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dnemec's review
4.0
Halloween Carnival Volume 5 is the fifth and final (for now, at least) installment of the Halloween Carnival series. The last one gives us gems by Richard Chizmar, Lisa Tuttle, Norman Prentiss, Kevin Quigley, and Peter Straub.
I found Swing by Kevin Quigley fascinating. Essentially, it's a horror love story. Not very Halloweeny, but good nonetheless.
Surprisingly, Peter Straub's Pork Pie Hat was my favorite. First of all, let me say this: I do not like Peter Straub's writings. I have tried to like him. I have read several of his books in an attempt to like him. But with the exception of his dalliances with Stephen King, I have not liked any of them much. But something about Pork Pie Hat grabbed me and took me for a ride. Definitely my favorite of the book.
I found Swing by Kevin Quigley fascinating. Essentially, it's a horror love story. Not very Halloweeny, but good nonetheless.
Surprisingly, Peter Straub's Pork Pie Hat was my favorite. First of all, let me say this: I do not like Peter Straub's writings. I have tried to like him. I have read several of his books in an attempt to like him. But with the exception of his dalliances with Stephen King, I have not liked any of them much. But something about Pork Pie Hat grabbed me and took me for a ride. Definitely my favorite of the book.
mad_about_books's review
5.0
Sometimes the best IS left for last. In Volume 5 of HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL, the reader is given a five course meal of very different tales of the night that spirits and demons abound.
DEVIL’S NIGHT by Richard Chizmar
It is really quite amazing the way that a good horror story usually ends up sending the right message. Good and evil. Right and wrong. These are the ultimate battles the heroes of horror must face. (5 stars)
THE LAST DARE by Lisa Tuttle
Move over rough and tumble boys, grandmas and little girls have scary stories to tell too! Lisa Tuttle offers a modern take on the tried and true Hansel and Gretel tale. (5 stars)
THE HALLOWEEN BLEED by Norman Prentiss
Norman Prentiss is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, and not just his short stories either. (If you haven't read ODD ADVENTURES WITH YOUR OTHER FATHER, you're missing out on a truly great read.)
"Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" - from Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott… my first thought upon finishing the story. (5 stars)
SWING by Kevin Quigley
Never will you read a more haunting story of love and death than here. Death is a dance to be savored, and its music can be whatever it needs to be. (5 stars)
PORK PIE HAT by Peter Straub
"Pork Pie Hat" is not a new story; I recognized the title right away. In fact, I thought I might have even read it a time or two. As I read, I realized that I had not.
Peter Straub is an artist with words. He will often use a phrase that bears repeating once, twice, even three times in the course of reading a particular piece. In "Pork Pie Hat" I read these words several times "…most of what is called information is interpretation, and interpretation is always partial" - appreciating their profoundness not only in relation to the story, but in their timelessness and applicability to this particular time in history. These words seem to sum up, quite nicely, the reason we read Straub's works.
"Pork Pie Hat" is a thinking person's tale of Halloween horror told by an old man remembering through his childhood eyes. Sometimes reality is far worse than any monster conjured by the imagination. (5 stars)
DEVIL’S NIGHT by Richard Chizmar
It is really quite amazing the way that a good horror story usually ends up sending the right message. Good and evil. Right and wrong. These are the ultimate battles the heroes of horror must face. (5 stars)
THE LAST DARE by Lisa Tuttle
Move over rough and tumble boys, grandmas and little girls have scary stories to tell too! Lisa Tuttle offers a modern take on the tried and true Hansel and Gretel tale. (5 stars)
THE HALLOWEEN BLEED by Norman Prentiss
Norman Prentiss is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, and not just his short stories either. (If you haven't read ODD ADVENTURES WITH YOUR OTHER FATHER, you're missing out on a truly great read.)
"Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" - from Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott… my first thought upon finishing the story. (5 stars)
SWING by Kevin Quigley
Never will you read a more haunting story of love and death than here. Death is a dance to be savored, and its music can be whatever it needs to be. (5 stars)
PORK PIE HAT by Peter Straub
"Pork Pie Hat" is not a new story; I recognized the title right away. In fact, I thought I might have even read it a time or two. As I read, I realized that I had not.
Peter Straub is an artist with words. He will often use a phrase that bears repeating once, twice, even three times in the course of reading a particular piece. In "Pork Pie Hat" I read these words several times "…most of what is called information is interpretation, and interpretation is always partial" - appreciating their profoundness not only in relation to the story, but in their timelessness and applicability to this particular time in history. These words seem to sum up, quite nicely, the reason we read Straub's works.
"Pork Pie Hat" is a thinking person's tale of Halloween horror told by an old man remembering through his childhood eyes. Sometimes reality is far worse than any monster conjured by the imagination. (5 stars)
sammah's review
2.0
Note: I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
I...was not very impressed with this collection of Halloween-centric tales. Most of them were rather boring, and I found myself drifting away mid-sentence to think of other things. Even the Peter Straub tale didn't do it for me, and I usually enjoy him. It wasn't outright horrible or anything, just not what I would have anticipated from a collection of Halloween stories. I want something to get me into the holiday mood, but this just wasn't it.
I...was not very impressed with this collection of Halloween-centric tales. Most of them were rather boring, and I found myself drifting away mid-sentence to think of other things. Even the Peter Straub tale didn't do it for me, and I usually enjoy him. It wasn't outright horrible or anything, just not what I would have anticipated from a collection of Halloween stories. I want something to get me into the holiday mood, but this just wasn't it.
charlisbookbox's review
1.0
You would think with a high profile author like Peter Straub contributing to this anthology, it would have been better. But nope.
We start off with Devil’s Night. It wasn’t the greatest story, but it wasn’t a horrible one either. It was a little bit on the messy side, but hey, it was a short story by an author I’ve never heard of before. The slight plot twist was pretty cool but I felt the ending was a bit on the rushed side, like the author ran out of steam or ideas and just wrote whatever came to mind first.
The Last Dare is, well, weird. Every city/town has that one house that everyone says is haunted. This one has a house with a chest that apparently eats kids? I was never quite sure what was going on with this story, to be honest. And the ending just left me completely unsatisfied because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Not a fan of this one at all.
The Halloween Bleed was another “huh?” story for me. I spent a good portion of the time trying to figure out what was going on. It seemed to me by the end it was some sort of “wizard vs witch” magic shootout? I honestly have no idea and honestly, I was so bored during this story I don’t want to know.
Swing was… interesting. Honestly, it seems to me that it was written from the perspective of a Grim Reaper who deals exclusively in suicide victims. Which was pretty cool. It also seemed to me that said Reaper wasn’t particularly thrilled with his or her job and was quite sad about it. I liked this one, but it wasn’t enough to save this book.
And last but not least, we have Pork Pie Hat. I would have thought a story by Peter Straub that took up almost half the book would have been better. Instead, I found myself bored and wondering when the story would be over. The only logical explanation I can come up with is that this is one of his early works. Because otherwise, I just can’t with this story.
This one was just as bad as Volume 4. It gets 1 star because it just wasn’t a good anthology for Halloween stories.
***I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are 100% my own.***
We start off with Devil’s Night. It wasn’t the greatest story, but it wasn’t a horrible one either. It was a little bit on the messy side, but hey, it was a short story by an author I’ve never heard of before. The slight plot twist was pretty cool but I felt the ending was a bit on the rushed side, like the author ran out of steam or ideas and just wrote whatever came to mind first.
The Last Dare is, well, weird. Every city/town has that one house that everyone says is haunted. This one has a house with a chest that apparently eats kids? I was never quite sure what was going on with this story, to be honest. And the ending just left me completely unsatisfied because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Not a fan of this one at all.
The Halloween Bleed was another “huh?” story for me. I spent a good portion of the time trying to figure out what was going on. It seemed to me by the end it was some sort of “wizard vs witch” magic shootout? I honestly have no idea and honestly, I was so bored during this story I don’t want to know.
Swing was… interesting. Honestly, it seems to me that it was written from the perspective of a Grim Reaper who deals exclusively in suicide victims. Which was pretty cool. It also seemed to me that said Reaper wasn’t particularly thrilled with his or her job and was quite sad about it. I liked this one, but it wasn’t enough to save this book.
And last but not least, we have Pork Pie Hat. I would have thought a story by Peter Straub that took up almost half the book would have been better. Instead, I found myself bored and wondering when the story would be over. The only logical explanation I can come up with is that this is one of his early works. Because otherwise, I just can’t with this story.
This one was just as bad as Volume 4. It gets 1 star because it just wasn’t a good anthology for Halloween stories.
***I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are 100% my own.***
wellwortharead's review
3.0
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.
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.
charshorrorcorner's review
5.0
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.*
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.*
daniellesteenrod's review
4.0
Halloween Carnival is a horror anthology. There are 5 volumes of this series being published throughout the month of October. This is the fifth and final installment. There are a total of 5 stories in this anthology; all of which center around Halloween. Some are sad, some are nail-biters, and some are just plain horror. This series isn’t all out gore, so if that is what you are looking for, you won’t find any of that here. I really enjoyed all 5 of these stories for different reasons. I am going to give a brief review of each story contained in this anthology and my star rating.
When I saw this anthology had two authors that I recognized, I was extremely excited and just knew this volume of the Halloween Carnival was going to be a great series conclusion. The two authors I am talking about are Richard Chizmar and Peter Straub. Both of these authors have both written pieces of literature with the famed Stephen King. As a King fan, I was highly anticipating this volume of Halloween Carnival!
DEVIL’S NIGHT by Richard Chizmar
I had high hopes for this story as it was written by Richard Chizmar and I’m happy to say it did not let me down! It was my favorite story in this anthology! It had mystery and suspense. It was just like watching a true crime show! And the twist at the end was perfect! Great start for this anthology! I rated this story 5 out of 5 stars.
THE LAST DARE by Lisa Tuttle
This was my second favorite story in this anthology. What was once a childhood tale turns into a reality. I loved the mysteriousness of this one. I rated this story 5 out of 5 stars.
THE HALLOWEEN BLEED by Norman Prentiss
I was not a fan of this story at all. This one was a bit boring and slow. When I read a Halloween story, I want something that keeps me at the edge of my seat with suspense. This one didn’t do that for me. It was also left a bit too open-ended for my tastes. I would have liked to have some things explained some more. I know a lot of these types of stories are left to the imagination but I really didn’t understand what happened at the end. Too much was left unexplained. I rated this one 2 out of 5 stars.
SWING by Kevin Quigley
*Trigger warning: suicide*
This was definitely the most gruesome and disturbing of the bunch. I really enjoyed this one because I do enjoy stories that are a bit disturbing. This one also was tragic and sad. I rated this one 4 out of 5 stars.
PORK PIE HAT by Peter Straub
I was originally really excited to see that this anthology had a story written by Peter Straub. Unfortunately, this is the one story by him that I have already read. I say unfortunately because I didn’t much enjoy this one the first time I read it. I did a quick skim to refresh my memory in order to write a review but my views still stand the same. I thought it was quite boring and too long. I do think I would have liked it more if it had been condensed. I rated this story 3 out of 5 stars.
Overall, this is a great collection of short horror stories and I think Devil’s Night, The Last Dare, and Swing are reason enough to read this particular volume of Halloween Carnival.
My total rating came to 3.8 stars, making this a 4 star rating for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review
When I saw this anthology had two authors that I recognized, I was extremely excited and just knew this volume of the Halloween Carnival was going to be a great series conclusion. The two authors I am talking about are Richard Chizmar and Peter Straub. Both of these authors have both written pieces of literature with the famed Stephen King. As a King fan, I was highly anticipating this volume of Halloween Carnival!
DEVIL’S NIGHT by Richard Chizmar
I had high hopes for this story as it was written by Richard Chizmar and I’m happy to say it did not let me down! It was my favorite story in this anthology! It had mystery and suspense. It was just like watching a true crime show! And the twist at the end was perfect! Great start for this anthology! I rated this story 5 out of 5 stars.
THE LAST DARE by Lisa Tuttle
This was my second favorite story in this anthology. What was once a childhood tale turns into a reality. I loved the mysteriousness of this one. I rated this story 5 out of 5 stars.
THE HALLOWEEN BLEED by Norman Prentiss
I was not a fan of this story at all. This one was a bit boring and slow. When I read a Halloween story, I want something that keeps me at the edge of my seat with suspense. This one didn’t do that for me. It was also left a bit too open-ended for my tastes. I would have liked to have some things explained some more. I know a lot of these types of stories are left to the imagination but I really didn’t understand what happened at the end. Too much was left unexplained. I rated this one 2 out of 5 stars.
SWING by Kevin Quigley
*Trigger warning: suicide*
This was definitely the most gruesome and disturbing of the bunch. I really enjoyed this one because I do enjoy stories that are a bit disturbing. This one also was tragic and sad. I rated this one 4 out of 5 stars.
PORK PIE HAT by Peter Straub
I was originally really excited to see that this anthology had a story written by Peter Straub. Unfortunately, this is the one story by him that I have already read. I say unfortunately because I didn’t much enjoy this one the first time I read it. I did a quick skim to refresh my memory in order to write a review but my views still stand the same. I thought it was quite boring and too long. I do think I would have liked it more if it had been condensed. I rated this story 3 out of 5 stars.
Overall, this is a great collection of short horror stories and I think Devil’s Night, The Last Dare, and Swing are reason enough to read this particular volume of Halloween Carnival.
My total rating came to 3.8 stars, making this a 4 star rating for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review
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