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Book Review: Samhain Screams edited by Greg Chapman and Cameron Trost

cover art for Samhain Screams edited by Greg Chapman and Cameron Trost

Samhain Screams edited by Greg Chapman and Cameron Trost

Black Beacon Books, 2025

ISBN: 978-0-9756118-2-1

Available: Kindle edition (pre-order release October 17, 2025)

Buy: Amazon.com

 

Samhain Screams is an anthology of Halloween and Samhain-inspired stories, focusing on the creepy and terrifying rather than the superficial aspects of this spooky time of year. Editor Greg Chapman, an Australian, brings a perspective distinct from the typical American experience of the season. It’s a strong collection, with plenty of hits and very few misses. Many of the authors have created atmosphere and suspense that will hook the reader and keep them on the line.

 

Favorite stories include Mia Dalia’s “The Last Pumpkin”, in which a horror writer encounters his biggest fan; DJ Tyrer’s “The Knock”, in which a mystery knocking in the narrator’s apartment building leads to disappearances; Matthew R. Davis’ “Hauntology”, which reveals the secrets of a shopping mall; Hannah Baxter’s outstanding ” The October Shadows”, in which a film studies student is taken over by an obsession with a 1922 horror movie that caused a disturbing riot at its only showing; Kevin M. Folliard’s “Vengeance of Halloween”, an entertaining nightmare about monsters going corporate and planning to take over the world in an ‘eternal October’;  Brian Moreland’s “Sweet Tooth”, in which Helen’s obsession with candy saves her from a serial killer; and C.E. O’ Conaing’s “The Hollows”, where three kids trick-or-treating in a newly-built development have a terrifying experience. The point of view character in this story was in a wheelchair, and her character development was great. The last story in the collection, S.B. Watson’s “The Day You Die’, won me over. I was glad I hadn’t skipped through to the end– it was a perfect “last bite”. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on October 8, 2025 by , Reply

A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters by Eric J. Guignard

Cover art for A Graveside Gallery by Eric J. Guignard

A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters by Eric J. Guignard

Cemetery Dance, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949491616

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

For those who love short stories of the darker kind, Eric J. Guignard should be a household name. Not only has he written some of the finest, and most varied, stories in the past decade, but he also is at the helm for the popular Horror Library and the Exploring Dark Short Fiction series, working diligently to promote the best of modern horror writers. His skill in creating atmosphere and quirky characters is in the top tier of horror writers working today, but his stories are not bound by genre. A Graveside Gallery epitomizes that scope and demonstrates the breadth of Guignard’s talent.

 

These stories are a rollercoaster ride of tone, voice, and overall storytelling, many with notes of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, not to mention the “you are there” feeling of Joe R. Lansdale.

 

The highlights for this reviewer, which changed upon a second read-through:

 

“Penny’s Diner” is a gut punch that sets the stage for the rest of the collection. It is reminiscent of Richard Matheson’s work, and winds up quietly before a sucker punch takes the breath out of the reader. The less known about this tale, the better.

 

“If I Drive Before I Wake” is much too timely. I’m sure there’s a certain tech mogul who won’t much appreciate this tale of automated vehicles and their dangers, but it’s more than a cautionary tale. It’s chilling in its near-future worldview, with a nerve-wracking conclusion.

 

“Bummin’ to the Beat of The Road” suggests Black Mirror, and is a mind f*ck in its imagery. Readers’ teeth will never feel the same in this sensory-driven horror.

 

“Perchance to Dream in Voices of a Fiend: A Fanciful Epilogue to Frankenstein.” Wow. An homage to the great Mary Shelley and her creation. The author finely captures her voice while retaining his own in an epilogue to the famous novel.

 

The others are well worth the read, although mileage obviously will vary. There’s one story within that will remain unnamed, that lingered through the evening and caused a nightmare. For those of us who live and breathe horror, reading and creating it, that’s a pretty tough task to achieve! 

 

Read a few, let them digest, and read some more. Each is its own complete universe of story and emotion, and to delve deeper into the individual tales would disturb the potent magic.

 

Guignard is a powerful force in writing. It’s about time more people know. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on September 8, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due

The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due

Akashic Books, 2024

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1636141794

Available: Paperback, hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy:  Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

The Wishing Pool is a brilliant collection of of horror and Afrofuturistic short stories centering Black characters, Tananarive Due’s first short story collection since Ghost Summer. While it’s mostly reprints, there are a few stories that only appear here, and the majority of readers will find plenty of work new to them.

 

The collection is divided into four sections: “Wishes”, “The Gracetown Stories”, “The Nayima Stories”, and “Future Shock”.

 

“Wishes” includes “The Wishing Pool”, a heartbreaking story in which Joy, desperate to restore her father from his dementia, makes a wish on the wishing pool, despite knowing it might have unpleasant consequences,  “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”, which won the World Fantasy Award, and “Dancing”, in which  Monique, her recently deceased grandmother’s caretaker, is forced to dance to death after internalizing her thwarted dream to become a ballerina, among its six tales.

 

“The Gracetown Stories” includes five stories, all involving individuals from the fictional Gracetown, Florida, where racism, Florida weirdness, and the supernatural combine. Gracetown first appears in Ghost Summer, and the Gracetown School for Boys is the setting for Due’s Stoker-winning novel The Reformatory. Due does a great job creating an atmospheric Florida setting, laced with terror. in “Last Stop on Route 9”, Charlotte and her 12 year old cousin Kai drive out of a mysterious fog and pull over to a gas station to ask for directions… which could be the last thing they ever do. “Rumpus Room” follows a single mother who has lost custody of her daughter after she takes a job working as  housekeeper, living in an unattached “rumpus room” that used to belong to her employer’s deceased daughter. There’s something disturbingly wrong about the room, though… Due does a great job creating an environment of uncertainty, dread, and panic.

 

“The Nayima Stories”  are a pair of stories that follow Nayima, immune but a carrier of a plague that has caused mass deaths. “One Day Only” takes place during the plague, with survivors staking their places in an abandoned Malibu until they’re forcibly moved, taking a moment to come together. “Attachment Disorder” takes place after a vaccine has been discovered…. but that hasn’t made things easier for carriers. Due’s world-building is fantastic- you really feel like you are inhabiting Nayima’s world.  “Future Shock” contains three additional plague and post-plague stories, unrelated to Nayima’s world, taking place in the future. “The Biographer” is a disorienting story about Olivia, an elderly screenwriter whose prescient movie about a global plague made her famous, who has been assigned a very strange Biographer to tell her life story.

 

Short story collections usually have misses as well as hits. The Wishing Pool is the rare collection where every story is outstanding, Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on September 20, 2024 by , Reply
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