Meet Jack, the Christmas Street dog. Abandoned by his previous owners, he’s looking for a new family to love. Then there’s seven-year-old Teddy, who is not impressed at having to leave everything he knows behind in America because his dad, Sam, wanted to move back to England. Single father Sam will do anything to make his son happy again – and it looks like Jack might have a way to help. Jack also loves Bill, who has lived on Christmas Street for ever. Bill hates the way his street has changed over the years. He used to know everyone who lived there, but now he’s just the grumpy old man next door.

Once again another Christmas book which didn’t work for me. I think it just me being the problem when it comes to Christmas books, since am extra picky than normally when it comes to Christmas books and movies. 

The plot in this book is all over the place. The main character in this book is a dog and at times it made me very confused because the dog thinks and feels like a human being instead of a dog. Which really didn’t help me getting into the plot of this book because every few pages I needed to close this book and think about what was happening because I was so confused.

The plot in this book predictable story weighed down by cliché characters, clunky dialogue, and saccharine sentimentality. The biggest problem I had with this book is the plot being overstuffed and underdeveloped. The plot of this book has too many things happening but all of those things which is happening in this book feels very underdeveloped like the author wasn’t that into this book to make it actually good.

The conflicts in this book appear and resolve with almost no real tension, as if ticking off boxes on a Christmas-movie checklist. Which really made me feel like the author didn’t want to write this book but was interested in getting the paycheck from publishing this book so he just ticked off boxes on the generic Christmas movie / book list.

The characters, who should be the heart of a community-driven novel, feel more like cardboard cutouts than real people. All of the characters in this book have very generic personalities which cam easily be described with “the lonely one”, “the grumpy one,” “the kind neighbor” and so on it goes. Their emotional growth often comes in the form of sudden, unearned epiphanies rather than believable development. We are told they’re changing much more than we are shown it through meaningful action or nuanced interaction.

The dialogues in this book is another weak spot of this book. Because much of the dialogues reads as stilted and unnatural, heavy on exposition and light on subtext. People speak in tidy moral lessons and neat declarations instead of the messier, fragmented way real conversations unfold. This not only breaks immersion but also amplifies the book’s already heavy-handed message about community and kindness. The themes themselves are worthwhile; the delivery feels like being repeatedly hit over the head with a tinsel-wrapped hammer.

The pacing in this book drags on and on without an end. And the scenes in this book are very very repetitive. There are a lot of “cute” moments that seem included purely to be heartwarming, yet because the groundwork for genuine attachment isn’t laid, they end up feeling forced rather than moving. By the time the inevitable big emotional beats and festive set-pieces arrive, they feel obligatory instead of earned.

I Give This Book 1 / 5