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**