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.