2 Following
FrancesKR

FrancesKR

Currently reading

Near + Far
Cat Rambo
Amigurumi Knits: Patterns for 20 Cute Mini Knits
Hansi Singh
Metro 2033
Dmitry Glukhovsky
Southern Gods
John Hornor Jacobs
Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural
Robert Louis Stevenson, Orson Scott Card, Jack London, Tanith Lee, Walt Whitman, Guy de Maupassant, Isaac Asimov, Ivan Turgenev, Johann Ludwig Tieck, Marvin Kaye, John Dickson Carr, Bram Stoker, Tennessee Williams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Richard Matheson, Johann Wolfgang
Howdunit Forensics
Garnethill
Denise Mina
The Autopsy and Other Tales
Michael Shea, Laird Barron
Alice Hearts Welsh Zombies
Victoria Dunn
Blood & Water
Hayden Trenholm, Camille Alexa, Claude Lalumière, Derryl Murphy, M.L.D. Curelas, Kevin Cockle, Douglas Smith, Jean-Louis Trudel, Julie E. Czerneda

Johnny Halloween: Tales of the Dark Season

Johnny Halloween: Tales of the Dark Season - Norman Partridge Perhaps oddly, I liked the one of the two straight-up non-supernatural stories in this collection the best. "Johnny Halloween" is something I'd expect to run across in a decent noir anthology.

"The Man Who Killed Halloween" was well-done; it didn't fit with what I was expecting from the book (non-fiction!), but it's a decent and evocative piece. Together with Partridge's introduction, it provides a thoughtful basis for the contrast between Ricks and the October Boy.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, this may be why "Three Doors" and "Treats" (which I've read before, along with "Black Leather Kites") didn't stand out for me quite as much, although they're both good stories and would normally be the kind of thing I'd expect to be my favourites. The trio of Hallowe'en/Jack o'Lantern-titled pieces echo each other on the question of masks, and real monsters, and the deceit that lets the latter go unpunished, and their supporting each other makes them stand out above the rest.