In this last installment of the 5 part Halloween Carnival anthology there are some real winners and a couple of clunkers. I was hoping the final volume would end with a bang. Instead it just kind of fizzled out.

I like Peter Straub a lot but I am just not a big fan of Pork Pie Hat. I know someone must really love it, since it's been published so many times, but that somebody is just not me.

For me, only 2 stories really made this anthology worth reading. DEVIL’S NIGHT by Richard Chizmar in which an ordinary school teacher gets wrapped up in murder and mayhem on a windblown Friday, the night before Halloween.

THE LAST DARE by Lisa Tuttle was another 5 star read for me. Two old friends, each of them a grandma now, who haven't seen each other in many years happen to bump into each other on Halloween. Their granddaughters hit it off immediately. What seems like a happy reunion soon turns into a nightmare. I loved this story.

I received an advance copy for review. ( )

Halloween is absolutely my favorite holiday. Monsters, Ghouls, Ghosties, and all creepy things that go bump in the night! Bring 'em on!!

Halloween Carnival Volume 5 is the last in a series of 5 horror short story collections from Random House. The volumes will release -- one every week -- throughout the month of October. Love the covers! Love the variety of stories! Great way to scream your way to the holiday this year!

Volume 5, which releases on Halloween Day Oct 31st, contains five horrific tales. These tales are subtle, a smooth, slow build of uneasiness that morphs into horror just before the end. A slow ride....to hell. I prefer that type of horror story to the more in-your-face, spurting blood, b-movie sort.

Devil's Night by Richard Chizmar. Everyone has heard the news stories about the man who fought off a killer. But, nobody knows the whole story. A nice creepy read that builds slowly before smacking you in the face with the truth. Great read!

The Last Dare by Lisa Tuttle. Lane returns to her hometown to visit with her daughter and grand-daughter. She happens to meet Bobbi, her childhood best friend. They reminisce about all sorts of things, even the time Bobbi dared Lane to go into the Tower House. Lane discovers that while her childhood home has been torn down, the old Tower still stands. And it's just as dangerous as it was in the 1950s. Dare to go in? Lovely creepy story. Every town has that One House -- the abandoned one nobody wants to enter. Probably for good reason.

The Halloween Bleed (A Dr. Sibley Curiosity) by Norman Prentiss. One really should not assume that evil and magic only come out on Halloween. Real magic can pop up anywhere at anytime....especially when it's a surprise. This is hands down my favorite story from this collection! Awesome ending!

Swing by Kevin Quigley. Swing music brings memories of Jessica to him. He remembers her dancing. He remembers her dying. But then again, everyone he loves dies. And he falls in love all the time. This is an odd, but mesmerizing, bit of creepiness. Definitely a twisted love story. After all, there are all different types of love. Right?

Pork Pie Hat by Peter Straub. A famous Jazz musician recounts a tale from his childhood. But some tales are best kept secret. This story fell a bit flat for me....maybe because it develops slowly? I'm not sure exactly...but it was my least favorite of the 5. Worth a read....but not scary/horrific. More disturbing than frightening.

All in all, this is a Halloween anthology worth reading! The tales are not screaming, wild, ripper tales but more subtle in their horror. The sort of story that sneaks up on you, rather than chases you down the lane. I think the release of one story anthology a week throughout the month of October is an awesome way to lead up to Halloween! And the ebooks are affordable! Excellent short stories at a price any reader can afford. Although some readers might have to take a glance behind to see if something is following them, the stories aren't so frightening to give sleepless nights and vivid nightmares.

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Random House Hydra via NetGalley. Opinions expressed are entirely my own.**







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4.5/5 stars!

In this, the last entry of the Halloween Carnival series, Hydra hands us a great group of stories that couldn't possibly be more different from each other. This is a good thing!

Richard Chizmar's DEVIL'S NIGHT, impressed the heck out of me. The only thing of his I've read is his collaboration with Stephen King. Now I'm going to have to read more of his work. 4*

THE LAST DARE by Lisa Tuttle was a neat little story with no explanation. The characters were very well drawn for such a short tale and I found myself thinking more about them after I finished the story. This one grew on me, but after the fact-if that makes any sense. ?Look, all I know is I'm not entering any houses with tower rooms, okay? 3.5*

THE HALLOWEEN BLEED by Norman Prentiss was a twisty little tale, with half told secrets taking place between a learned man and his eager to learn interviewer. Little does he know that he isn't as smart as he thinks. 4.5*

SWING by Kevin Quigley. This was an excellent, sad and poignant tale and I enjoyed it. I just didn't see what it had to do with Halloween? 3*

PORKPIE HAT by Peter Straub. Let me preface this by saying Straub's Ghost Story was my favorite novel for a few years-I just loved it so much. Shadowland and Floating Dragon followed and I liked those too, and don't even get me started on how much I loved The Talisman. But since then, not much of his work has appealed to me. (Edited to add: I DID enjoy The Blue Rose trilogy.) Until now. I ADORED this story. It has jazz, musicians, a student/reporter/nobody, and a subtle back story packed with racism, double standards, adulterers fear and loathing. I loved how PORKPIE HAT unfolded like some kind of origami animal and I just had to have some peace and quiet to read it in its entirety. For me, this was the star of this collection. 5*

I didn't have time to read all of the Halloween Carnival entries, but of the ones I did read, this is my favorite. I like all kinds of dark fiction stories and I loved the variety here. I didn't think even one of them was a clunker, but of course your mileage may vary.

Highly recommended!

*Thanks to Hydra and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.* ( )

4 of 5 Stars Review copy

During the month of October 2017, Brian James Freeman and the folks at Hydra, have gotten together to present a total of twenty-five Halloween tales of horror from twenty-five of the best genre writers working today. Every Tuesday during October there was a new volume in the Halloween Carnival anthology series.

Volume Five concludes the series with five tales of Halloween horror. The fun begins with...

Devil's Night by Richard Chizmar - "Tonight was Devils's Night. A night for mischief as my father used to say." A love triangle and a murder. I've read this short before. A great "What would you do?" mystery.

The Last Dare by Lisa Tuttle - The Tower House was both foreboding and forbidden. All the more reason to visit on Halloween.

The Halloween Bleed (A Dr. Sibley Curiosity) by Norman Prentiss - "What if Halloween...bleeds into other days? It doesn't matter when a story is written, or when you read it. What matters is that it has an effect on you. It casts a spell." A well-crafted tale with a delightful twist.

Swing by Kevin Quigley - "Love is strange and death is an aphrodisiac."

Port Pie Hat by Peter Straub - The novella in this collection is another I've read before, but it also happens to be one of the best Halloween horror stories I've ever read. Hat is a Jazz musician and when a fan tries to conduct an interview he hears the horrifying story of a Halloween night in the 'the Backs."

Definitely recommended and somewhat sad to see this series come to a close.

Halloween Carnival Volume Five is published by Hydra, a division of Random House, and is available as an ebook. ( )

2.5/5 stars.

I was really excited to read this collection of short stories about Halloween. Now that it’s fall and everything is pumpkin-spiced, I figured, what better way to get in the fall spirit than reading about Halloween?

However, I was overall disappointed with these stories. I felt like they were missing something to make them more…well, just more. I was expecting chilling ghost stories or thrillers of Halloween murders – and this coming from someone who doesn’t usually read too many bone-chilling thrillers – but there really wasn’t any of that. Most of these stories were slow-building plots with some sort of revelation at the end. Of all of them, my favorite was probably “The Halloween Bleed,” which was about a woman interviewing an older university professor about Halloween traditions. Although it was my “favorite,” it still wasn’t “scary” enough for what I was expected a Halloween story to be.

I think my biggest problem with this anthology is that the stories were so vague and short. I get that’s the point of a short story – it is short – but I feel like good short stories have this ability to draw you into the plot, care about the characters, and filled with careful layers of plot and subplot. However, that’s not what I got from these stories. I felt like the stories were interesting, but they also needed to be fleshed out more. They had potential, but I was left wanting more, but more in the sense that the story itself was lacking and not that I particularly cared to know more about the characters and their lives.

This collection was not what I was expecting it to be, and so I didn’t personally enjoy it. However, if you’re looking for something Halloween-themed with a little bit of suspense and okay story lines that’s a relatively quick read, then I’d say go for it. Maybe you’ll like these stories better than me. And if you’re still interested, there are four other Halloween Carnival Volumes to get you into the Halloween spirit.

*I received a copy of this eBook from NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group (Hydra) in exchange for an honest review* ( )