October Nights: Thirty One Tales For The Halloween Season

by Kevin Lake, Truman Jackson (Editor)

With the publishing of ‘October Nights,’ a great void has been filled. Sure, we all loved creepy Halloween stories like ‘The Tale Of The Golden Arm’ and the short story collections such as ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark,’ when we were kids, but once we reached the age of majority, collections such as these, written on an adult level, simply did not exist. Until now!Acclaimed author Kevin E Lake has filled this void that’s existed for far too long. With ‘October Nights,’ Lake gives us, as adults, thirty one original spine tingling tales that will give us that feeling one only gets in October, when the leaves have changed, and jack o'lanterns begin popping up on porches and in yards all across America, and when the summer’s heat has exited the room and the crisp, fall air has taken its place. That magical feeling that makes us believe that there may be something out there in the dark that we cannot see. Perhaps our old houses in which people have passed on to the other side, whether we are aware of it or not, really are haunted. All those things we hear going bump in the night might not simply be the roof cooling off from the day’s heat, and popping, or the old wooden frames adjusting and settling with age. ‘October Nights’ provides us with one well written, terrifying tale for each night of the month of October. The only challenge the book presents is in the fact that its readers may not be able to help themselves to just one tale each night, rather, they may find themselves being far too tempted to blow through the entire work in one setting, because ‘October Nights’ is just that damn good! Just as Charles Dickens will always be remembered as the man who invented Christmas, due to his classic tale ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Kevin E Lake, with the publishing of ‘October Nights,’ will forever be remembered as the man who invented Halloween.

336 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2020

Reviews

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every so often...a book comes along that you enjoyed reading so much - you want to tell everyone about it.....

This is NOT that book.

According to the blurb on the back of this book, the author, Kevin Lake, is an award winning author - if that is indeed the case.....then that bar is set awfully low....

I assume "October" was either privately published or POD, as there was no publishing information to be found. The first thing I noticed was the book had no page numbers - who publishes a book with no page numbers? But ok....Truman Jackson, who was responsible for editing this tome...must have done editing in his sleep, as I found several typos/misspellings in the book..cuty for cutie, etc.

As for the stories themselves...the less said the better.....Lake pounded away on several themes across these stories, among them his time in service, living in the Philippines with his wife and son, returning to the United States and becoming a writer, being an empath, his ability to see supernatural creatures, etc. Not a single story was frightening, and contained so much extraneous material - the story itself was lost.....

Read this one at your own peril....the last line of text asks that if you enjoyed reading this book, to consider reading other works by Lake - something I am unwilling to do.....

[Stephanie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all I want to divulge right up front that I've been an avid, faithful fan of Kevin's YouTube channel since he started it and have wanted to read this book for awhile now.
For me the book didn't disappoint, but I'm not sure what other's perceptions of it might be. If someone hasn't had the experience of hearing Kevin's voice and personality they'd be missing a key element that IMHO could factor in to a person's enjoyment of these 31 tales.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not really about Halloween. It is mostly someone's biography and their opinions. There were a couple of stories that were as advertised.

[Lauren Hotchkiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I’ve ever read, Containing 31 yawning tails that have little or nothing to do with Halloween. Don’t waste your money.

[LAURIE BOYKEN RILEY · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love how this author puts together all these short stories. It really is the best read for the month of October. I can not wait to read more from this author. He is really going places!

[Christopher Pate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads more like a set of internet haunting posts that truly riveting and scary tales

[Betty Bagwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story for each night of October

I really enjoyed these stories, though I don't know what some of them had to do with Halloween. Still some pretty good storytelling.