Scan barcode
A review by vg2
What October Brings: A Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween by Douglas Draa
1.0
I wanted to enjoy this short story collection, and the premise certainly gave me hope that I would - spooky, halloween themed stories with a vein of lovecraftian mythology is a genre that I can definitely get on board with. Unfortunately, there were two major issues with this book that made it one of most disappointing I have read so far this year.
Firstly, the stories are so incredibly similar. Most followed the same two premises - premise one: young family member who has escaped the distinctly creepy, ancient god-worshipping fold returns at Halloween (why they do so is not ever explored) and fulfils an obscure (because you don’t need to have determined a sensical plot if you leave it vague enough) destiny. If they also have a tag-along significant other who accepts, rather too quickly, the wackiness that is occurring around them, all the better. Premise two is essentially the same, but involves the aforementioned faceless and personality-less family member when they are still a child, succumbing to the ancient power. The tag-along here is usually an even younger sibling with whom they have a strained relationship. The lack of variety made the stories feel repetitive - whilst I enjoy some degree of threads or themes in such collections, the fact that these were not written by the same author, but form a curated volume, was frustrating.
Secondly, many of them were just poorly written. The speech was clumsy, the descriptions and atmosphere lacking almost entirely, and most felt rushed - I didn’t care what happened because I felt no connection or interest. Lovecraftian horror can be flamboyant and steeped in lore whilst remaining horrifying - it’s a sub-genre where, generally, most people die and either the ancient ones are victorious or, if stopped, only temporarily. There is a lot of scope for interesting development and descents into darkness, and very few of these stories had that.
Firstly, the stories are so incredibly similar. Most followed the same two premises - premise one: young family member who has escaped the distinctly creepy, ancient god-worshipping fold returns at Halloween (why they do so is not ever explored) and fulfils an obscure (because you don’t need to have determined a sensical plot if you leave it vague enough) destiny. If they also have a tag-along significant other who accepts, rather too quickly, the wackiness that is occurring around them, all the better. Premise two is essentially the same, but involves the aforementioned faceless and personality-less family member when they are still a child, succumbing to the ancient power. The tag-along here is usually an even younger sibling with whom they have a strained relationship. The lack of variety made the stories feel repetitive - whilst I enjoy some degree of threads or themes in such collections, the fact that these were not written by the same author, but form a curated volume, was frustrating.
Secondly, many of them were just poorly written. The speech was clumsy, the descriptions and atmosphere lacking almost entirely, and most felt rushed - I didn’t care what happened because I felt no connection or interest. Lovecraftian horror can be flamboyant and steeped in lore whilst remaining horrifying - it’s a sub-genre where, generally, most people die and either the ancient ones are victorious or, if stopped, only temporarily. There is a lot of scope for interesting development and descents into darkness, and very few of these stories had that.