Dark Halloween: Holiday Flash Fiction Anthology by Eleanor Merry

Dark Halloween: Holiday Flash Fiction Anthology Reviews

• 
  Jamie Zaccaria

  My short story "The Jack-O-Lantern Face" is included in this massive anthology of Halloween themed flash fiction. Some are admittedly much better than others and some of my favorites include: "Grab Bag," "Jack-o-Lanterns," "The Women in the Window," "The Stone House," "Costume," "Hanging Up The Light," "No Treats Tonight," "The Blood Harvest," and "A Halloween of Old."
• 
  Elyse T.

  There's something addictive about delving into a flash fiction anthology. You start with one, and then you think, "oh what the heck, it's only 1-3 pages per story, one more couldn't hurt", and next thing you know it's 2am. I loved the premise of this collection, dark horror flash fiction with the theme of Halloween is right up my alley. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by this anthology in particular, though many of the stories were fantastic, it could have been much better!
  Firstly, many of the authors didn't seem to really get flash fiction as a medium, and were trying to cram concepts and ideas better suited for full short stories, or even novellas, into a prescribed word count. My favorite pieces were the ones who kept their scope narrow.
  I realize most of these were written individually without collaboration, but many of the flashes had repetitive content. I read many a version of some sort of mad person turning human heads into jack-o-lanterns, of trick-or-treater sheet wearing ghosts being actually monsters, and of school bullies getting supernaturally punished. I really praise the authors who went for originality, they were few.
  The multi-part flashes were weirdly placed, difficult to follow, and presented so many convoluted characters that I started to skip them entirely.
  Lastly, the lack or poor editing for most of the pieces, there are many typos and grammatical errors which distract from the overall experience. I realize that for anthologies, editing is often left in the hands of authors, at the detriment of the whole. With horror especially, immersion is everything, and any reminder that what I am reading is just a book breaks the effect.
  I bit of rework on many of these pieces would have counted for much; many authors seemed to use a tell don't show approach, a bit lazy in my opinion, to make up for short word count. This made many of the stories feel a bit empty, matter-a-fact, and cheesy.
  
  I still recommend you skim through for these, which I did personally enjoy:
  Pumpkin by David Green
  Sonwin by M. Ennenbach
  Divine Feast by Chisto Healy Cameron
  Late to the Party by John Cady
  Knives by Mark Cowling
  The Stone House by Melody E. McIntyre
  Home is Where the Heart Is by Todd Love
  Heart of Darkness by Randee Dawn
  Wandering Eyes by G.G. Flavell
  Samhain Moon by J. A. Skelton
  Halloween Forever by N. M. Brown
  A Halloween of Old by Rachael Boucker
  The Last Halloween by Lamont A. Turner
  Last Night of October by P.S. Traum
  Krampus Finds Halloween by Joshua E. Borgmann
• 
  Brenda Archambault

  I have read all of the books this fantastic group puts out. I have not been a fan of horror type stories, it this is anthology of short stories, by many different authors, a hundred fifty words or less. So you know they are good. This one I was able to read at night, several of the others in the series for me are middle of the afternoon.
  I do like the idea of Jack O Lanterns getting their revenge. Vampires and Zombies are such fun, Read them all can get on Kendal or hard copies on Amazon.
• 
  Todd Love

  So many great authors. Great for a dark Halloween Night.