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**