Lucky Day is a bizarre and fantastic read. I have loved nearly all of Tingle’s works I’ve read to date and this is no different. It’s a little strange but in the best possible way. I adored the characters and how everything plays out. I won’t spoil anything but I will say if you are looking for something a little strange this is the one for you.

The tension’s absurd and claustrophobic, the satire is razor-sharp, and the Vegas setting pulses with eerie luck.

I do love a spot of bonkers in a book. Especially when paired with a decent story in a genre I also love. This book has all three of these so it was inevitable that I would probably love it... and I did!
We start with Vera who is out with friends and family celebrating the publication of her new book. She is a risk assessor and deals in probability & statistics, so it is with utmost terror (and confusion) when, after a pretty nasty bust-up with her mother, culminating in Vera telling her to "get out" she leaves the restaurant to race after her, regretting her actions, to find that it is raining fish... And then all hell breaks loose... Long story short and Vera runs... runs... runs... and doesn't stop.
Couple years later, we catch up with Vera as she is living pretty much as a hermit. Shunning everything and everyone. Ticking alone, pretty much waiting to die... Until, one day, there's a knock at her door - a government agent, Layne - and boy does he have an assignment for her...
What follows is actually a pretty neat story. Well plotted, and that plot executed with exactly the right amount of humour and weird. Involving luck - good and bad - and a rather intriguing casino at the heart of things.
Vera is - akin to the early interlopers - a bit of a funny fish... she does take a wee while to get to know. Especially as, for me anyway, that early bond is kinda slightly tested with what happens and needs time to mend...
The story - of which I will say no more - ticks along nicely and coherently, which is no mean feat given it's sheer bonkers audacity - but it does work, and eventually comes to a really great ending. Leaving me happy and hopeful, and wholly satisfied.
I already have physical copies of Bury Your Gays and Camp Damascus and will definitely bump them up that TBR - it's a long one as I rarely read physical books. But I am definitely looking forward to reading them all the more now after loving this book.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

a cosmic horror following a bisexual statistics professor and a gay detective as they investigate the "low probability event", where 8 million people were murdered in brutal gruesome ways. this is probably the goriest book I've ever read, the deaths are very final destination. I definitely prefer camp damascus & bury your gays but this was a fun 4 star read!

thanks to netgalley for an arc of this book which is out now✨

lucky day is a wild, fun and bizarre book that takes you on a fun journey where you're never able to guess what is going to come next.

I really enjoyed the beginning where we follow vera during the low probability event and all the whacky ways that people die and if you love things like the final destination vision scenes or the supernatural episode mystery spot then I know you'll enjoy it too!

this book also does an excellent job of exploring what happens after an earth changing event like this, when everything is over and you're still alive left with your grief and trauma and the struggle to carry on in the wake of such horrific events.

lucky day is a wild ride and perfect for those who enjoy absurdist horror, thriller and sci fi!

What an absolute ride this was. Absurd thriller horror at it's absolute best. I absolute love weird books and this really took that phrase and ran with it because how do I even describe this?

I had no idea going into this what the hell the "Low Probability Event" was but any imaginings I had on what it might be were way off. It was absurd and wacky and gory. Perfection.

Vera, consumed by the devastation of that day and the general destruction of her world view, retreats from life and becomes a shell of her former self. Until Agent Layne comes a-knocking needing her help and drags her back into the world.

So many times, I thought I knew where this was going and then bam, absolute side swipe from Tingle that took my ideas of the table.

Just an absolute treat of a read that I devoured in one sitting. Can't wait to get a physical copy on my shelves and if this isn't in my top ten books of the year I will be SHOCKED.

Vera, once a passionate statistics professor, is barely surviving in the aftermath of the Low Probability Event. Stripped of purpose, she’s pulled back into relevance when government agent Layne seeks her help investigating a series of bizarre deaths linked to an unnaturally lucky casino. As chaos spreads beyond Las Vegas, Vera must confront the absurd to prevent another global catastrophe.

The first half of this book was utterly wild. The world is unraveling at the seams, and the chaos is bizarre and unsettling. Tingle captures the absurdity of a collapsing reality with such commitment that it’s impossible to stop reading. These bizarre moments are also extremely gory. The pool scene will probably haunt me well into Summer.

What really stood out to me, though, was how the aftermath of the Low Probability Event mirrored the emotional and societal fallout of real-world disasters like the COVID pandemic. The confusion, the disorientation, the struggle to make sense of a changed world - it’s all there woven into Tingle’s trademark strangeness. It gave the book unexpected depth, turning bizarre scenarios into poignant metaphors for grief, adaptation, and the fragility of normalcy.

Because of this, one of the most compelling elements of the story was its exploration of nihilism: what does it mean to keep going when nothing makes sense anymore? Vera’s internal journey grapples with this in a very real way. I was especially fascinated by the way the book plays with the concept of framing luck not as magic or fate, but as probability twisted out of control. This is perfect for readers of weird fiction, surreal horror, or anyone who enjoys their apocalypses with a side of philosophy and blood.

While Camp Damascus remains my favorite of Tingle’s works, this one holds its own. It’s strange, brutal, and an absurdly memorable ride. 4/5

Thanks to Titan Books and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Available on the 12 August (USA) and 25 August (UK).

Lucky Day is a dark, absurd, and oddly hopeful ride through gory horror, filtered through Chuck Tingle’s unique lens. While best known for his surreal erotic parodies, Tingle proves here that he can twist genre conventions into something both genuinely compelling and deeply weird in all the right ways.

The book’s tone walks a fine line between horror and humor. It's funny, yes, but the darkness is real and often unflinching. Each "LPE" (low probability event) bristles with tension, feeling like a Final Destination setup waiting to strike. That constant anticipation adds a delicious layer of dread, even as the absurdity keeps things unpredictable.

Vera, the protagonist, stands out as a surprisingly grounded anchor in the chaos. Her desire to disappear in the face of grief and trauma is painfully human, and her arc brings surprising emotional weight to the story. In a world where reality itself seems to twist, Vera’s quiet yearning felt authentic and relatable.

Highly recommended for those who like their horror a little off-kilter but not lacking in heart.

I honestly don’t even know where to start with this book. It was completely bonkers and I was riveted and confused all the way through 🤯

This book is packed with chaos, absurdity, and so much fun that I couldn’t put it down. I read it almost in one sitting and the madness only made me want to keep going 😅

The statistics and wild probability stuff made my brain ache but also really made me think. I love when a book does that 🧠✨

If you want to be horrified, perplexed, and completely enthralled by something utterly unique, get this on your TBR immediately. Releasing August 12th and you do not want to miss it!

4.25⭐

This was my first Chuck Tingle, despite him being on my radar for quite some time, and I've always just assumed he'd end up being a favourite author for me. Needless to say, my expectations were pretty high for Lucky Day, and *luckily* (heh) for me, I wasn't disappointed!

Lucky Day follows Vera, a bisexual statistics professor and probability nerd, on the precipice of two huge life events: publishing her book, and coming out to her mother. However, these events are completely overshadowed when Vera becomes a survivor of an ABSURD global catastrophe known as the ‘Low Probability Event.’ Fish rain from the sky, a rampaging gorilla bludgeons people to death with a typewriter, and in the end, 8 million people die. What follows is Vera spiraling into a deep, dissociative depression (honestly, understandable babe), before being sucked into a conspiracy involving a secret government agency, and Vegas’ shadiest casino.

This book is a WILD ride and I absolutely flew through it. It was completely absurd, and so fast paced, but still managed to include quiet moments of really powerful commentary. As someone who is painfully familiar with depression, Vera’s struggles and internal dialogue were extremely relatable and poignant. I love a horror novel that can go so deeply off the rails, but still manage to contain a lot of heart and relatability. If I wasn’t already interested in reading more from Chuck Tingle, that alone would sell it for me. I also LOVED the fact that Vera’s job and her passion for statistics and probability were so deeply explored throughout. I always love when a character has a niche profession or interest that I know next to nothing about, and the author manages to weave in fun facts and real insight into how those jobs or hobbies work (I’m looking at you, T. Kingfisher <3). It was just really fun getting to hear Vera’s rambles about how unlikely certain things were to happen and all the variables that went into calculating it.

The horror elements were also really solid. Like I said, it was completely absurd a lot of the time, but that didn’t stop it from being gory and *horrifying*. There were also some quieter, more insidious horror elements that made the whole thing feel like a bit of a fever dream. Obviously I don’t want to give too much away, so I won’t go into specifics, but the way one of the characters acts after a certain extremely disturbing event genuinely made me shiver.

Overall, this was a really fun horror novel with a lot of heart. I will definitely be reading more from Chuck Tingle in the future!

As a big fan of the author’s previous work I was eager to read this one and it didn’t disappoint.
The beginning reads almost like a fever dream of the absurd (if I say it includes a rampaging costumed ape brandishing a typewriter and that’s not the strangest thing, you might get an idea of how strange it is). Go o with it and things start to be explained, sort of, and we get a novel that’s like a cross between the X Files and Joe Lansdale’s classic bizarro novel The Drive In.
Written with the author’s usual skill and bonkers imagination this is an ‘out there’ book, filled with imagination and more than its fair share of gruesome violence and dark humour.
I really enjoyed it.

This was my first Chuck Tingle book and definitely wont be my last.
In this story we follow Vera a professor of statistics and a survivor or the weirdest global catastrophe i have ever read!
One day Vera gets a knock on the door from government agent Layne, him stating that she needs to help uncover as connection between what's happening and a strangle lucky casino in Vegas.
This book was a horror/sci-fi book that took the story beyond the Surreal, it was weird and wonderful and there were a few occasions where i had to read what i had just read again to make sure i was correct in what i was reading!
I honestly don't think you can prepare yourself on what you're about to read on this one

Good Luck!

I am loving this era of maximalist, balls to the wall kind of horror and Chuck Tingle is the master of it after reading this. I found it a little difficult to connect with Vera and Layne at first, but otherwise I had a lot of fun with this.

A horror novel about probability? Yes please! I was instantly intrigued and this did not disappoint. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher. This author’s previous work, Bury Your Gays, was one of my favourite books last year and this was another excellent read.

This got off the ground so quickly. Within a few pages of meeting the main character and being introduced to her backstory, goals and relationships, we are launched into a catastrophe. Chaos reigns as improbable events all occur at once. People are being killed in obscure, horrific and nonsensical ways. We have absolute carnage for a few pages as our main character tries to survive.

We meet her a few years later, self-imprisoned by her fear and trauma of that day. She’s forced out of her life of seclusion when she’s drafted by the FBI to support an investigation into a casino, a casino she herself had been writing about a few years earlier. What follows is a clever, unnerving, abstract story where she seeks to unravel a mystery that seems unbelievable. I was so impressed with the imagination in this book, and the way it blended enough theory to be believable whilst also maintaining a constant maniacal whimsy.

This is the perfect combination of sense and nonsense. I felt sufficiently challenged by this book, whilst also following along perfectly. I absolutely loved it.

Lucky Day is the insane, improbable and chaotic new horror novel from Chuck Tingle. I have only recently become a fan of Tingle’s work, but I can confidently say that he is writing some of the most original horror out there. I absolutely loved Camp Damascus (which focused on demons possessing queer teens) so I was really excited to see what he did next.

In this book, the world has already ended. Vera is one of the only survivors of this event and she is left with no hope. She can’t find meaning in this new world where the impossible has happened. So, when Layne, a government agent, knocks on her door she doesn’t expect that she might be able to solve the mystery of why the world ended in the first place. What is causing these bouts of absurdity?

Strangely enough, it might have something to do with Las Vegas and a casino. It seems to be the one place in the world where everything is lucky. This is a fascinating premise and I loved unraveling the crazy mystery. I won’t give anything away, but I loved learning about these characters and this world. It really is absurd but that unpredictability is what makes the world so terrifying.

Read this if you want to experience some truly original horror!

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is a unique, wonderfully crafted horror book. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year because I loved Bury Your Gays last year, and this one was worth the wait.

Vera escapes from her life, and four years later, a government entity is established to investigate how and why 8 million people, including Vera's mother, died simultaneously. The story has a "Final Destination" vibe, and since Vera is a statistics professor, we learn about various odds and probabilities throughout the narrative. The perfect backdrop for this tale is a large casino in Las Vegas. (What’s not to love about this novel!)

By the end, I wanted to hug Vera because she went through some truly terrible experiences. I connected with the characters and so many parts of this made me emotional! I also really appreciated how Tingle approached the themes of fate and luck in a unique way that I had never encountered before. The ending was beautiful and made me realise that perhaps I am the lucky one after all. Ultimately, love always wins.

Thank you to Titan Books for my physical ARC.

After statistician Vera survives an incredibly improbable Low Probability Event on what should be a day of celebration for her, in which nearly 8 million die, she ends up retreating into herself and falling into an existential crisis. When a government agent, Layne, literally walks into her life and asks for her expertise in trying to nail the potential culprit of this catastrophe, Vera is forced to decide if she wants to pull herself out of the hole she has dug for herself and fight for justice—or if she even wants to exist at all.

Full disclosure, I'm a big fan of Tingle's horror work to date. Camp Damascus was great, and I thought Bury Your Gays was a big step up, both in the quality of the writing and the uniqueness of the story. Lucky Day continues the quality of his previous book, and while it may not be my new favourite of his, it's certainly on par with Bury Your Gays, one of my favourite books of last year. The dark humour, grisly violence, unexpected plot developments, and an approach few other writers have tackled—in this case, statistical probability as the central focus of the story—are all still present and are fast becoming Tingle trademarks.

I loved Vera, our main character, which helped. When the most unlikely events imaginable all happen at once, she begins to wonder what the point of anything is. Themes of nihilism run through the story, but filtered through Tingle's ultimately positive worldview, and her conflicting sentiments resonate in a big way with me. As always with Chuck, queer representation is at the forefront of the story. Vera's bisexuality feels almost like a plot point more than an important trait at first, but by the end it's clear that her sexuality permeates every part of the book, tying into ideas around identity erasure and around feelings like you exist at all. For such an absurd and often darkly hilarious read, I was surprised how emotionally impactful Lucky Day was.

There are cosmic horror elements here, some utterly bizarre imagery, and a plot that—intentionally—almost stretches your suspension of disbelief beyond breaking point. Stick with it, however, and let the story work on you as intended, and you'll be rewarded with a surprisingly deep and beautiful read. Love Is, after all, Real.

This was my first Chuck Tingle book and I went into it not really knowing what to expect and there purely for the bi representation.

As a lifelong maths hater, the fact this book is about a statistician should have put me off, but I loved Vera and her almost nihilistic view of the world. This book perfectly mashes up horror, humour, and the downright weird.

So this was my first Chuck Tingle but it definitely won't be my last.

A great book, was though provoking and had loads of home truths. I had fun reading this and will look for more of chucks books.

This. Book. Is. Insane. (In a positive way.)
There were points where I didn’t know if I wanted to throw up, throw my Kindle away, or throw the rest of my plans for the day out of the window so I could just carry on reading.

Some absolutely horrifying and nauseating mental images have been conjured up by Tingle - it’s such a visceral story.

Definitely not a story for everyone, but I think those with a strong enough stomach will have a great time.