The latest anthology edited by the prolific Ellen Datlow is a mixed bag of short stories looking to ease us into the spooky season.
As Datlow states in the opening, the themes of the stories aren’t just plucked from Halloween itself but also some of the themes that harken back to its Pagan roots.
In all honesty, it’s a real mixed bag, with quite a few of the stories not really capturing any of the Halloween vibes and feeling more like they could appear in any horror anthology.
The highlights include Rich Larson’s Good Kids, which takes a Halloween sleepover to some genuinely creepy places, while Lee Murray’s On the Path, Bleeding is a fine folk horror tale.
Clay McLeod Chapman’s Treats paints a haunting tale of grief and we get a hint of Irish folklore with Siobhan Carroll’s The Hungry Grass.
Finally, Jeffrey Ford’s The Thinning of the Veil gives a stark warning about messing with the dead.
At just over 300 pages All Hallows Eve is a brisk read, it just a shame more of the stories won’t live long in the memory.
All Hallows Eve edited by Ellen Datlow is available now in various formats from Titan Books.
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