SMILE
Logistics: A Christmas Story by Chris Coppel was full of unique Christmas magic; it’s a perfect Christmas tale for this generation living with all the complexities of the 21st century. The addition of science fiction to tell the backstory of Christmas was an unexpectedly great addition to the mythos of the holiday, and it held true without having to pull from religion to flush out the finer points surrounding the fantastic reality behind Christmas and its magic. If I remember correctly, the religious element was non-existent, unless you count the stuff that’s common knowledge and in your mind before reading this book, which comes up with the author’s evocative and minimalistic usage of Christmas tropes. When you boil it down, this is a Christmas story for adults, but children could enjoy it too; however, some concepts are adult orientated, but since so many Christmas movies use adult orientated plot points, the subtle way Coppel infuses romance into the story isn’t overly romantic and would not be too much for children; this writing choice ultimately leaves Santa, the North Pole, and the Christmas related characters and their world to work as the stars of the overall story.
To show full transparency, I read this book in July and it still had the effect of making me feel Christmas joy. I literally found myself looking at the world differently, which was rather helpful since July was a crazy month. In addition, the writing style fully immersed me into the narrative, so it made time fly while reading it even though I’m not a fan of Christmas, have never voluntarily watched a Christmas movie, and have never read a book about it either. Logistics also has a beautiful moral about corporations needing to treat workers at the bottom equally to executives at the top, so everyone works at a workplace that positively adds to their overall existence. Writing style, world building, and wondrous characters enrich the story, making the magic come to life. However, since the story’s world and characters are a crucial part of the plot’s effect on the reader, going into detail about them would spoil Coppel’s hard earned results coming from his use of sci-fi precision. It’s such a well-developed creation, I’d be surprised if the author didn’t use it for many Christmas stories to come, entertaining people of all ages.
This in-depth review won’t have any spoilers in order to not ruin the reading experience and to not interfere with the author’s intended effect. The favorite parts of the book I can go in-depth about are the parts reflecting the buildup of Christmas magic throughout the story, how the author uses tropes you already know to drop subtle hints as if they were little crumbs of cookies leading you to Santa’s boots while he’s arranging your gifts to maximize your smile when you see them in the morning, and a subtle clue to the main character’s heart hiding within her soul.
THAT CHRISTMAS STORY VOICE
Coppel doesn’t waste time to create the Christmas feel since he introduces the quintessential Christmas movie third-person narrator on page one, reminiscent of classics like A Christmas Carol or A Christmas Story. The moments of narration work to take you back to watching those movies, and settle you in with the expectation that you’re reading a bona fide story about this special holiday. To set this apart so it queues your memory, the author uses italics to differentiate the regular narration from the magical one, almost as if it’s Santa or some Christmas spirit who’s telling you this part that only it knows. The novel briefly starts with a prologue-esque chapter set in 1981; after setting the scene in a lower income household, the author uses italics to add another point of view. It’s actually a deeper look into the low-income family, specifically to show how they got there. It starts with the husband by explaining, “Life hadn’t been fair to Tony. He’d studied hard and always planned to go to college and hopefully become a doctor…until his girlfriend, Sofia, took him aside one day in the school hallway and told him that she was pregnant with what turned out to be their son, Joey” (1). It goes on from there to show how Tony and Sofia got into their present situation, using the holiday to give you a full sense of how all this has affected their lives. As a result, this fully immerses you into the magic that’s building up with every read page as the story gently unfolds because Coppel mainly uses the italics for this narrator’s voice, making it a signal for some added Christmas depth to the main third-person narration.
UNDENIABLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
By establishing the momentum of this Christmas story with the italics, chapter two brings you to the present, focusing on the main character, Holly Hillman. The beginning of the chapter establishes her as a character reminiscent of Ebenezer Scrooge by giving her character traits that would make her the poster child for a diehard capitalist who cares nothing about the people working below the executive suite. To sum it up, the narrator explains she’s the CEO for one of the largest logistics and distribution companies in the industry, and she’s so successful that “Newsweek had proclaimed her to be Woman of the Year two years running. The Washington Post had dubbed her the ‘hardest working woman in America’” (7-8). However, all of this information sets up the hint because by the time you make it to page ten, it’s established that Holly has a cold exterior to keep her emotionally distant from everyone she encounters daily. So, the first chink in this frozen armor shows up when the narrator reveals Holly’s normal morning routine with her building’s doorman; “She walked past [Maibo] as if he didn’t exist and stepped to the kerb. Mr Maibo, however, knew that, behind the ice-cold exterior, Ms Hillman always rewarded the building staff with the most generous Christmas bonuses of all the other residents” (10). Using this detail about Ms. Hillman is not by accident, and it’s a perfect way to reveal her true character. If she was wholeheartedly a Scrooge, she’d never be recognized as someone generous around the holiday. As a result, it’s the first hint of many regarding her genuine connection and vulnerability to Christmas. The hint happens quickly, and most will just read past it because its subtleness relies on your innate memories of Christmas tropes about people being extra generous around Christmas.
A GLIMPSE OF HER HEART
Once you pass this hint, whether or not you noticed, it isn’t a big deal since the story’s pace continues without a trace of the hint bogging down the narrative’s page-turning quality. The next hint I want to mention doesn’t rely on tropes, showing that this story mainly focuses on its unique way to tell a Christmas story. This next hint shows Holly still has a heart, despite how much she tries to portray herself as a coldhearted, hardcore capitalist. It appears on page 17. After she commands the corporate lawyer to find discrepancies in a contract for her company to finalize its merger with Ling Chow Group, “she couldn’t help flashing back to that business trip when she’d toured Ling Chow’s logistic hubs with their integrated live-in staff facilities… The places where the workers had to live were pretty bad. With twenty-foot barbed wire-topped concrete security perimeter walls and their suicide-proof building netting, they were something out of an Orwellian horror fantasy, and those were just the buildings they let the team visit” (17-18). It goes on to show her trying to read the contract, but she’s unable to stop seeing “the lost faces… staring down at her from the LCG residential buildings” (18). Then, the narrator shows how she tries to convince herself this is simply modern-day life in the manufacturing and distribution business world, and as a CEO, it’s something she has to accept since “not one worker had complained when she’d asked about their conditions” (18). Therefore, by this time in the read, Coppel uses the narrator to establish Holly’s emotional memory of Ling Chow’s inhumane conditions for their workers to show she has compassion for the workers somewhere deep down that’s trying to come out, and is trying to open her eyes to what she’s really doing by letting her company overlook the barbaric conditions at Ling Chow Group so she can maximize profits for her company and its shareholders.
BEFORE YOU UNWRAP THE GIFTS
The Christmas aspect of the story grows until it totally changes Holly Hillman, making it a wonderful addition to the Christmas story canon with a fresh take on the holiday, incorporating science fiction to bring some science into the story, giving a sense of plausible reality to the mythos; Coppel uses sci-fi to show how Santa Claus, the North Pole, and Christmas could work without relying on religion to add realism. Then there’s the buildup of Holly’s true origin. It starts in chapter five and exponentially builds from there. At first, the subtle hints are accessed by the tropes in your mind, but then it becomes fantastically magical because of the author’s diligent world building by using science to create a five-dimensional display of the Christmas tale. The beauty of the pace of the prose magnifies the effect, too. It’s fairy-tale perfect since it’s not too slow or too fast, perfect like seeing the Northern Lights illuminate Nuuk, Greenland’s night sky. It’s amazing that this book’s evocative presentation of Christmas magic made me like the holiday because I’ve never liked it! Seriously, if Coppel’s book can make this Christmas hater into a Christmas appreciator in July, it can definitely change any bah-humbug into a merry-Christmas by the time the reader gets to the last page.
Holly’s tragic backstory is another compelling factor of the narrative, and this makes you root for the Christmas magic to change her into a better person. Coppel also doesn’t miss with dropping hints about her either; Holly’s innate reaction to all things northern on Earth helps to show her connection to the holiday, making her character believable and relatable. When her story arc intensifies with revelations, the read becomes so entertaining I want to tell you all about them, but that would ruin their effect, and I know the author worked way too meticulously on their placement to spoil their effect. It’s wonderful how every aspect of Christmas, from the elves to delivering presents and how it all functions, is broken down to make scientific sense, giving everyone, especially kids, the feeling that the holiday could be as real as the tree they put ornaments on. Once the Christmas magic kicks in, there will be many moments making you smile, especially at the end. Overall, Logistics: A Christmas Story by Chris Coppel is an entertaining read for whenever you need a holiday escape, and it definitely should be a movie so the novel and the movie can become a part of the Christmas canon.
Thank you for reading our in-depth book review about Logistics: A Christmas Story by Chris Coppel. We are not affiliated with the publisher, but here’s the link to pick up a copy.
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E. R. Sanchez is the author of Fried Potato Press’s first young adult thriller, Petaco Dreams, which will be released in 2025 after the rewrite, new title, and new cover. He also has poems and stories published online and in print. If you’d like to read his work that was published online, please click here to go to his Stories and Poetry Section.