Not only is this one of the prettiest books in my collection, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I was hooked right from the first page. 

As the collection is meant to reference the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories during the Christmas season, all of the stories had a delightfully gothic feel. In fact, some were so well written in that classical style I'm used to reading in older books that I had to double check that the author was from this time period and not from the past.

The only story that didn't quite fit was "The Eel Dancers". I liked it, but it stood out from the rest (and not necessarily in a good way). The tone and style of that story did not match the other stories in the collection.

Picking a favourite story is a tough choice, but at the time I'm writing this I think I have to go with "Confinement" because of its exploration of postpartum depression/psychosis. The more I delve into the world of horror - and the more I learn about the human body - the more I've come to realize that pregnancy, childbirth, and all related conditions terrify me.