If you spent tons of time on the internet during the later 2010s and 2020s, you have probably heard of the mysterious and magical Chuck Tingle. The titles and covers of his paranormal romances involving various sentient body parts, inanimate objects, and laser equipped velociraptors live in my mind palace. However, I’ve never read anything by Chuck “Love is Real” Tingle. So while on vacation, perusing a local bookstore, I decided to finally dive into one of his newer novels, Lucky Day.
All Vera wanted to do was celebrate the release of her first book and tell her mother she’s lesbian. But as her mother storms out of the diner in front of her girlfriend, the Low Probability Event that will change the world stops Vera from having the heart to heart she craves. Years later, Vera is deep in a depression as horrendously improbable deaths occur like an epidemic. Nothing on the scale of the 9 million or so that the first day gobbled into its maw, but still noticeable. Unfortunately for Vera, the government has an office to investigate these instances and a particularly plucky fellow has just enlisted her statistics focused mind. He has a hunch about who might be behind the string of bad luck, and it points at a casino Vera has a history of investigating for their opaque financials. Will Vera find her old spark to find those responsible, or will she be crushed by Layne’s relentless optimism and knack for government overreach?
Lucky Day starts off strong with an incredible event crashing through a deeply personal moment of familial tension. Tingle opens up with some truly horrific, but fairly comedic improbable deaths. These aren’t laugh out loud funny, more like tingly chuckles that escape to acknowledge the absurdity. It lends a lightening of the tone despite knowing that eventually, several million people will have been killed in the “Improbability Event.” This scene, juxtaposed against the strained coming out to the denying parent, set the tone for the rest of the book, letting the reader know that personal stakes to the story would balance out the wild fluctuations between the comedic and horrific. It worked well for the most part, as Tingle knew how to manage the tone and clue the reader into what territory they might be heading. There are even a few moments when these three streams cross, playing into the novel’s driving theme: the unpredictable horror of living.
The prose is clear, giving the reader a clear picture of the horrors the characters face. There isn’t much flourish, which diminishes its ability to create an atmosphere, but I didn’t catch that during the reading process, only realized it afterward. I don’t know if it would have made it better, considering the pace at which the story moves. But I personally like a little texture to the prose as it gives me more time to linger with the story and taste its deeper notes. I will say though, that despite its clarity, it’s not overly simple, and it dictates the mood the scene is currently in. I never felt the characters’ emotions were forced, or that undue solemnity was imposed where letting it breathe would have done so much more. Tingle threads the needle, using clear, focused, and detailed prose to highlight protagonist’s logic and emotions without washing out the mood. I find often that “clear window” writing leads more to observation than engagement and the emotional complexity is left to be filled in by the reader. Lucky Day did not ask that of me, and I truly appreciated it.
The characters are fun as well. Vera is a strait-laced statistician with a boatload of unresolved trauma that stems from the inciting event and marinated in personal failings. Her depression and grief feel oppressive. Her sparks of hope and excitement blaze brightly but are quickly snuffed out by reality and Vera’s long-term view of probabilities. Layne makes the perfect buddy cop partner. He’s a drunk who turned his life around after the Improbability Event and now works for the government to investigate the strange deaths that have occurred in the years since. He has this childlike, bubbly attitude that comes with the confidence of the United States government handing him blank checks that he turns into an unlimited supply of aces up his sleeve. Layne is the perfect counterbalance to the POV Vera in that he has a cheery side that hides a cold calculating bastard ready to use whatever power he can to find what he considers “justice.” The dynamic between them is fun in the way the best buddy-cop comedy duos are. The rare moments where they sync up are a delight, but the ways they butt heads are very charming.
Lucky Day is a fairly short book, coming in at a whopping 250 pages. It doesn’t give a lot of room for Tingle to play, but there is a density to the pace the book sets. Personal moments are given time to breathe while the bigger showpieces barge in like a derailed train. Lucky Day even finds space to question Layne’s ability to use unlimited powers, but in a way that reminds the reader it doesn’t really matter. They are short critiques brought up by Vera before Layne jiujitsus himself out of the situation or just responds with a wink. It’s a subtle way for the reader to think about it on their own, giving Layne a menacing interior to his affably golden retriever attitude. It gives him character too without applying the brakes. It gives the plot a fun, exciting pace that pushes the reader to think about the implications themselves while also reminding the reader that implications exist.
Where the pacing falters for me a little bit is that aspects of the main theme are supercharged to stick the landing. And while it works in a way, I found it a little hokey personally. Not in the sense of the main conclusion— I definitely agree with it. It’s just presented in the way you might imagine an 80s or 90s action flick ends with a gravelly voiced narration explaining the things the character learned along the way. It definitely works within the confines of the first-person perspective, it was just a little too fourth wall breaking and didn’t really leave it up to the reader. One could make an argument that it’s an unreliable narrator schtick – but that would then contradict everything we’ve been taught about Vera while undermining the theme itself. This might just be a matter of personal taste, but I am not as much enthused by art that explains itself, unless it’s meant as a red herring or plays with the concept. Lucky Day isn’t one of the latter and therefore it falls into the hokey territory for me.
I liked Lucky Day, but I didn’t love it. Chuck Tingle has proven that he’s got chops, and I want to see his skills in other novels. Lucky Day was a short and sweet ride that ticked the boxes and went for some truly over top spectacle laden kills. Tingle’s writing is clear without turning the book into a monotone thrill ride, but a little flourish here and there could have built up an atmosphere on top of the personal horror the characters were barrelling into. The characters captured a buddy cop energy inside a comedic-horror story that exhibited their differing views on life with exuberance. I had a good time and if you like the marvels of bloody schlocky horror mixed with a little heart, Lucky Day is ready to pay out.
Rating: Lucky Day Not Quite the Jackpot, but you’re walking away a winner.
-Alex
