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janceetabacnic's review
4.0
Starting with the cover art, this book immediately immerses you into spooky season! I feel atmosphere very tangibly, and this cover IS Halloween. Full moon? Check. Jack O'Lantern? Check. Kids in costumes trick-or-treating? Check. Zombies, vague shapes in windows, and knives? Check.
13 short stories and 2 poems make up this deliciously creepy collection, with a little something for everyone. There are convention halls, cola, robots, eldritch gods, and even a Christmas story or two for fans of that particular holiday. This isn't your conventional story collection of haunted houses, ghosts, and serial killers, but readers will relate to the characters in these stories, just normal people bumping up against grief, against bad roommates, against the unknown.
I read these stories slowly, limiting myself to 2-3 per day so that I could savor each and appreciate it on its own. I tend to read too quickly, which can make stories blend into each other, but I made myself slow down for this collection. I ended the collection with a few favorites. Cosmic Cola, about a young girl moving to a new town for her stepfather's job at a cola company, and the horrific truth about that company. In the Family, a touching family reunion...or not. A Preference for Silence, a story I think every introvert will see themselves in. The House That Couldn't Clean Itself, a tale of bad roommates and the limits we reach in dealing with them.
Many thanks to Erin Al-Mehairi and Raw Dog Screaming Press for a copy of this collection. It was a delightful addition to my spooky season reading that really evoked the atmosphere of the holiday!
13 short stories and 2 poems make up this deliciously creepy collection, with a little something for everyone. There are convention halls, cola, robots, eldritch gods, and even a Christmas story or two for fans of that particular holiday. This isn't your conventional story collection of haunted houses, ghosts, and serial killers, but readers will relate to the characters in these stories, just normal people bumping up against grief, against bad roommates, against the unknown.
I read these stories slowly, limiting myself to 2-3 per day so that I could savor each and appreciate it on its own. I tend to read too quickly, which can make stories blend into each other, but I made myself slow down for this collection. I ended the collection with a few favorites. Cosmic Cola, about a young girl moving to a new town for her stepfather's job at a cola company, and the horrific truth about that company. In the Family, a touching family reunion...or not. A Preference for Silence, a story I think every introvert will see themselves in. The House That Couldn't Clean Itself, a tale of bad roommates and the limits we reach in dealing with them.
Many thanks to Erin Al-Mehairi and Raw Dog Screaming Press for a copy of this collection. It was a delightful addition to my spooky season reading that really evoked the atmosphere of the holiday!
kvltprincess's review
5.0
Very fun! Every story in this collection is fantastic. A couple of people have noted that there are Christmas stories in here - there are two involving Christmas characters but the stories occur at Halloween. There's a great mix here of heartfelt, scary, and hilarious. I highly recommend this collection to get you in theoos for the spookiest of seasons.
sarah_ayy's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
shadypinesma's review
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ludwigdvorak's review
3.0
Meh? Not badly written by any means but you need to enjoy the kind of humor on display here to really take something from it, and it often fell flat for me.
dtaylorbooks's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
HALLOWEEN SEASON is a solidly okay anthology of short stories that all take place on or around Halloween, but have varying levels of Halloween involvement. That latter part is what drops this book into the realm of solidly okay for me. Everything about this anthology, from the cover to the blurb, tells me it’s going to be all about Halloween with Halloween as a central focus of the storytelling in each. That is not the case here and it left me feeling disappointed.
The stories were well-written, and I liked some more than others. ‘Hazelnuts and Yummy Mummies’ and ‘Cosmic Cola’ were great stories, and ‘The Toymaker’s Joy’ was thoroughly hilarious and amusing. But that last story, for example, is for all intents a purposes a Christmas story that just happens to be set around Halloween. The date is October 31st, but the concept of Halloween was otherwise irrelevant.
‘Porcupine Boy’ and ‘In the Family’ were both good stories, but they had nothing to do with Halloween other than the date the story is set. That’s where my disappointment is. Not in the storytelling acumen of the author, but in the packaging of the anthology. When I’m picking up an anthology of Halloween stories, I expect them to be distinctly Halloween, not just coincidentally being set on the same day in a calendar year.
I liked the variety of stories. I liked that some of them were lighter, comedic (again, I kind of LOVED ‘The Toymaker’s Joy’), while some were gruesome or just all around out there. But this is not a Halloween anthology. I probably would have liked this better if it had not been sold to me as being something it’s not. Because it was, it’s left me feeling disappointed and deceived. I based my expectations on what the cover and blurb were telling me, and the book did not meet them. I don’t think my expectations are particularly far out of line here.
3
readingwithadi's review
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
jamiezaccaria's review
2.5
This was a mixed bag for me. Perhaps the most disappointing was that very few of the stories are actually about or take place on Halloween. The first poem is spectacular though!
reads_vicariously's review
3.0
So I’m a little conflicted here. On one hand Lucy Snyder is a great writer. Her writing voice is so strong, and every story exudes a style that is whimsical, engaging, and very approachable. There’s also a pleasant variety of genres here, from cosmic horror to dark comedy to science fiction and fantasy. The stories that are really good are a lot of fun to read.
On the other hand, not every story really worked for me. Typically they would begin with furious activity but then fall flat by the end. Also, and this may not be a qualm for some, but in a collection that would appear so Halloween-centric there are very few stories that actually involve the spookiest of seasons in any meaningful way. And the inclusion of two Christmas stories felt...wrong.
Overall it’s an uneven group of stories, as collections tend to go, but there’s certainly much worth reading. In fact with such a wide variety there’s probably something here for everyone! Certain stories I’d even like to see as full novels! Favorites include:
“Cosmic Cola”
“Visions of the Dream Witch”
“What Dwells Within”
“In the Family”
On the other hand, not every story really worked for me. Typically they would begin with furious activity but then fall flat by the end. Also, and this may not be a qualm for some, but in a collection that would appear so Halloween-centric there are very few stories that actually involve the spookiest of seasons in any meaningful way. And the inclusion of two Christmas stories felt...wrong.
Overall it’s an uneven group of stories, as collections tend to go, but there’s certainly much worth reading. In fact with such a wide variety there’s probably something here for everyone! Certain stories I’d even like to see as full novels! Favorites include:
“Cosmic Cola”
“Visions of the Dream Witch”
“What Dwells Within”
“In the Family”