For this week’s Coffee and Contemplation segment, we’re discussing an anthology of short stories from different authors. Sixteen stories focused around our favorite holiday, Halloween. Some stories even incorporate aspects of Samhain, All Souls’ Day, Día de los Muertos, and Devil’s Night. These stories include a little of everything including vengeful ghosts, trick or treating, urban legends, and jack-o’-lanterns. This is the best collection of Halloween themed stories I’ve read. Each story is a different tale. Some are suspenseful and dark. A couple have a little humor. It’s a fun collection for any time of year.
I found one story to be anti-climactic, but the rest were wonderful. Many of the stories include traditions that are not associated with the commercial Halloween. What some might call the old ways. I appreciated that some stories included the other holidays that occur around the same time as Halloween such as Día de los Muertos. The anthology felt world encompassing with the tales set in different countries and the different traditions many have never heard of. This was one of my favorite books I read in 2019. This is not light, fun reading. Some of the stories deal with the real darkness living in the human soul.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, but it is not for children.
Spooky Spider Scale (How scary was the book?): 8/10 spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️
Overall rating: 5 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
James Pack 