SYNOPSIS:
Strang isn’t the small, quaint town it appears to be. It’s haunted every night by a creature the townsfolk refer to as Halloween. Once the sun sets each day, Halloween emerges to collect its treats: a small, live offering from each household. The residents comply because no one wants to be the target of Halloween’s tricks. But the nightmare of residing in Strang is nothing compared to the yearly ritual Halloween demands of the citizens on All Hallows’ Eve. There are some books that are well-written, have a great premise, but for whatever reason just don't click with me, and this is one of them. A lot of people really enjoyed it, and I can absolutely understand why-- the setup is original and fun, the writing style is good, but I just didn't feel much for the main character and that made it hard for me to be really invested in the book. That said, give it a try-- more people like this than not, and maybe I just hit it at the wrong time. (also, the cover is freaking gorgeous and that's always a plus) ;) Reactions/quotes ((spoilers below)): -- I love the skeletal rabbit sketch at the start of the chapter. -- The blurb makes me think animals are gonna die and I really hope that's told subtly rather than dwelled on. -- 'The thing itself shifted again and again to something human then something with possibly tentacles then to something winged or wide, I couldn't be sure. It confused the mind to look directly at it. The shadow was what you had to pay attention to. As it devoured the cat Janice offered, the shadow turned its head toward our house.' That is an aces creepy description. -- '...back when there were children in Strang.' Um. -- "How were they going to deal with a group of people from out of town?" Hopefully they're not bringing them in for a sacrifice but I don't know with this place. Wouldn't surprise me. -- "You can't wait for the meeting. You want your old man to get the dot, don't you?" Ohhh, we've got The Lottery vibes going on now. -- 'You had to learn to keep emotions separate early on because the moment you grew an ounce of empathy for anyone or anything, the night Halloween paid a visit you would end up in a constant state of grief and sorrow and depression.' There's probably a good "so by this point, who's the real monster" essay to be made here. -- "I'd leave it alone if I were you. You'll end up like your mother." Ohhhh. -- 'She'd begged and nagged dad almost every day to pack up and leave.' I can't imagine why. ((no, seriously, why don't people GO? There's apparently no problem with going to the neighboring town for groceries, etc., why not get the hell out of Dodge? Barry's situation is explained: no car/money and the creepy policeman stalking him, but everyone else?)) -- "They pack up and move in the middle of the night without givin' a lick about anyone but themselves. Leave their property taxes unpaid. Funeral expenses unpaid. End up leavin' the townsfolk involved high and dry. You get what I'm sayin', Barry?" Uhhhh-huh. I think I'd say 'screw property taxes' and be out of there so fast I'd leave a smoke silhouette behind like in the old Looney Tunes. -- "We plan to play it off as a raffle of sorts." Old Hurly said, "Might be kinda difficult if the person doesn't go quietly. Don't think anyone forgets how Timothy carried on." Doris grew aggravated and almost shouted into the microphone. "It's not going to be a problem. We all know what's required of us. Anyone who would make a scene is a coward." Spoken like someone who's probably rigged this so she never draws the dot. -- I like Old Hurly. -- "How much does your life blow?" Okay, 99% of the time this creature is terrifying, but when it's using slang I used to hear with friends at the mall, not so much. -- 'I took to watching Addisyn's every move.' You're already kinda pinging my creeper meter with Rhonda cut it out -- 'I could feel my face reddening when I was caught watching her. There was something wolfish about her. As if she was observing the area to find her prey. It made me feel vulnerable for some reason, as if I was the prey she was looking for.' You're SO. CLOSE. to an understanding here. -- 'Once he was out of earshot, Addisyn said, "What an asshole." Indeed. (and what is up with the severe animosity between him and Barry? It feels like there's a deeper story there that's never explained) -- 'She sat menus in front of each of us. I tried not to stare at her cleavage as she bent forward' Lesson not learned. -- ...won't Janice see something out the window she's *always looking out of* and then you'll all three be screwed? -- "Hey asshole! Got some people here who want to see you!" WOW you're a dipshit. -- "Goddammit, Janice," I whispered.' Janice? You were the one who yelled for the thing and made sure to do it at one of the windows she could plainly see from her house. -- 'I hope when it eats me it gets sick and dies.' <3 -- So has it been rigged every year, I wonder, or just this one? -- The moving skeletons are great. -- Last. Line. All in all, I wish it had been longer-- more elaboration on the townsfolk's history with this thing and with each other, and maybe a pov other than Barry's sometimes (I would've really liked to 'hear' from Rhonda). I got a freebie from Hunt in an earlier Night Worms package, and I'll have to check it out soon; there was so much to like here but it just didn't do it for me.
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SYNOPSIS:
Sixteen never-before-published chilling tales that explore every aspect of our darkest holiday, Halloween, co-edited by Ellen Datlow, one of the most successful and respected genre editors, and Lisa Morton, a leading authority on Halloween. In addition to stories about scheming jack-o'-lanterns, vengeful ghosts, otherworldly changelings, disturbingly realistic haunted attractions, masks that cover terrifying faces, murderous urban legends, parties gone bad, cult Halloween movies, and trick or treating in the future, Haunted Nights also offers terrifying and mind-bending explorations of related holidays like All Souls' Day, Dia de los Muertos, and Devil's Night. This collection boasts one hell of a lineup: if you start off with Seanan McGuire and Stephen Graham Jones, you're pretty much guaranteed to be in good hands. And the introduction sets the tone beautifully; I wanted a fireplace in the house just so I could sit in front of it and drink apple cider. None of the stories were misses-- there were a couple that I wish I'd had trigger warnings for, because I'm not the best with death-of-children stories and probably would've steeled myself more for them, but it *was* a collection about Halloween. I knew not all the kids would make it out. Favorites: A Small Taste of the Old Country (nice work with a classic revenge story) All Through the Night (a gutpunch and a half but so well done) A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds (if I *had* to pick, this one's probably my fave of the entire collection) Jack (this take on Stingy Jack is great and I adore the lead) Lost in the Dark (where. is. my. movie.) Notes on each story: ((spoilers below)) WITH GRAVEYARD WEEDS AND WOLFSBANE SEEDS -- title. love. -- 'The kind of money that sees a pretty field and says, "I should build a giant-ass mansion there for no good reason, just because I want to."' -- Oh Tyler, honey. -- 'The end of the world is probably going to begin with those five words. Let's get this party started. Just once, I wish someone would say, "Let's not." Just once.' Seanan's writing is constantly a thing of beauty. -- 'Which at least put her in a category with me and Tyler, so hey. She had good taste.' our sassy narrator is queer Seanan you never let me down -- This ghost is tragic and horrifying. Just the way I like them. :) -- Gee, Tyler, I wonder why Elisa wants nothing to do with you -- "No one owns a word." Oh god, I can smell the Axe body spray coming off this sentence. Heeeere, ghostie ghostie DIRTMOUTH '...I think it's kind of natural to key on the most painful image we can conjure and then just stare at it until there's nothing else in the world.' Hello amazing description of my depression/anxiety -- 'If you're going to ask why I let her in, my first response would be simply that it was cold out there.' This is just such a lovely human moment. It's cold, come in. -- 'When she opened her mouth under her mask, her whole face shifted, and instead of my name, there was only a creak.' AIE -- 'One day of the year, it isn't much. But it's so much more than no days at all.' That's fine, I didn't need my heart anyway. A SMALL TASTE OF THE OLD COUNTRY -- wait a minute Argentina 1948 and one of the guys has an accent he's trying to disguise? Uhhh-huh. -- Now I want homemade bread. ((reviewer's note: I did indeed pause after this story to make some)) -- Okay, so he's not Jewish. There goes my guess. If he turns out to be gay/queer, I will just turn into one giant Joy Emoji because I've seen plenty of stories about Jewish people hunting down Nazis after the war (as well I should) but I'm not sure if I've ever seen one about queer people getting revenge for what was done to them. If anyone has seen any, point me towards?? -- "The damned Russians and British and Americans have taken it all from us. Our hopes and dreams and every single thing of worth that we owned." Oh, wahhh. -- "It means that I am not a Jew or a homosexual or a Pole or a Slav or any of these groups, nor were any of my family, and yet they all died in the camps. ... I am Romany." I am flailing here because a) Romany used instead of the slur, b) remembering and naming all the people the Nazis targeted <3 -- "Some celebrations require fatted calves, but I think fatted pigs will do nicely." DAMN. Well played, Becker. WICK'S END -- I love the setup of this, trading stories in an old bar on Halloween night. -- "Let us venture outside to give our next stories the proper atmosphere" DO NOT. THIS IS HOW YOU DIE. -- Stingy Jack! ((as it turns out, the first of two appearances in this collection!)) THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR ITCH -- "Don't worry about what I said...I can hold It off. I can." I know it's a terrible idea but I want to give him a hug -- "He was doodling faster now, strange, grinning faces with lots of teeth, which he hastily drew over, scribbling heavy, thick lines." eep. -- "If we don't do anything...people will die." "Yeah, well, not me," said Kenneth. Go to hell, Ken. -- "This is really very interesting," said Dr. Orando. Your patient is in pain, you ass. -- 'He'd hated himself for staying away, and he hated himself for coming back and trying to do something, and most of all he hated himself for being too late.' :( A FLICKER OF LIGHT ON DEVIL'S NIGHT -- Why does she keep saying 'the girl' and 'the boy' instead of their names? Do they have names? It's creepy and dehumanizing. -- also the boy is an ass -- though I can understand where it comes from -- 'The appointment is in January, so the doctor must think it's okay to wait three months.' Lady, how long have you lived in America? -- 'He wouldn't make him wait if the boy was really sick, if this self-harm was a symptom of something bad.' LADY. -- "Don't slam-" I don't even bother finishing my sentence as I hurry across the room and reach for the door to pull it away from the wall. Words circle around and back. They've lost all meaning through repetition. I need a new language.' I feel that. -- 'I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when the girl talks like this.' I can't imagine her wanting to leave a place where her mom doesn't even refer to her by name. -- 'The girl is mine. I've given up all of my dreams and possessions to keep her happy.' That's a perfectly healthy way to regard your child, yes. -- ...shit. WITCH HAZEL -- Pine Barrens yesssss -- body horror alert AUGH -- Making himself a pot of coffee? Heck, if I'd just seen that I'd be after all the booze forever. -- 'A strange pathogen, blossoming, from the woman's cells- many-armed, like the wild witch-hazel flower. I've never seen the like.' I got such 'Who Goes There?' vibes from those lines. -- There's the bourbon! NOS GALAN GAEAF -- soooo Lance is a creep -- 'She'd bewitched him. That was the only answer. And so burning would be apt. Unlikely, but he could hope.' Easy there Frollo -- 'Home, home, on the double, The tailless black sow shall catch the last.' Creepy; I love it. -- 'That smile said there was more there, something worth saving. The smile was a lie.' DIE HORRIBLY. -- Seanna, darlingheart! I will name a heroine in one of my books after you. -- 'The whole thing was a trap. Seanna had *made* him take her stone, and then she'd lain in wait to catch him.' Your misogyny is tiresome please get eaten now. -- hooray WE'RE NEVER INVITING AMBER AGAIN -- and this one makes a twofer with a punchable narrator -- Ooooh, a crazy old cat lady joke! No wonder you needed your sister-in-law to entertain at the party. -- "Here we go." At least I'd have another story to pass around.' You are such a dick. -- "Did he hit her?" I asked, maybe with too much excitement. Die. -- 'Trying to sound sporty and not mean.' You're failing miserably and I hope your wife leaves your condescending ass and goes for an Epic Road Trip with her sister. -- 'My expression told her everything. All the disgust and contempt I usually took pains to conceal. Cecily read all of this and began to cry.' Oh, honey. Road. Trip. SISTERS -- I love Millie's interpretation of human holidays. -- See? Even demons think clowns are creepy. -- That last LINE. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT -- The reading your intended's initial in an apple peel is so sweet. -- "If she's a lass, your child, you can sell her to me. I'd treat her well. Put her to work only when she's ready. Would you like that, love?" run -- "What of the cost to me?" he asked. "If your breast milk lands on my piecings?" *rolls guillotine closer* -- 'The doctor said the milk sold in Five Points came from sick cows and looked thick and creamy only with the addition of paint and chalk.' The free market will regulate itself!!! God. -- "I tried." "Ah love, love. We all do." *sobbing* I knew that ending was coming and it still hit hard. A KINGDOM OF SUGAR SKULLS AND MARIGOLDS -- 'You ever seen the lights go green in a woman's eyes when she takes the hand of a man made of bones?' What a sentence. -- I love the descriptions in this. 'Jet-black and electric blue: that's the night sky, shimmering and buzzing like lights of an all-night diner, while agate-dusted shades zoom by, darting through alleys of a crowded universe.' It's just a gorgeous piece. -- The car sounds so unsettling and oddly lovely, perfect for the story. -- 'All I know is, you don't fuck with Abuelita.' ...you absolutely do not. Wow. -- Aww, kids. I wondered if Santi meant that to him. -- ohshit -- Even after he tried to sell him out at the worst possible time, Santi still protected him. I love this kid. -- 'That moment between us, what we did, I didn't expect it, but it felt like it's supposed to.' my heart hurts -- Abuelita!!! THE TURN -- As if walking around at night wasn't already terrifying. -- 'However, part of him was desperate to know.' no tim -- ...did NOT see that coming. JACK -- "I'm ready; I've got this." Um. -- 'But nothing weirds the human animal out like death. Even the steadiest, most down-to-earth hardheads can totally lose their compos mentis where death is concerned. And that's just the living. The dead are worse.' If that doesn't hook you I don't know what will. -- the concept of charm/apps is great -- The worldbuilding is so fun and I would not be disappointed to find out this is part of a series. *crossed fingers* LOST IN THE DARK -- 'spent fifteen minutes of one class arguing the merits of The Lost Boys' Lost Boys has all the merits -- The 'woman in the mine' story is great. I just ordered Langan's The Fisherman, and from this story so far, I think I'll really enjoy it. -- Isabelle, your professor is an idiot; your documentary idea would be amazing. -- "After filming the mine's exterior, we walked into it." Edie waits a beat, then says "And...?" "And we came out again," Sarah says. "Eventually." I adore all the 'oh shit something's coming' eerieness in that last line. -- ugh why isn't this actually a movie I want to watch it. -- CLOSE THE CONNECTION YOU GUYS why are you even messing with the world's creepiest Ouija board if you haven't done your research -- "Is that Isabelle?" Chad asks. "Who else would it be?" Kristi says Kristi. Nooo, Kristi. -- oh no there's only about three pages left in this story I want a novel THE FIRST LUNAR HALLOWEEN -- "What if you're wrong?" Susan said, "Nobody is wrong. This is totally safe, so you just need to enjoy your first Halloween!" As epitaphs go, it's not bad. -- 'Altogether, the trip should take an hour. Everyone had enough air for three hours.' Well, whatever's about to go wrong, at least it's not a Titanic situation. -- 'Susan felt dread, knowing with a weird certainty that the parallel grooves were from Jonathan's boots as he had been dragged.' Yeek. -- STOP SPLITTING UP oh no they don't know the rules all knowledge from horror movies has been lost -- Jonathan you idiot. |
A WORLD WITH A BLUER SUNMy reviews are set up a little like live-tweets: I write down lines I like/impressions as I read, and then transcribe. Reviews will contain spoilers, but I'll give a warning before they start. Archives
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