A review by dtaylorbooks
Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder

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