A Pumpkins’ Halloween is a wonderful tale that embodies all the right attributes that sum up the spirit of the holiday of Halloween. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, maniacs, witches, and talking jack-o-lanterns all take turns playing different roles in this multi-storied novella. A Pumpkin’s Halloween brings to you everything you remember that was fun about Halloween along with a good dose of dark humor, while at the same time scaring and sickening you with its real-life tales of depravity.
A Pumpkins’ Halloween follows the story telling of five jack-o-lanterns as they come to life on Halloween evening. As the jack-o-lanterns banter back and forth while giving each other grief, they find themselves forced to look out on the street because, after all, they’re stationary, they’re pumpkins. As Halloween progresses, each jack-o-lantern takes turns telling a story in celebration of the holiday and one will ultimately be judged the winner at night’s end. However, there is a stipulation. Each story has to be about the trick-or-treaters that the jack-o-lanterns watch passing them by as they go about in search of candy. Also, each story gets to be picked by one of the other jack-o-lanterns for added difficulty.
The stories the jack-o-lanterns tell focus on such taboo subjects as a father who is not very good at being one, a little boy who likes to play with matches, a woman who doesn’t enjoy the company of children, not even her own, and a psycho killer who likes to target trick-or-treaters for his murderous games.
[Warning: A Pumpkins’ Halloween is NOT a children’s story]
"It is probably not dark enough for horror fans, there's not much new here for dark fiction lovers, and it is definitely not suitable for children.
"
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
Every year the pumpkins come to life, taken over by the same spirits who came back to the same old couple's house every year. To pass the time they tell scary stories to each other. Here are this year's.
This book is definitely not a children's story. The first pumpkin's tale contains pedophilia and incest, in the form of a father abusing his daughter, and is not particularly kind to BDSM participants (apparent they are heavily into non-con). The stories are closer to revenge tales than creepy: each of the victims has it coming which does detract from the horror a bit e.g. someone who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time being eaten alive by spiders is horrifying. When an animal abuser gets it, it is justice. The end of the main novella is actually scarier, answers questions you didn't realise the story had raised.
The cover, the reason I picked it up, is very good and the internal presentation and layout is OK. There is one formatting issue that is sometimes irritating. It goes straight from the pumpkins talking to each other into the scary stories they are telling. A break or even a short title to space the stories out would have made it easier to follow, although as the main novella breaks into them repeatedly it would be difficult to manage.
The problem is that it may have trouble finding an audience. It is probably not dark enough for horror fans, there's not much new here for dark fiction lovers, and it is definitely not suitable for children.
Well, even if you say it may not be dark enough, I think that the title is enough to draw me in here. I did get a good laugh when I thought myself "hey, at least it's not suitable for children", but I guess that is just how my mind works these days when it comes to choosing stories. I think it sounds like a good take on a particularly awesome holiday, so I am in. Thanks for shairng.
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