🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 2.2/5 | Steam: 🔥 | Standalone
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read The Gift yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
Freida McFadden writes a dark little Christmas novella about a woman who cuts off all her hair to buy her husband a gift, and he gives her burnt brownies. Burnt. Brownies. And somehow that’s not even close to the worst thing that happens in this book. It clocks in at about an hour and it is weird, it is bleak, and if you were hoping for a heartwarming holiday read, you have come to absolutely the wrong place.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
Stella, Justin, and a Very Bad Christmas Eve
Stella is a server at Stevie’s Diner, working two jobs while her husband Justin is in law school, and it’s Christmas Eve, their first Christmas as a married couple. Justin has been spending a lot of time at the law library lately. I feel like we all know what that means…
She has no money and no gift for him, and that’s eating at her. The last customer of the night appears to be a dead old woman slumped in a booth, which startles Stella and her coworker Bessie right out of their skin, until the woman grabs Bessie’s hand right as she’s going for the purse. Not dead. Just Helga. She overheard Stella’s issue and she gives Stella a card for Helga’s Attic and promises she can find the perfect gift. Bessie, who has clearly functioning instincts, tells Stella not to go, hands her a fork, and says it’s all any man really wants, a really good fork (double entendre?)… Stella ignores all of it and goes anyway.
Helga’s Attic and the Terrible Haircut
Helga’s shop is exactly as strange as you’d imagine. She offers Stella a monkey’s paw (hard no), a talking doll (also no), and then a pocket watch chain, which is perfect because Justin loves his pocket watch. Stella tries to trade her necklace, but Helga values it at exactly one dollar. She has nothing else to offer.
Except her hair. Helga has been eyeing it the whole time, and she guilts Stella into it with the emotional precision of someone who has done this before, sacrifice is love, love is sacrifice, one day you’ll understand. Stella sits down expecting a stylish pixie cut and gets buzzed to the scalp, but she carries on. She goes home wearing a hat.
The kitchen is a disaster when she arrives. There’s a suitcase pulled out of the hall closet, weird. She does not take the hat off, because well, the hair…
The Brownies
They exchange gifts. Stella hands over the watch chain, beaming, she is positive he will love it. But he doesn’t. Justin’s gift to her is a tray of brownies. Burnt brownies. Rock hard. She waits for a second gift to appear. There isn’t one.
What follows is a fight about the brownies (inedible), the chain (which he keeps calling a necklace), and her hair (which he apparently would have preferred she keep). He tells her she’s crazy like her mother, that she needs therapy, and then starts listing her flaws one by one, saying he’s not sure he can live with her anymore, saying they need time apart. The suitcase suddenly makes a lot more sense. And Stella, through all of this, cannot stop staring at the kitchen knife on the counter, thinking it would probably stop him from talking. Maybe permanently. Look, I’m not going to say he didn’t have it coming, you’ll agree when you find out what the full story is.
The Tomato Sauce
Christmas morning. Stella goes back to Helga’s Attic, which is, of course, open. She wants a wig because short hair just doesn’t suit her. She’s hoping to make a trade. She pulls out of her pocket Justin’s pocket watch, now attached to its new chain, and there’s something red on it.
“Oh, that’s just tomato sauce.”
Helga accepts the trade. But Helga also isn’t stupid..
The Part Where We Find Out This Was a Setup All Along
We switch to Helga’s perspective and the whole picture snaps into focus. Helga’s daughter Angela is in law school. Angela fell for a married man last year. That man is Justin and guess what… Angela is pregnant. Justin knew, was apparently thrilled, had already packed a bag to leave Stella after the holidays so as not to ruin Christmas. How considerate of him. He really is just the sweetest guy!
Once she found out her daughter was pregnant, Helga orchestrated the entire thing, because this man needed to step up, marry her daughter and be a father. Angela had mentioned Justin’s pocket watch, so Helga lured Stella into the shop specifically to humiliate her and clear the path for her daughter. The plan was to take Stella’s power, as Helga puts it, like the story of Sampson and Delilah. When Stella left she thought it worked, but when Stella returned the following morning Helga could tell she had taken her own power back. Helga is staring at that red smudge on the pocket watch when Angela calls to share the wonderful news about Justin committing to her and the baby. Helga knows she’ll learn the truth eventually. Not today.
Maybe you shouldn’t sleep with married men, Angela. Just a thought.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥 — No steam here whatsoever. This is a dark retelling of a classic short story, not a romance. Zero romantic or sexual content.
The Ending Explained — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Disappointed. The ending is dark in an interesting way on the surface, but if you know The Gift of the Magi, you can see the shape of every beat before it arrives, the Helga-and-Angela subplot included. It tries to function as a late reveal, but it reads more like an explanation than a twist. For something this short, it needed to do a lot more with its weirdness, and it just didn’t.
Would I Reread It?
No. It was weird, it was short. No need.
Who Is This For
If you like very dark, very brief twisted retellings of classic stories and you’re fine with an ending that implies way more than it shows, this might scratch an itch. Freida McFadden fans who are curious about her shorter work could try it, but keep your expectations low. It’s a one-sitting read, and that’s probably the best thing it has going for it.
Where to Get This Book
📖 Physical Book
Amazon US | Amazon CA
🎧 Audiobook
Audible US | Audible CA
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Plot Twisted. 🔥
🎧 | Standalone | Genre: Dark Fiction / Thriller | Steam: 🔥