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Halloween Party
Sam Genetti has the perfect life--good grades, popularity, and a football star boyfriend--but now a mysterious and deadly stalker is threatening to take everything away. Reissue.
204 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
1 person is currently reading
312 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Corsi Staub
81 books1,895 followersNew York Times bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub is the award-winning author of more than ninety novels, best known for the single title psychological suspense novels she writes under her own name. Those books and the women’s fiction written under the pseudonym Wendy Markham have also appeared on the USA Today, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookscan bestseller lists.
Her current standalone suspense novel, THE OTHER FAMILY, is about a picture-perfect family that that moves into a picture-perfect house. But not everything is as it seems, and the page-turner concludes “with a wallop of a twist,” according to #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben.
Her critically acclaimed Lily Dale traditional mystery series centers around a widowed single mom—and skeptic—who moves to a town populated by spiritualists who talk to the dead. Titles include NINE LIVES; SOMETHING BURIED, SOMETHING BLUE; DEAD OF WINTER; and PROSE AND CONS, with a fifth book under contract.
Wendy has written five suspense trilogies for HarperCollins/William Morrow. The most recent, The Foundlings (LITTLE GIRL LOST, DEAD SILENCE, and THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER), spans fifty years in the life of a woman left as a newborn in a Harlem church, now an investigative genealogist helping others uncover their biological roots while still searching for her own.
Written as Wendy Markham, Wendy’s novel HELLO, IT’S ME was a recent Hallmark television movie starring Kellie Martin. Her short story “Cat Got Your Tongue” appeared in R.L. Stine’s MWA middle grade anthology SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN and her short story “The Elephant in the Room” is included in the Anthony Award-nominated inaugural anthology SHATTERING GLASS.
A three-time finalist for the Simon and Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award, she’s won an RWA Rita Award, an RT Award for Career Achievement in Suspense, the 2007 RWA-NYC Golden Apple Award for Lifetime Achievement, and five WLA Washington Irving Prizes for Fiction.
She previously published a dozen adult suspense novels with Kensington Books and the critically-acclaimed young adult paranormal series “Lily Dale” (Walker/Bloomsbury). Earlier in her career, she published a broad range of genres under her own name and pseudonyms, and was a co-author/ghostwriter for several celebrities.
Raised in Dunkirk, NY, Wendy graduated from SUNY Fredonia and launched a publishing career in New York City. She was Associate Editor at Silhouette Books before selling her first novel in 1992. Married with two sons, she lives in the NYC suburbs. An active supporter of the American Cancer Society, she was a featured speaker at Northern Westchester’s 2015 Relay for Life and 2012 National Spokesperson for the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation. She has fostered for various animal rescue organizations.
Her current standalone suspense novel, THE OTHER FAMILY, is about a picture-perfect family that that moves into a picture-perfect house. But not everything is as it seems, and the page-turner concludes “with a wallop of a twist,” according to #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben.
Her critically acclaimed Lily Dale traditional mystery series centers around a widowed single mom—and skeptic—who moves to a town populated by spiritualists who talk to the dead. Titles include NINE LIVES; SOMETHING BURIED, SOMETHING BLUE; DEAD OF WINTER; and PROSE AND CONS, with a fifth book under contract.
Wendy has written five suspense trilogies for HarperCollins/William Morrow. The most recent, The Foundlings (LITTLE GIRL LOST, DEAD SILENCE, and THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER), spans fifty years in the life of a woman left as a newborn in a Harlem church, now an investigative genealogist helping others uncover their biological roots while still searching for her own.
Written as Wendy Markham, Wendy’s novel HELLO, IT’S ME was a recent Hallmark television movie starring Kellie Martin. Her short story “Cat Got Your Tongue” appeared in R.L. Stine’s MWA middle grade anthology SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN and her short story “The Elephant in the Room” is included in the Anthony Award-nominated inaugural anthology SHATTERING GLASS.
A three-time finalist for the Simon and Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award, she’s won an RWA Rita Award, an RT Award for Career Achievement in Suspense, the 2007 RWA-NYC Golden Apple Award for Lifetime Achievement, and five WLA Washington Irving Prizes for Fiction.
She previously published a dozen adult suspense novels with Kensington Books and the critically-acclaimed young adult paranormal series “Lily Dale” (Walker/Bloomsbury). Earlier in her career, she published a broad range of genres under her own name and pseudonyms, and was a co-author/ghostwriter for several celebrities.
Raised in Dunkirk, NY, Wendy graduated from SUNY Fredonia and launched a publishing career in New York City. She was Associate Editor at Silhouette Books before selling her first novel in 1992. Married with two sons, she lives in the NYC suburbs. An active supporter of the American Cancer Society, she was a featured speaker at Northern Westchester’s 2015 Relay for Life and 2012 National Spokesperson for the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation. She has fostered for various animal rescue organizations.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 31, 2025
This one has been on my TBR list for quite some time, but I was having no luck finding it until it appeared on Paperback Paradise! I snatched it up and couldn't wait to dive into it as the ultimate Halloween read for 2025.
The titular party doesn't really happen until the end of the book, but it also serves as not just a costume party but a birthday party for our main character, Samantha Genetti.
The back of the book is very misleading to what actually happens in the story. It sounds like a male antagonist stalking Sam and doing a slasher routine, but the story is far more complex and sinister.
Sam is in her senior year, and she has been dating football player Wyatt Moran for four months. She used to go to parochial school but has since been going to the public high school after asking her very strict father, Leo, for the chance. Ever since her mother left when she was a toddler, Leo Genetti has raised his daughter but had help from his own mother until recently.
Sam has her two best friends at school, Jamie and Luanne, and her childhood friend, Gus. They both had to be raised by single dads, but Gus' mother died in childbirth after having him and didn't just up and leave. Gus also grew up with five older brothers and Sam is an only child but also Sam envies that Gus' father at least seems to show him affection.
At school, Sam starts to get threatening notes in her locker. At first, she thinks it is merely Wyatt's ex-girlfriend, Pippa, tormenting her since they broke up right before Wyatt fell for Sam. Pippa's two best friends, Alyssa and Brittany, are only nice to Sam when Wyatt is around. Wyatt is actually a very nice guy with just a bad circle of friends so think kind of Steve Harrington from Stranger Things.
The notes are soon accompanied by phone calls with someone breathing on the other end of the line and Sam feels as if someone is following her every move. The person following her is very clearly identified as female as we get a few things from her perspective and the endgame is to kill Sam for very unhinged reasons.
During the halfway point of the book, the plot completely shifts when things are revealed about Samantha's past. That is when the drama moves from being hassled by the popular girls and Samantha worrying about just how far she will go with Wyatt while someone is threatening her life.
It changes everything that Sam knew and the only person she ends up confessing the truth to is Gus and not Wyatt or her best friends at school. The dynamic between Sam and her father even changes as we draw closer to the party.
We get the reveal towards the end of the book of just who and why is behind all of this happening to Sam. It is actually very creepy and effectively crazy, but it leads us to a very satisfying conclusion.
You can relate to Sam when her world starts to unravel and her mood changes while everyone around her just seems to act as if nothing happened. The only ones that seem to show actual concern are Gus and Wyatt, so it is kind of nice to have male characters that are teenage boys who don't act like jerks.
Halloween Party is more thriller than horror, but it has just the right amount of the more psychological aspect than a gory slasher. If that is more your taste than this book would make the perfect treat for your own night of fright.
Happy Halloween!
The titular party doesn't really happen until the end of the book, but it also serves as not just a costume party but a birthday party for our main character, Samantha Genetti.
The back of the book is very misleading to what actually happens in the story. It sounds like a male antagonist stalking Sam and doing a slasher routine, but the story is far more complex and sinister.
Sam is in her senior year, and she has been dating football player Wyatt Moran for four months. She used to go to parochial school but has since been going to the public high school after asking her very strict father, Leo, for the chance. Ever since her mother left when she was a toddler, Leo Genetti has raised his daughter but had help from his own mother until recently.
Sam has her two best friends at school, Jamie and Luanne, and her childhood friend, Gus. They both had to be raised by single dads, but Gus' mother died in childbirth after having him and didn't just up and leave. Gus also grew up with five older brothers and Sam is an only child but also Sam envies that Gus' father at least seems to show him affection.
At school, Sam starts to get threatening notes in her locker. At first, she thinks it is merely Wyatt's ex-girlfriend, Pippa, tormenting her since they broke up right before Wyatt fell for Sam. Pippa's two best friends, Alyssa and Brittany, are only nice to Sam when Wyatt is around. Wyatt is actually a very nice guy with just a bad circle of friends so think kind of Steve Harrington from Stranger Things.
The notes are soon accompanied by phone calls with someone breathing on the other end of the line and Sam feels as if someone is following her every move. The person following her is very clearly identified as female as we get a few things from her perspective and the endgame is to kill Sam for very unhinged reasons.
During the halfway point of the book, the plot completely shifts when things are revealed about Samantha's past. That is when the drama moves from being hassled by the popular girls and Samantha worrying about just how far she will go with Wyatt while someone is threatening her life.
It changes everything that Sam knew and the only person she ends up confessing the truth to is Gus and not Wyatt or her best friends at school. The dynamic between Sam and her father even changes as we draw closer to the party.
We get the reveal towards the end of the book of just who and why is behind all of this happening to Sam. It is actually very creepy and effectively crazy, but it leads us to a very satisfying conclusion.
You can relate to Sam when her world starts to unravel and her mood changes while everyone around her just seems to act as if nothing happened. The only ones that seem to show actual concern are Gus and Wyatt, so it is kind of nice to have male characters that are teenage boys who don't act like jerks.
Halloween Party is more thriller than horror, but it has just the right amount of the more psychological aspect than a gory slasher. If that is more your taste than this book would make the perfect treat for your own night of fright.
Happy Halloween!
November 14, 2024
An edgier YA that needs more HALLOWEEN! The only Halloweeny aspects is JUST the one party at the end 🤣
Random thoughts here:
- Love that Fatal Attraction and Single White Female are both mentioned!
- For the HALLOWEEN PARTY, our protag's friends are going as Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Sooo very 90's 😆
- Our protag reads Sassy, which makes her ultra cool 😎
-The reveal should have been easy to guess but not for me because I am dum 🙃
**Trigger warning for a scene of assault that was brief but mildly graphic for a YA. Could've done without it.
Random thoughts here:
- Love that Fatal Attraction and Single White Female are both mentioned!
- For the HALLOWEEN PARTY, our protag's friends are going as Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Sooo very 90's 😆
- Our protag reads Sassy, which makes her ultra cool 😎
-The reveal should have been easy to guess but not for me because I am dum 🙃
**Trigger warning for a scene of assault that was brief but mildly graphic for a YA. Could've done without it.
September 20, 2021
Not really Halloween-y feeling. Could’ve been set any time of year. More of a domestic thriller with some satanic panic.
October 31, 2021
Samantha Genetti's 17th birthday is coming up, and it's on the same day as Halloween. She has a great boyfriend in football player Wyatt Moran. But life isn't always perfect. Wyatt is a popular kid, and Sam's not, so she doesn't really fit in with Wyatt's friends. His ex and cohorts are downright mean. Her father Leo is distant and strict, and has been ever since her mother abandoned them when Samantha was two. And life starts getting tougher for Sam - hang-up phone calls, threatening notes in the lead-up to Halloween. Who's out to get her and why?
Based on this and Summer Lightning by Wendy Corsi Staub, I'm surprised she wasn't a bigger name in YA horror/thriller fiction. Once again, this is confidently written and well-plotted. Without wanting to give away too much, if you're expecting the typical killer-does-it-all-over-a-boy type quickie thriller the genre is well-known for, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Halloween Party touches on many themes in its pages. The burgeoning sexuality of teenage females. The struggle to connect between teen girl and solo father. Body shame. This sort of complexity keeps the book interesting even when it's a bit of a slow burn. I was surprised by where the plot went, and it must be said (perhaps warned) that is much more adult and darker than most of the 90s YA thriller fare at the time.
Like Summer Lightning, this spent a bit too much time on its protagonist behaving like a brat, which tends to drag the pacing down. The notes and phone calls that Sam receives also aren't much to write home about, leaving us to wait a bit impatiently for the Halloween showdown the antagonist keeps promising us. But getting there is interesting. And dark.
Based on this and Summer Lightning by Wendy Corsi Staub, I'm surprised she wasn't a bigger name in YA horror/thriller fiction. Once again, this is confidently written and well-plotted. Without wanting to give away too much, if you're expecting the typical killer-does-it-all-over-a-boy type quickie thriller the genre is well-known for, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Halloween Party touches on many themes in its pages. The burgeoning sexuality of teenage females. The struggle to connect between teen girl and solo father. Body shame. This sort of complexity keeps the book interesting even when it's a bit of a slow burn. I was surprised by where the plot went, and it must be said (perhaps warned) that is much more adult and darker than most of the 90s YA thriller fare at the time.
Like Summer Lightning, this spent a bit too much time on its protagonist behaving like a brat, which tends to drag the pacing down. The notes and phone calls that Sam receives also aren't much to write home about, leaving us to wait a bit impatiently for the Halloween showdown the antagonist keeps promising us. But getting there is interesting. And dark.
November 10, 2015
This is a teen book, and I am no longer a teenager, so I'm trying to not be too harsh on this, but it's not very good. I used to read books like this when I was in high school, and I loved them. They just don't stand up to today's "Young Adult" books that are written as well as regular fiction. The main character is being threatened, harassed, and injured, and the only person she begrudgingly tells is her friend. Not her boyfriend, or her dad, or the cops. Someone breaks into her house, and she doesn't call the cops. She's just stupid. I liked the twist ending, though. It wasn't who I was expecting.
November 9, 2025
This YA offering promises Halloween fun in the form of stalking and leaving threatening (but perfume-laden!) calling cards for one poor Sam Gennetti who certainly appears to carry depression fueled by a distant father with his own sad past that ultimately shapes the difficult relationship he has with his daughter.
Meanwhile, Sam is dating one of the cutest guys in high school (Wyatt), but has to defend herself against his bullying ex-girlfriend and her Mean Girls squad. Hidden nasty notes found in places where Sam knows to look have her believing someone wants to hurt her in the days leading up to a Halloween-turned-birthday-party hosted by said mean girls.
Fatal Attraction and Single White Female get shout-outs. The mystery and scares were fine, nothing groundbreaking. Sam’s inner monologue wore out its welcome midway through the book largely because the story took place over an entire week leading up to Halloween, which required a constant recap of the previous events for every new day. Ya know, just in case we’d forget from just pages earlier.
The relationship between Sam and Leo, her father, was interesting to follow as you suspected Leo of something, anything. He was shady, but a gentle bearish dad by nature. Suspicions also mount for her awkward and chubby best friend Gus and too-handsome boyfriend Wyatt (who’s charm walks a fine line with sexual harassment). At one point, I had begun to wonder if Sam was dealing with a deranged, gender-bending killer like the film Dressed to Kill.
Speaking of such adult fare - this young adult story leans into an uncomfortably dark revelation that I found very surprising for a book where TONS of suspicious activity occurs but no one ever gets hurt or killed. Only Sam is threatened the entire time, making this feel smaller and more confined than the book should’ve been.
Typing that literally reminded me of Carol Ellis’ obnoxious YA thriller Camp Fear which was a ridiculous sea of stupid red herrings and annoying kids just freaking the hell out over the smallest thing.
Anyway - the payoff here was just alright - perhaps even too safe. Major resolutions between Sam and everyone, but this one played out like a slow-paced 90s psychological thriller through the context of a crazy afterschool special about questionable parents.
Meanwhile, Sam is dating one of the cutest guys in high school (Wyatt), but has to defend herself against his bullying ex-girlfriend and her Mean Girls squad. Hidden nasty notes found in places where Sam knows to look have her believing someone wants to hurt her in the days leading up to a Halloween-turned-birthday-party hosted by said mean girls.
Fatal Attraction and Single White Female get shout-outs. The mystery and scares were fine, nothing groundbreaking. Sam’s inner monologue wore out its welcome midway through the book largely because the story took place over an entire week leading up to Halloween, which required a constant recap of the previous events for every new day. Ya know, just in case we’d forget from just pages earlier.
The relationship between Sam and Leo, her father, was interesting to follow as you suspected Leo of something, anything. He was shady, but a gentle bearish dad by nature. Suspicions also mount for her awkward and chubby best friend Gus and too-handsome boyfriend Wyatt (who’s charm walks a fine line with sexual harassment). At one point, I had begun to wonder if Sam was dealing with a deranged, gender-bending killer like the film Dressed to Kill.
Speaking of such adult fare - this young adult story leans into an uncomfortably dark revelation that I found very surprising for a book where TONS of suspicious activity occurs but no one ever gets hurt or killed. Only Sam is threatened the entire time, making this feel smaller and more confined than the book should’ve been.
Typing that literally reminded me of Carol Ellis’ obnoxious YA thriller Camp Fear which was a ridiculous sea of stupid red herrings and annoying kids just freaking the hell out over the smallest thing.
Anyway - the payoff here was just alright - perhaps even too safe. Major resolutions between Sam and everyone, but this one played out like a slow-paced 90s psychological thriller through the context of a crazy afterschool special about questionable parents.
October 17, 2024
This book was so fun. I’ve noticed reviews can be harsh for the “dated” themes. This is funny to me given the fact that, well, it was written in the 90s. What did you expect? Don’t read these books if you don’t find those themes nostalgic. For me, it actually subverted some of the typical tropes common to 90s teen fiction and had a surprising amount of depth. Not overly Halloweeny but I really enjoyed it!
October 12, 2022
What I expected to be a basic teen whodunit gradually turned into a dark and depressing psycho-thriller. Not the most Halloweeny of reads, though. The characters are barely at the titular party as well before the book ends.
May 12, 2025
I'd actually give this book 3-1/2 stars. It was actually good for a YA story. I personally wouldn't classify it as horror. I've read other books by this author, but this is an earlier book from 1994.
February 16, 2015
Read this book YEARS ago when I was in grade school. I read it so much the pages started falling out! I fell in love with this story and could not let it go. Perhaps it's the nostalgia getting to me. Nevertheless, it has irrevocably become one of my all-time favorites. It's got horror and mystery but is not so "mature" or scary that I wouldn't recommend it for kids. In fact, I'd probably say the best age group would be 12-15 years.
October 6, 2010
This was another disappointment. The ending was yet again the best part!
March 24, 2014
AC doesn't come to the point. goes around the bush. bit annoying. monotonous style of story telling.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews