Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

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About The Book 📚

Title: Lucky Day

Author: Chuck Tingle

Cover Art: LA BOCA

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

Publisher: Tor Publishing Group/Tor Nightfire

Genre: Adult Fiction, LGBTQ+, Absurd Horror, Science Fiction

Pages: 240

Setting: Las Vegas, Nevada

Click Here for Content Warnings (may contain spoilers)

Three Words That Describe This Book: bizarre, tense, cinematic

Synopsis: “Lucky Day is the newest novel of terror from Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Bury Your Gays, where one woman must go up against the most horrifying concept of all: nothing.

Vera is a survivor of a global catastrophe known as the Low Probability Event, but she definitely isn’t thriving. Once a passionate professor of statistics, she no longer finds meaning in anything at all.

But when problematic government agent Layne knocks on her door, she’s the only one who can help him uncover the connection between deadly spates of absurdity and an improbably lucky casino. What’s happening in Vegas isn’t staying there, and the world is at risk of another disaster.

When it comes to Chuck Tingle, the only thing more terrifying than a serious horror novel is an absurd one…”

About The Author

“CHUCK TINGLE is the USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus and Bury Your Gays. Camp Damascus was a finalist for the Bram Stoker and CALIBA Golden Poppy awards. Tingle is a mysterious force of energy behind sunglasses and a pink mask. He is also an anonymous author of romance, horror, and fantasy. Tingle was born in Home of Truth, Utah, and now lives in Los Angeles, California. Tingle writes to prove love is real, because love is the most important tool we have when resisting the endless cosmic void. Not everything people say about Tingle is true, but the important parts are.”

Chuck Tingle. Lucky Day (Kindle Locations 3006-3008). Kindle Edition.

My Review

› The cover for Lucky Day is one of my all-time favourite covers. I love the vibrant colours, and it successfully conveys the gore and chaos found in this queer horror novel. After loving Bury Your Gays, I couldn’t wait to request an advance copy for Lucky Day and am so grateful that the publisher shared a copy with me.

“strange and terrifying and existential and absurdist horror novel” – Chuck Tingle

” its my bisexual erasure book, but also about how we deal with a world that seems so full of overwhelming grief. its about finding hope amid chaos and trotting forward with love.” – Chuck Tingle

“Camp Damascus made you afraid of demons.
Bury Your Gays made you afraid of monsters.
Lucky Day will make you afraid of…nothing.”

Lucky Day Trailer

› Told in first-person, Lucky Day is written from the perspective of a statistics and probability professor named Vera. She has a supportive and loving girlfriend named Annie, whom her mother doesn’t know about. She’s decided to tell her mother that she’s bisexual while at the lunch planned to celebrate Vera’s first book. Her mother doesn’t take it well and says homophobic things, and then chaos ensues. Crazy accidents happen outside, fish rain from the sky, animals attack people, and her mother is killed right in front of her. On this day, bad luck kills 7.9 million people. Somehow, Vera survives. All this happens within the first couple of chapters.

› Four years later, she’s living near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. She’s got a stray cat that she feeds named Kat. She hasn’t spoken to Annie since May 23. One day, out of the blue, a man shows up at the door. He introduces himself as Agent Layne and says he works for LPEC: Low-Probability Event Commission. This is what they’ve named that chaotic day when so many people, including Vera’s mother, died. Agent Layne is a little strange, easy-going, loves sweet treats, and is gay. He implores Vera to join him on a mission to investigate the people believed to have caused the Low-Probability Event.

› The characters, settings, world-building, and mood are well-developed. I love Tingle’s writing style. It has high readability with a fast pace. The ending felt a little rushed and took a strange turn, and I’m still not sure how I think about it. I didn’t want to put it down, and I’ve never read anything like this. Some of the Sci-Fi plot points were a little confusing; however, it didn’t detract from the story for me. Overall, Lucky Day is a unique horror story that will keep you guessing to the very end.

APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: action-packed, character-driven, plot-driven, intricate plot, detectives
Pace: fast
Tone: emotional, suspenseful, dark, mysterious, sinister, gruesome, violent
Humour: offbeat, sarcastic
Writing Style: banter-filled, conversational, engaging
Character: awkward, complex, flawed, likeable, strong female, well-developed, diverse
LGBTQIA+ Representation: bisexual, gay, lesbian, queer
Racial Representation: Multiracial

Read Alikes:
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
I am Providence by Nick Mamatas
John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin
Dr. No by Percival Everett

› In the past, I have given a rating out of ten and converted that to a star rating, but I’m no longer giving a star rating here on my blog. I will continue to do that on Goodreads and The Story Graph.

› Final Thoughts
• Although Lucky Day is absurd horror, it does talk about intelligent theoretical ideas such as historical inertia, the Butterfly Effect, the Nudge Effect, chaos and order. This is a fast-paced story about fate, luck, and bisexual eraser. It questions the existence of luck. Can it be measured? How do we find meaning and love in a world that doesn’t make sense? I highly recommend this to horror fans and can’t wait for the next book Chuck Tingle is working on that takes place in Palm Springs and tackles influencer culture and fame.