A review by ravensandlace
The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror by R. David Fulcher

4.0

Title: The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror

Author: R. David Fulcher

Genre: Horror

Format: ebook

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

A special thank you goes to Coffee and Thorns for providing me with a copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

tw: death, guns, blood, parental death, sick children, assault, infidelity, toxic relationship, theft murder

When Coffee and Thorn sent out the email, looking for reviewers for this book, I literally read the first sentence of the synopsis, as I mentioned above, and then sent an email back saying yes, sign me up! Something about this book grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. I knew I had to read it and I’m so dang glad I did. As soon as I got the book, I read it in less than two days. I was hooked. I stayed up way too late but it was well worth the tiredness the next day. 

So this book was a collection of short stories or essays, depending on how you look at it. A lot of them were only a couple of pages long but I didn’t mind that at all. If anything, it made me want more. There were quite a few that I could see becoming full-length novels and I sincerely hope the author does turn some of them into novels. Since there were so many, I will talk about a few of my favorites. But I want to emphasize that I really enjoyed this book as a whole. 

Marienburg Castle was about a zombie invasion during World War II. It reminded me of Call of Duty: Black Ops zombie mode. I spent many hours with my brother playing that game and it made me so excited to see what the rest of the book had to offer as this was the first book. The Pumpkin King was about Samhain. The dialogue was cheesy and reminded me of those 80s horror movies, which I love so much and started my love of all things horror. A Matter of Taste was creepy but interesting. I loved the concept of eyes as payment since they see sin. The Night Fighter was about a vampire flying planes, which you don’t read about every day. This one was beautifully written. The Huntress was about Dorian Gray’s descendants. I enjoyed this one a lot since I’m a huge Dorian Gray fan. My only wish was that this one was a little longer but honestly, that is me being picky. The Faeire Lights was about how dangerous faeries can be and it was written like a video game, which I enjoyed being a gamer. 

Overall, I thought this was an exceptional book with very few clunkers. This book revitalized my love for horror and made me excited for the genre again. It reminded me why I love the genre in the first place. I'm excited to go out there and find more works by this author. They truly have a gift for writing horror.