Halloween 2023 Reading List

 In the vein of my Monthly Media Recap, here are the books I consumed this spooky season. Many of them are quick reads if you're looking to cram in a last minute story or two. I was pretty happy with what I knocked out this year. I started in September to give myself some extra time.

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The only non-horror story I read. Set in 1994, this is about a group of young teens that put together a horror haunt to save their local indie video rental store run by former 80s horror host Cassondra Dagger. If you're a fan of 80s kid adventure movies and horror, I give this a strong recommend.

These are both short reads that are pretty creepy. The puppet one is about a Sesame Street like TV show and will be a little extra weird if you grew up on that. The circus one, well, the title says it all. The author is planing on continuing the "I Found" horror series and I can't wait for the next one.

Shingles is a "not safe for kids" Goosebumps-style comedy horror series. In this one, 12 year old Jimmy's video game skills come in handy when the zombie apocalypse breaks out and he takes charge. This may not be for everyone, it reads like a 12 year old's wish fulfillment. And that's not a knock against the book, it's just if you can't get on board with the juvenile humor of it, you probably won't enjoy it.

Despite the odd cover composition and a handful of grammatical errors, typos, and even wrong words being used in some places, this was an entertaining 80s style slasher. It's intended to be a cheezy throwback and it's got all the elements: a small town with a local legend, the cop who survived an attack out for revenge, and a supernatural slasher racking up a body count.

This collection also includes the novella Halloween Land which I wish I had known before purchasing both. This is a pretty good collection of shorts all based around Halloween from different authors. Some were better than others but I didn't think there were any stinkers in the bunch.

 

 When a fiendish factory foreman is murdered in a sweatshop by the poor little children he torments, his spirit becomes mysteriously entwined with a batch of molten plastic and molded into decorative Halloween skeletons. Determined to return from the realm of the dead, the evil Factory King will stop at nothing to replace the bones of the living with his cheap plastic skeleton bones, and walk the earth once more, wearing their flesh suits as his own. Heh heh heh, ha ha ha!

I had to share the summary for this one because it's so off the wall. This is tied with the Puppet story above for my favorite read of the season. As freaky as the Puppet story is, this one is equally just bonkers goofy. I'd love to see this made into a short film or movie.

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