Scan barcode
A review by bhall237
Autumncrow by Cameron Chaney
3.0
"In Autumncrow, you didn't have to look back on your childhood memories of Halloween in sad remembrance. Here, you could live out those memories once again, or create new ones with your children.
Halloween wasn't dead, you just needed to know where to find it."
Follow Me In
Beautifully haunting, this was pure poetry with heavy themes of rose-tinted glasses and normality from loss. A very solid start to the collection, much more somber in its horror than expected, very subtle and ambiguous. 4/5.
Pumpkin Light
Another rather heartfelt story, albeit with the somber undertone of knowing that your time has reached its end and you need a guiding hand. A rather entertaining dive into witchcraft that showed the helping nature it can conjure, with a loved one returning in this case. 3/5.
Burnt Brownies
This one got to me. This one was intense, so fast paced and short in its sentences to give such a frantic pace to this horrific story of a brother and sister throwing a Halloween party. The whole part about the sister seeing the dancing people melt got to me, and the intensity of the last half had me holding my breath to find out what happened. 5/5.
Frost
Another shattered home stored, this one was really good in the moment but kind of loses its intriguing charm when you stop and think about it for a second. Overall, very good and a great one time read, but once you’ve read this one, its twist isn’t one that sheds light on the early part of it. 3/5.
Saving Face
That was a weird story. Weirder than any of the others, and I think it was just okay. Nothing memorable, except for one specifically horrific moment, but just an average story of a homeless man looking for a friend. 2/5.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Feed
This one was a mixture of early 2000s YouTube trauma, The Deep by Nick Cutter, and Mean Girls. There is a lot of conflicting tones throughout this, and I think it could’ve worked if they all had more of an impact to the story. I think the biggest driving factor, for this was the horror of Ellen, having to let go of her friends that she’s known for most of her life. The parts with Tara the Android would have been a lot scarier. I’m not personally known about its origins, and the full story of it. And I felt like Macy and Ellen’s back-and-forth was not delved into enough. It was very shallow, and I’m all for shallow in b-horror, but with this primary focus of The Thing trying to inhabit a body and consume flesh, it all just sort of meshed oddly. 2/5.
CRYP-TV
This was such a fun story. I loved how immediate Allen’s situation was, and how quickly I cared for his character. I wanted him to have a great Halloween, despite the circumstances, and once the story got going in the crazy direction it did, I was all hands on deck. The backstory of the town itself was fascinating, I was so intrigued by the character of Crow Darkstorm. The inspiration for this short should be obvious, but his character was just an incredible reincarnation of the crypt keeper. This story was fantastic from beginning to end, and I wish we got more of it. 5/5.
There Are Monsters Here
I’m sad that I dislike this short the most and that it left me with an overall bad taste in my mouth for the rest of what was a very solid book. Similarly to my distaste for Stolen Tongues, there’s just something about giving human emotions a physical appearance but without any real threat to our protagonist that just rubs me in such a negative way. With some interesting ideas that turned out to just be coming to terms with trauma, I wish this book had closed a lot strong than it started. This was its own short story and felt so disjointed and unwelcome with the established lore and previous stories of Autumncrow. 2/5.
Halloween wasn't dead, you just needed to know where to find it."
Follow Me In
Beautifully haunting, this was pure poetry with heavy themes of rose-tinted glasses and normality from loss. A very solid start to the collection, much more somber in its horror than expected, very subtle and ambiguous. 4/5.
Pumpkin Light
Another rather heartfelt story, albeit with the somber undertone of knowing that your time has reached its end and you need a guiding hand. A rather entertaining dive into witchcraft that showed the helping nature it can conjure, with a loved one returning in this case. 3/5.
Burnt Brownies
This one got to me. This one was intense, so fast paced and short in its sentences to give such a frantic pace to this horrific story of a brother and sister throwing a Halloween party. The whole part about the sister seeing the dancing people melt got to me, and the intensity of the last half had me holding my breath to find out what happened. 5/5.
Frost
Another shattered home stored, this one was really good in the moment but kind of loses its intriguing charm when you stop and think about it for a second. Overall, very good and a great one time read, but once you’ve read this one, its twist isn’t one that sheds light on the early part of it. 3/5.
Saving Face
That was a weird story. Weirder than any of the others, and I think it was just okay. Nothing memorable, except for one specifically horrific moment, but just an average story of a homeless man looking for a friend. 2/5.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Feed
This one was a mixture of early 2000s YouTube trauma, The Deep by Nick Cutter, and Mean Girls. There is a lot of conflicting tones throughout this, and I think it could’ve worked if they all had more of an impact to the story. I think the biggest driving factor, for this was the horror of Ellen, having to let go of her friends that she’s known for most of her life. The parts with Tara the Android would have been a lot scarier. I’m not personally known about its origins, and the full story of it. And I felt like Macy and Ellen’s back-and-forth was not delved into enough. It was very shallow, and I’m all for shallow in b-horror, but with this primary focus of The Thing trying to inhabit a body and consume flesh, it all just sort of meshed oddly. 2/5.
CRYP-TV
This was such a fun story. I loved how immediate Allen’s situation was, and how quickly I cared for his character. I wanted him to have a great Halloween, despite the circumstances, and once the story got going in the crazy direction it did, I was all hands on deck. The backstory of the town itself was fascinating, I was so intrigued by the character of Crow Darkstorm. The inspiration for this short should be obvious, but his character was just an incredible reincarnation of the crypt keeper. This story was fantastic from beginning to end, and I wish we got more of it. 5/5.
There Are Monsters Here
I’m sad that I dislike this short the most and that it left me with an overall bad taste in my mouth for the rest of what was a very solid book. Similarly to my distaste for Stolen Tongues, there’s just something about giving human emotions a physical appearance but without any real threat to our protagonist that just rubs me in such a negative way. With some interesting ideas that turned out to just be coming to terms with trauma, I wish this book had closed a lot strong than it started. This was its own short story and felt so disjointed and unwelcome with the established lore and previous stories of Autumncrow. 2/5.