Book Review: “Halloween Season” by Lucy A. Snyder
This is Halloween, and don’t let it pass without picking up Halloween Season, Lucy A. Snyder’s collection of Horror and Dark Fantasy stories. Every story is consistently good. Every tale presented in these pages is, at the worst, good, at their best, absolutely bloody fantastic. Characters we meet briefly linger with you, and the way Snyder weaves the plots makes them all intriguing in their own unique ways. Some are warm and heart-breaking; others send a definite chill down your spine.
Snyder nicely balances horror with humour and emotion. It’s hard not to feel the tug of the heartstrings as a teenage girl finds herself in a spot of trouble in ‘Cosmic Cola’, and ‘The Toymaker’s Joy’ is a breath of funny fresh air towards the end of the collection. ‘A Preference for Silence’ is solid Sci-Fi Horror, and ‘What Dwells Within’ feels like it could be a long-running Urban Fantasy series. ‘The Tingling Madness’ is Cosmic Horror with strong nods to writer Chuck Tingle, and it was a really excellent end to the collection.
Halloween Season covers a wide range of story ideas and themes, but all are well written and engaging, doing exactly what a single author collection should do – make you want to read more from that author. The balance of stories is handled well, too, giving some nice lighter and funnier moments among the darker tales.
This is the kind of book I’d return to in the future, and I can easily imagine picking it up and reading at least one story during autumn in years to come. One thing that struck me was the amount of Cosmic Horror in this collection, and it shows Snyder has a really good handle on that subgenre. If you enjoy stories about Elder Gods, demons, cheeky elves, grief, love, and everything in-between, this is definitely a collection I recommend.
Grade: A
Review by Elle Turpitt
@elleturpitt
I received a paperback from the publisher Raw Dog Screaming Press for review consideration.