this nightmare of a holiday resort gone wrong.

From the first chapter, the tension never loosens. Every time you think the story might slow down for a breather, another body drops. The kills are inventive, brutal, and—let’s be real—pretty fun if you enjoy your holiday horror on the messier side. And yet it never gets silly. The authors keep everything grounded in real fear and real stakes.

What surprised me most was how invested I became in some of the characters. They’re messy and flawed, but you can’t help but root for them.

This story moves like a movie. The pacing is tight, the tension high, and there’s no fluff or filler. If anything, I appreciated how clean the story felt. It knows exactly what it wants to do: trap a bunch of strangers in a death maze, crank the stakes higher and higher, and sprint toward a final showdown that left me wide-eyed and a little breathless.

The book has a bit of a Saw vibe, so I went in expecting the twist to be obvious. Those movies and these types of books tend to follow a pretty predictable pattern, but this one genuinely kept me guessing. I guessed how but not who. The book plants its seeds early, but never in a way that shouts, “Hey, look right here! They are the killer.” What I didn’t guess was why.

And yes, it’s absolutely gory. If you’re faint of heart, maybe pick something with cookies and mistletoe instead. But if you’ve been craving a holiday read that swaps cozy romance for carnage, this is a fantastic choice. It’s pure adrenaline with a festive backdrop, and sometimes that’s exactly the kind of holiday spirit I want.

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