Halloween Carnival Volume 2 Edited By Brian James Freeman *Review*

Here we go with the second in the series, and it was definitely a step-up from the first. Yet again I averaged out all of my ratings for each story, and the book as a whole came to 3.2 stars (.6 stars more than the last one, which trust me, is a decent amount in my opinion). Most of the stories in this one were enjoyable, and it followed in the footsteps of its predecessor by bringing the book to a close with the best story of the bunch. In fact, the final story in this one, The Pumpkin Boy by Al Sarrantonio, was the best story in this series so far.

The breakdown of each story’s rating is as follows:

Mr. Dark’s Carnival by Glen Hirshberg (3 stars)

Mr. Dark’s Carnival is a large part of local lore on Halloween night. What is Mr. Dark’s Carnival? Well, we don’t really know, and even when you do discover the mystery behind the Carnival you’re left wondering. So much is led up to in this one, and so little is really revealed. While this is one of the longer stories in the book, and the writing is pretty good with a spooky atmosphere, it never quite delivers. Much is implied for us to figure out for ourselves, but I feel like more should have been bluntly stated. The idea here is a good one, that alone warranting the 3 stars, but it’s never fully realized.

The Facts in the Case of My Sister by Lee Thomas (3.5 Stars)

David’s sister is dying, and a trip through David’s childhood memories may lead to the reason why. The writing near the beginning of this one was a bit scattered, and I figured out a while before the end what the “twist” would be, but it was a great story nonetheless. The best in the anthology? No. But still very worth the read.

Mischief Night by Holly Newstein (2.5 Stars)

An old drunk and a mischievous boy converge on Halloween night. Oh, this atta be good. Here is another case of “doesn’t-quite-deliver”. The writing was good, but the story itself? I feel so much more could have been done with this one instead, it feels like the author needed to write something that fit the anthology and couldn’t come up with a real plot. So we’re left with a well-written yet forgettable story.

The Ghost Maker by Del James (2 Stars)

An assassin who hates Halloween... yeah, not much more worth telling in this one. Even though this is the second to last story of the bunch, I literally forgot what it was about by the end of the book. I had to go back to the book’s blurb in order to remember. We’re told the main character’s life story, and how he came to lead a life of crime, but it probably would have been a more interesting tale if expanded upon. I would have liked to experience things with him rather than just be told what happened. Another issue I had was with characters that were offhandedly given names and only mentioned once then quickly forgotten. Him not liking Halloween felt thrown in, maybe because they needed another mention of Halloween to make the story fit the anthology. And the ending, while you may have seen it coming it was abrupt, and you’re never given a reason for it, making the rest of the story feel pointless. “The Ghost Maker” is probably my least favorite of this book, even so, I could see someone out there liking it.

The Pumpkin Boy by Al Sarrantonio (5 Stars)

A young boy follows a strange pumpkin figure into the woods, and he never returns. Detective Schneider tries to figure out what happened, but he’s haunted by a past case, and it may cause him to mess up all over again. This one is just plain fantastic. Well thought out plot, believable characters, great writing, and it has the consistently mysterious and spooky atmosphere you’re looking for in a Halloween story. You don’t want to miss out on this one, I promise. It takes up a good amount of space in the book too, which I was perfectly happy with.

The only stellar story to be had here was the last, but I wouldn’t have been entirely disappointed if I had paid for this anthology. Even though there were one or two worthwhile reads in the first book, I would have much rather skipped right to this one.

**This book was given to me through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Halloween Carnival Volume 1 Edited By Brian James Freeman *Review*

Who doesn’t get excited when they see an anthology dedicated entirely to Halloween stories? I know I do! Unfortunately, I think I was expecting something much different than what I got with this one. It lacked that extra kick I look for in a horror anthology (OK, I realized later that it doesn’t really say it’s a horror anthology, but that’s what I think most would expect.). I was looking for something with some blood, some fang, and numerous creatures of the night united to terrorize entire towns!!! At the very least I wanted a few stories I could recall the following Halloween….I don’t even know that I’ll remember more than one of these stories come this Halloween.

That being said, the last two stories saved this book from a two-star rating, but only barely. Because anthologies are so hard for me to rate, I’ve adopted a new method where I rate each individual story and then do the math to find the average (Yes, I know, I’m so smart. Thank you for noticing.). This one came in at 2.6 stars, just barely rounding up to 3. Whew, that was a close one.

So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what each of these stories is about and their individual ratings.

Strange Candy (3 stars)
This was a sweet (no pun intended) way to start the anthology off. It’s not my favorite story in the bunch, but it has the effect of easing you into the book. A man discovers an odd, unwrapped piece of candy at the bottom of his child’s Halloween candy bag. So what does he do? Eats it, of course! No worries, there were no razorblades in this one, just…something else. Yeah, not a bad start, it definitely sets the mood for the easygoing pace of the entire anthology and warns that this isn’t the gritty read you may have been expecting from a Halloween anthology.

The Rage of Achilles or When Mockingbirds Sing (2 Stars)
First of all, that title is just terrible. OK, I shouldn’t say that. In a more diplomatic way, I really, really, reeeeaaally don’t like that title. At first, I thought it was just a working title or something. Anyway, this is the story of a priest who decides to take confessions on Halloween night (something that isn’t done at this particular church), and he bares the weight of a confession that might just change his life forever, or at least wreak havoc on his psyche. So I like the premise of this story, and the goods were there, but the writing was just lacking soooo much. There were a few times I was jarred out of the story, because of the rough transitions between the here and now and the past. Basically, a guy comes in to tell the priest a story of what happened to him, and the telling just isn’t all that great. Don’t get me wrong, the story is interesting, but I still got bored. I think it would have helped to do some nips and tucks on this one, tighten up the writing a bit. It probably could have been a quarter less in length and been a better read. I can see why someone might enjoy it, but it wasn’t for me in terms of writing style. I probably could have skimmed a good chunk of it and been happier than I was forcing myself to read the whole thing.

Demon Air (1 Star)
I’d give this story negative stars if I could. A woman is traveling to Australia on Halloween night (which also happens to be her birthday, but that turns out to not matter, so I have no idea why this fact was added) to find out more about her people, because a recently taken DNA test revealed that she had some aborigine blood in her. There’s some family drama brushed over here, but nothing really concrete ever comes of it because the story is interrupted by the plane being taken over by, you guessed it, Demons!!! Dun dun duuun!!! Quick question, Mr. Editor, did you actually read this story? I mean, I can understand how this story might look interesting in a synopsis, but the execution was simply awful. Other than the “original” idea of this story there’s really nothing to like about it. The actual plot is lacking, the horror isn’t all that horrific, the main character seems kind of bitchy and never really gets her comeuppance, and the end. Good lord the end. I think it was supposed to be a cliffhanger? Instead, you kind of stop and go, “Wait. That was it?” I once read a story about a weird ghoul-like creature that taunted this guy every time he flew on a plane. The thing would sit out on the wing of the plane, grinning at him, and occasionally masturbate. Yeah, real weird, but in terms of horror-style plane stories, it was far better than this one. That tells you how bad this one was.  In a way, this story was even more unbelievable than that one, at least in a horror sense. So yeah, I didn’t like this one. Go figure.

La Hacienda de los Muertos (3 Stars)
I almost rated this one 4 stars, but I realized I only enjoyed it so much when comparing it to the last two stories. This one was refreshing and entertaining in its own way. It’s the story about a man who used to be a big-time western star. He ends up taking a job down in Mexico to be a part of a horror movie. The only problem is that the location they’re filming at might just be haunted by La Llorona, a woman’s ghost from urban legend. This is a fun read and the best ghost story out of the entire book (I just realized a good portion of this book is ghost stories. Hm…). I had just about given up hope on the book when this came along, and I’m so happy it did. The writing wasn’t perfect in my opinion, but good enough to make me want to search out other stories by this author.

#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain (4 Stars)

Finally, we get to the finale of this book. It took way too long to get here. An author comes up with #MakeHalloweenScarAgain, in the hopes that it will gain traction maybe even scare up some readers. Well…it does attract attention, but probably not the type he was hoping for. The best part about this story was the writing, which is funny considering that was what was lacking in so many of the other stories. It really is a great, fun read, and it was the perfect way to end the book. Was it a little predictable? A bit, but it had enough scares along the way to get us to a decent ending. I really enjoyed reading this one, and it made the rest of the anthology a little more bearable.

Mr. Editor, thank you for redeeming yourself with these last two stories. As a side note, if I were doing the arranging of this book it would look like this:

Strange Candy
La Hacienda de los Muertos
The Rage of Achilles or When Mockingbirds Sing
#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain

Notice I left out “Demon Air”. While I didn’t love “The Rage of Achilles or When Mockingbirds Sing” I can see its charm. “Demon Air” on the other hand? No. Just. No…

Is this anthology worth the read? If you’re not looking for the gritty, bloody, thrill ride I was, yes. If you’re into a more gentle kind of horror and have a weak constitution look no farther. However, if you’re looking for something that will unsettle you and compel you to buy a really big dog to keep at the foot of your bed at night? I’d look somewhere else.

**Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for the ARC**

"What We Kill" By Howard Odentz *Review*

Man oh man. I was super excited about this one. I was introduced to Odentz’s writing back in March when I received his short story, “Snow”, through Netgalley.

More recently, I was going through some of the authors I really like. I realized I never looked into anything else Odentz had written, and I really reeeeaaally liked “Snow”. It's one of those stories that stick with you, and makes you smile from time to time. The writing style is smooth, and the story is fun and upbeat (well, as upbeat as a horror story can be. Ha). These are two traits that Odentz’s most recent novel, “What We Kill”, has as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much, and it all boils down to one major issue. Repetitiveness.

The beginning of this book was great. Four kids wake up in the middle of the woods: one covered in blood, another missing his glass eye, another not wearing any pants, and the last has been branded on his arm. They don’t remember anything from the night before, and soon after they wake up they hear sirens in the distance. What in the hell happened last night? And good lord, why is everyone so nauseous? Either they all got really, really wasted, which we’re told isn’t likely, because they’re not those types of kids and Marcy (the only girl in the group) would never drink because of the meds she’s taking, oooooor….they were abducted by aliens?

Seriously though, it was a great start, and you’re right there with the kids trying to figure out what the heck is going on. The author does a mostly great job of introducing us to not only the characters and plot, but the town as well. We get a feel for it rather quickly. We’re riding right along, and I’m thinking to myself with a smile on my face, “OK, this has gotta be a 4 or 5 star read.”

*sigh* and this is why we always wait to delve deeper into the book before rating it. About 150 pages in I was ready to drop the book to 2 stars.

Rather than unraveling what really happened the night before, we’re given hardly anything at all to satiate us, and information we already know is rehashed again and again. We’re told more than once Marcy takes meds that make it highly unlikely that she would drink or do drugs. We’re reminded again and again that our character used to be fat (I could have forgiven this one, because it does shape who the character used to be and still is, but it wasn’t the only thing we kept being told again and again). We are reminded numerous times that the main character woke up branded, that Myers is missing his glass eye, and that Anders is a jock and it’s weird that he hangs out with a group that’s a bit loserish (I do like the breakout from stereotypes, but I didn’t need to continuously be told that he was “different” from the norm). We’re told in as many ways as I think are possible that Myers’s mom likes to cuss and yell, that Anders’s mom is a slut, that our main character’s mom is pretty much crazy and doesn’t care in the least about her son. Oh, and Marcy is beautiful. Did I mention that Marcy is beautiful? No, like I thought she was just pretty, but she’s really reeeeeaaally beautiful. Especially when the light hits her hair just right…

I could actually go on about what we’re told time and again. None of these things have ANYTHING to do with the mystery THAT WE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT!!! OK, the Marcy being pretty one I can forgive as well. Still, all of things got old so fast. My memory’s not perfect, but it’s good enough that I didn’t need all these things reiterated to me again and again and again…and again….

I understand that all of this information is supposed to help us as readers feel like we really know the characters, but did it really need to be stated 20 times that Marcy has a thing for Anders and that EVERYONE knows about? I personally don’t think so. We really didn’t need to be “told” a lot of these things even once. Odentz, you’re a good enough writer that you showed us all of these things, I promise. Most of your readers aren’t dumb enough to miss the hints here and there. Most…and that most is who you’re really shooting to please.

Moving on to the end when everything FINALLY comes together, it comes together fast and hard like a guillotine of epic proportions, and I’m enthralled yet again. A lot of the mystery we’ve probably already figured out, but some of it makes you go “huhwhaaaaa?”

The end was superb, my friends. It left a little smile on my face, and I instantly wanted to tell someone about it.

While there were times I had thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish the book, because it got so boring there in the middle, I am so happy I did. There’s so much to like about this book. It’s about more than just the mystery. It’s about what the town’s going through. It’s about what the kids are going through. You really get to know them. If the story hadn’t dragged so much you could really start to care about all of them.

I liked two-thirds of this book. I liked two-thirds of this book A LOT, but it wasn’t enough to pay back for the wasted time spent on the middle. I am taking into account that I read the unedited proof of the book, and hoping against all hopes that there will be more edited out than just the typos. This book could seriously be cut down at least 50 pages, and be so much better. I’d even dare to say 100 pages of fluff could be cut out. Seriously, there’s that much extra right now.

In terms of writing style it was a joy to read. Another fun read, that makes me curious about other things this author has written. I will be on the lookout for more, because gah, the ending and premise of this one were golden. Please, please write more, and edit the crap out of all this extra fluff!

Oh, solid 3 out of 5 star rating. Which means, yes, it’s probably worth a read.

**I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

"Wool (Silo #1)" by Hugh Howey *Review*

Why? Why did I not get around to reading this book sooner? It’s been sitting on my shelf for a few years now, brimming with goodness, begging to be read, and I’ve simply ignored it. *Slaps my wrist* bad Ash, bad.

What’s more? I had a friend who’s been telling me for probably over six months that it’s a must read. Still…I procrastinated, and now I’m angry at myself for not discovering its wonders sooner.

I’m going to blame the title, and the fact that it has such a meager description on the back. The book’s description barely gives you a taste for what the thing is about, and it even sounds like it could be a cheesy YA. As for the title, I’m pretty sure I know why it was titled such, but I’m still not super happy with it.

Now I implore you, my friends, please do not make the same mistake I did. You MUST read this book. If you read no other book this year, this is the one to read. I was telling people to read it before I was even done with it. Seriously, I walked up to strangers reading random books on the street, ripped that book right out of their hands, threw it away, and screamed, “Why are you reading that smut?! When you should be reading ‘Wool’! Go now!! Read!!!” and they would run away, searching for the nearest place to purchase and read this amazing book I had just informed them of. Then I would melt into the shadows...

So anyway, yeah, you should read the book, and now I shall tell you a bit about it. Just in case you still doubt me…

“Wool” by Hugh Howey is the story of a city entirely below ground. Every person here seems to serve a function in order to best serve the place where they live, the Silo. It is huge, with over a hundred floors, every floor serving a purpose. There are multiple floors for Farming (also where the dead are buried), Police “stations”, there’s a few floors just for Tech, Mechanical, Hospitals, and so on. For every death, a new life is allowed to be granted. Every couple who wants to conceive must first win the lottery, and then they have a year to conceive before the gift of life is granted to another couple.

In order for this city to maintain its perfect balance, certain precautions are taken. In a way, the city has a certain feeling like the good ol’ Soviet Union. One wrong word against the world we live in, and you could be taken away.

The outside world is poison. The fear of outside is so complete that even the mere mention of “outside” in the wrong context can get you sent to clean. Meaning, they send you outside to clean the cameras that view the outside world, and you shortly thereafter die from the toxins that seep into your suit.

The way this world unfolds, and the buildup of the story is done superbly. I will warn you that this is NOT a feel good story, and not everyone makes it out alive. I’m still angry about the fates of one or two characters actually…OK, maybe three.

One of the few things that make this story less than five stars is the fact that it gets so depressing. It’s still an amazing read, but I wish there had been a little give, something to distract from all of the terrible things that happen in this book. There’s no real comic relief, and it’s so intense. Yes, intense is probably the best way to describe this book. From start to finish. Seriously, just read the first sentence:

The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do.

Whaaaaaat? That got me right into the moment, and an author that puts a semicolon in the first sentence? That takes some guts, and you know he means business.

This is one of few books I’ve read that leads you on a bit of a mystery that doesn’t feel like

-step one: introduce main character

-step two: introduce world

-step three: introduce mystery

-step four: introduce villain

…

The writing is so smooth you’re sucked into the story entirely. It doesn’t feel like you’re reading about someone else’s life. You’re there experiencing everything with them.

I actually had feelings of claustrophobia while reading this book. It probably doesn’t help that I do most of my reading in a basement, but when reading in a windowless room, about an underground world, you really do start to feel the walls around you.

While I guessed a lot of the big mysteries before they were truly revealed in the story, I was OK with that because it was written so dang well.

The story isn’t perfect. The plot seems rather simple so far. The character’s actions aren’t always entirely believable. As far as science fiction goes, it’s merely brushed over. But, and here’s a big BUT, I consistently wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters, I truly cared about the characters (that’s a big thing for me), the setting is interesting, the world is well thought out, the writing style is for the most part spot on, and it’s just generally worth a good read.

The book was originally written in sections, definitely something to take into account. The first section of “Wool” started as a self-published novella, and it garnered so many readers’ requests for more that the author obliged. Thank you, Mr. Howey, for listening to your readers.

Make sure that when you buy this book (notice I say “when” not “if”), you buy the one that’s over 500 pages, and not just one of the novellas that are included in the book. As an added note, if you buy the ebook, I’m pretty sure all of the proceeds go to the author, because while publishing houses came to him to buy the rights to the book, he refused to sell the ebook rights.

In the end the book garnered an almost perfect score of 4.5 stars from me. *commence wild bouts of clapping and cheers*

Alright, that’s it, I’m done reviewing the book, and I’m done telling you how much you NEED this book in your life. Now go on and read it.

I. Am. Aliiiiiive....

Wowza, it's been a while. I just got on bookmooch for the first time in ages, and requested way more books than I should have, while adding books to my inventory as well. Love that site, but it's almost too much for someone with little self-control in the way of books.

Anyway, I promise more reviews are coming soon. I've been neglecting my Netgalley account as well. *slaps myself on the wrist* bad, bad Ashleigh. I have not entirely forsaken reading though. I've been reading mostly library books. Which is a first for me, because I have so many books on my own shelves to read, but it hasn't been bad. Not bad at all.