The Night Before Christmas vs What I Was: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Fiction
vs
What I Was
In the 1960s, off the coast of East Anglia, a disgruntled boarding school student develops an obsessive friendship with a boy living by himself at the edge of the sea.
The verdict
- Readers rate The Night Before Christmas highest: The Night Before Christmas 4.4 · What I Was 3.5.
- The Night Before Christmas is the quickest read — about 1 hours vs 4 for What I Was.
- The Night Before Christmas has the widest readership — 128989 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Want a one-evening read?
The Night Before Christmas
≈ 1h vs 4h for What I Was
Want the crowd-tested pick?
The Night Before Christmas
128989 ratings vs 4705 for What I Was
Just want the better-reviewed one?
The Night Before Christmas
4.4 vs 3.5 from readers
New to the genre?
What I Was
Light vs Moderate for The Night Before Christmas
Scores by source
| The Night Before Christmas | What I Was | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.4 (128989) | 3.5 (4705) |
| Hardcover | 4.4 (76) | 3.5 (8) |
| Google Books | 4.5 (8) | 4.0 (3) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (401) | 4.0 (8) |
Reception
| The Night Before Christmas | What I Was | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 128989 | 4705 |
| Editions | 389 | 16 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 38644 | 3826 |
| Reading it now | 2414 | 68 |
| Written reviews | 3223 | 573 |
| Wikipedia attention | 168 | 112 |
| Pages | 32 | 224 |