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A review by danizay
Halloween Carnival Volume 5 by Brian James Freeman
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