Kill Yer Pumpkins: a Halloween collection

by Judith Sonnet

Judith Sonnet presents KILL YER PUMPKINS! A collection of cozy, spooky, and bloody Halloween tales!
Four interconnected and never before published short stories await you.
Walk through a haunted corn maze... listen to a podcast take an unexpected turn when a Ouija board is brought in... and look out for a creepy pumpkin headed scarecrow while you walk through the woods!
Featuring characters named after your favorite indie horror authors, and loads of October charm, Kill Yer Pumpkins will be read best on All Hallows Eve, when the moon is full, and the dead are talking!

Genres: Horror, Halloween, Short Stories, Novella, Splatterpunk, Anthologies

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 24, 2022

About the author

Used to write extreme horror but now I write WEIRD horror and I'm having a blast with it! Check out OUR SARNATH on November 22nd!

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts with a Korn MaZe (Korn MaZe Massacre) where a very special Halloween party takes place. In the second story with connection to the first a Podcast Team (several authors of indie horror) meet up with the serial killer Otis Bateman via a Quija Board. Will he answer their question or does he have something else in mind? Remember the story is titled Podcast Murders... in the third story, the title story, Kill Yer Pumpkins you'll see Corrina, Brad and some living Halloween decoration. What is Corinna going to do and how is her ending? The author comes up with some great seasonal spookiness here and combines all the right motifs within her interwined tales. Really enjoyed them. Highly recommended!

[Daniel Volpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A blood- soaked collection of connected stories. A must read for horror fans

[Hail Hydra! ~Dave Anderson~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

One story from Fetid Festivities: Three Holiday Horror

[Anja Henriksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun read!
It's bloody and spooky, and with characters we know from the indie horror community, but with the reminiscence of the good ol' spooky Halloween or campfire stories. Love it! 🎃

[Mique Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun collection of Halloween shorts! They’re all interconnected (I won’t say how), and the book starts off strong, and has a really clever ending that ties everything together. It’s definitely more standard horror fare—not as dark and gruesome as her other books—but it’s still a really fun time! Recommended for readers looking to get a glimpse of extreme horror without going all the way & people who don’t want to engage with dark, bleak themes… as this is definitely one of her more *fun* books!

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Suffer for us! The ghost held his hands out by his sides. The separated jawbone dangled from his clawed fingers. Suffer for Samhain."

Don’t you just love Halloween? Every single season is spooky season for me. It never ends and that’s how I want it. This book lets us all relive Halloween over and over again with gore and vicious murder.

Ol’ Otis Bateman lives! Halloween night he comes back from the dead to feed the ground fresh blood from his victims. He won’t stop until the ground is saturated. Beware of the isolated farm…

This was a great short story collection. They were highly entertaining and very gory. All the stories interconnect and it made me enjoy this collection even more.

Kill Yer Pumpkins was an amazing collection and I can’t wait to read more by Judith. She is one crazy bitch and I love it.

"Happy Halloween, you little fucker!"

[DA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Watch out for Otis!

I loved this book so much! The way all the stories interconnected was something I didn't expect. Since I'm familiar with all of the characters it made me smile too, which is odd because this is a grusome collection. I think this might need a re-read every Halloween!

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just some good ol' Halloween fun!

[Rachel M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a lot of fun! While not as extreme as some of Judith’s other books it’s a great story. This is a collection of 4 short stories all connecting, following a serial killer “Otis” on Halloween. 🎃

[DAISY READS HORROR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much!! 🎃🖤 the right amount of gore and total Halloween vibes! I also loved how all of the stories meshed together. The creepy 🌽 mazes and scarecrows too!

[Alex | | findingmontauk1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first thing I've read from Judith Sonnet and it was so good! Based on other title reviews and the acknowledgements it is not as extreme as the rest of her work, but that just gave me time to really appreciate her writing style, storytelling, and creativity.

KILL YER PUMPKINS is a collection of four short stories that all weave together and connect. I did not have any expectations going in, but I certainly never would have expected the stories to all feed off each other in sequential type of way. That was cool! It is meta upon meta in a way that so many readers of the indie horror world will be LIVING for it all! Each story has other authors as the main characters and it was really a fun time seeing what they went through and all the grisly fates of them all.

I can't wait to read some more of her stuff and explore more of the more extreme works, but I am definitely glad that I read a "tamer" collection first for reasons I mentioned above. I can already tell she is going to be a new favorite!

KILL YER PUMPKINS is definitely a Halloween treat that we all needed. So thankful the author wanted to have fun and do something like this!

[Amy Noelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ Halloween slasher fun!

[Precious · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my this has got me in the Halloween spirit-full review to come 🎃

[Mandymorgue87 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, entertaining Halloween read! I typically don’t enjoy short story collections, but this one was so easy to read. The stories are quick and they’re all interconnected. There’s also a satisfying wrap around/conclusion, which is something a lot of anthologies struggle with. It’s not as dark or as extreme as other books by Judith Sonnett, but it’s still filled with violence and gore. It really got me in the Halloween mood and I highly recommend it for anyone looking to dip their toes in the extreme horror world.

[Jason Nickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Halloween themed story collection by Judith Sonnet? Hell yes! Really enjoyed this set of stories and loved the nods to other authors in the genre.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an adorable collection of gory, Halloween-themed shorts. Each is connected in one key way that I'd rather not spoil, but boy is this great for the menacing mischief I crave reading around this time of year. Sonnet's writing style is very straightforward yet a bit nostalgic of creepy campfire storytelling. The eponymous story from this collection is probably my favorite, but you should really read them in order to get the full experience.

If you like anthology horror and need something quick to read, you probably couldn't do much better.

(Just bring a pencil if you're as anal as I am about comma placement.)

For fans of: Trick R Treat (2007), The October Country by Ray Bradbury, Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede, Evil Sound Screamers by Acid Witch (LP, 2017)

[Brian Bowyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This One's a Treat!

A delicious gift from a maestro of horror to her fans for Halloween. The stories in this collection are a blast to read. Highly recommended!

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sonnet, the Queen of Extreme Horror, had been on my radar for a while but since I am not quite sure how I feel about Extreme Horror I decided to start with something lighter from her. Now I don't know if shot myself in the foot with that approach because while these stories were perfectly fine and fun they were lacking something for me. Maybe more punch? Maybe more development? All in all they were just fine, almost aggressively fine.

Of course, the seasonal vibes of this collection were another huge draw and I felt for that purpose this was great. You will go to a haunted attraction, witness a Horror podcast crew using a Ouija Board, be followed by creepy pumpkin-headed scarecrow and get the ultimate meta kick when in the final story the author herself makes an appearance writing these stories but with a lethal twist. These stories were spooky enough but far from terrifying, the concepts were often enjoyable but never went all that deep. The gore was very palatable, clearly something I was hoping for in that regard, nothing too wild, but at the same time I felt a bit underwhelmed. It was all a fine, fun way to pass the last hours before Halloween evening but it didn't exactly blow my ghost imprinted socks off. Yes, it got a bit gory but overall this almost felt sweet. Like bloody but make it cute and cozy. That's what I meant in the beginning, because of Sonnet's reputation I had higher expectation but at the same time I chose this to ease my way in, so who's to blame here?

There is also this gimmick where most of these characters are named after real life people, mostly Indie Horror authors. I see that a lot of fans love that aspect but for me that turned old very quickly, it felt too much like patting your community on the back without adding any substance and I say that as a blossoming fan of Indie Horror. It wasn't for me. The only moment where it worked and injected the story with more was the last tale, the appearance of the author herself, that I found quite clever. I also quite enjoyed that all these stories had the loose connection of fictional (?) serial killer Otis Bateman reappearing in some form.

So with all that, to me this was a seasonally charged escapade, I enjoyed Sonnet's writing enough to try something else, just have to figure out which one, and maybe learnt that I don't need to be too scared of Extreme Horror if this came off a bit tame (after all I think I know which triggers I want to avoid). It also reconfirmed that dolls coming to life in books is one of the least scary things to me.

For what it's worth, here is my ranking of the 4 stories:
1) Korn MaZe
2) Seasonal Spookiness
3) Written in Entrails
4) Kill Yer Pumpkins

[Ellen Schepers-Taal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐️

[Kalaya Stutesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun silly book :))

[Krk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked the titular story. The others were fun, but not really my thing.

[wormy ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

//rtc

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

“How meta can you get?” This was fun.

[Elton Skelter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wicked and wonderful meta halloween collection perfect for a nostalgic fall read. Five stars and two enthusiastic thumbs up. You've done it again Judith! Great job!

[Corrina Morse · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all I am unbelievably honoured to be in amongst these names, look at them. Just look... 😍
Thank you so much Judith! 💜 (Names in comments!)

This is a really fun Halloween read, full of some very familiar names in the indie community, and I love all the little details about each person that Judith has picked up on and included in this collection. Knowing the characters made this an even more entertaining read, but even if you don't know the names, the stories are just as awesome!

Great inventive kills as always, the disturbing descriptions are so vivid you'll feel you're experiencing it first hand! And, all the stories interlink brilliantly! This whole book is very cleverly put together! 🎃

As always with collections, I will write a few words for each....

KORN MAZE.... Lucas Mangum , Brian Berry and Candace Nola are off to a mysterious corn maze to have a bit of fun and to try and recapture the childish joy of Halloween. This maze is different, very bloody different..with a free show when you reach the center..
Full of tense anticipation and brutal kills, this story kicks off the collection with a bang!!

WRITTEN IN ENTRAILS.... a tribute to the WiR guys!! Daniel Volpe has been acting weird lately, getting more obsessed with serial killers..he has a mystery guest for the show, he hasn't even told the others who it is...
Until he pulls out a ouija board 😲
And summons someone familiar! Bloody, horrific slaughter ensues...

Judith captures the WiR guys camaraderie and banter..perfectly.

KILL YER PUMPKINS... Corrina and Brad Tierney are strolling through town on Halloween night, heading towards the movie theater. They cut through the forest, when they start to notice several pumpkin headed scarecrows appearing all over the place! Things take a turn for the worse and get pretty brutally violent! Great ending! 😉

Creepy, horrific, haunting!

SEASONAL SPOOKINESS... Judith is done with writing for the night and is treating herself to a movie before bed...only this movie isn't what she was expecting! When you write characters so realistic they almost seem to come to life.... things can get pretty damn spooky! 😉

Suspenseful and scary with a nice little jump scare ending!!

Loved it!!!!!!

[Ashley Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never really been a fan of a collection of smaller stories, but wow. Sonnet really was able to make me want to vomit and put some splatterpunk in these small pieces of art.
I also very much enjoy the stories tying back to each other! They are all super corny (in the best way possible), and not written in Childish ways (that I find have most short Halloween stories).
I say this is a perfect book for if you're not into splatterpunk, but still want to read Judith Sonnet!


Review of each story:

Korn MaZe
I loved how corny this story was, yet written in a way that it was still actually creepy and not childish. I read the bad part, by coincidence, whilst feeling anxious and BOIIIII, I nearly threw up and started shaking a little from Pete's scene. It was fucking disgusting, corny and amazing!

Written in Entrails
It was an enjoyable story, but not much too interesting. A fun read still, though!

Kill Yer Pumpkins
Not much to say other than that it was a fun story! Unfortunately the stories are not as gore as the first.

Seasonal Spookiness
Honestly didn't expect this ending! It started out pretty cute; appreciating the people mentioned in the book. And then shit going down once you think you're safe!

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably hands down the cleverest book I’ve ever read! It was so much fun but I strongly suggest reading these short stories in order (some people like to read short stories erratically in some collection volumes) to get the true spirit of the book. Trust me, it’s more than just 4 random Halloween-themed tales.

Sonnet’s writing proved her incredible creative talent and the author KNOWS what she wants and where she’s going with it. It was even more enjoyable that she used actual real life fellow influencers , peers and friends as characters within the stories and through integrating them into the action you could tell she just ran with it and had so much fun doing it! Keeping that in mind, the book had a spice of humor to it that just couldn’t be helped, intentional or not.

The stories were all very well-paced and there is an above-fair amount of violence and gore throughout but it honestly wasn’t that bad; let’s say quite a bit to satisfy even a hard core horror buff but not too desensitizing. Sonnet really painted some effectively creepy and intense settings that felt very aesthetic to the Halloween season.

This is a PERFECT 5 star read! I’m officially declaring this book my new annual Halloween tradition read! Very highly recommended!

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was like turning on a night-light to ward off the boogeyman. It wouldn't actually help, but it provided a vague sense of comfort."

This was my first book by Judith Sonnet, and it definitely won't be my last! I did not expect to love this so much.

This is like a love letter to fans of indie horror books, horror movies and Halloween.
I loved the 4 stories in this collection and I especially loved the meta aspect, it added so much humour. I didn't expect the author to insert herself in the last story, "Seasonal Spookiness".

I laughed out loud a lot, and one of the funniest things for me was in the story 'Kill Yer Pumpkins', when the characters are going to see the movie "Halloween Returns", set in outer space with a robotic killer, starring Nicolas Cage. I would definitely want to watch it too, haha!

And the first story, Korn MaZe, confirmed why I would never participate in an extreme haunt in my life!
I enjoyed the writing a lot, and the goriness of the kills.

[Escapereality4now · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Kill Yer Pumpkins”, by Judith Sonnet, is a great Halloween collection. These fast-paced tales can be read in one sitting.

“Kill Yer Pumpkins” is a collection of horror stories. . She definitely expressed her love for the horror community by including several authors in her tales.

For those readers who are not familiar with the writers, it is still a fantastic collection filled with tension and some gore.

Sonnet represented Halloween in a nicely wrapped package. Her cover captures the holiday with colors and graphics that scream Halloween. Inside, the stories are atmospheric and tense with a little gore thrown into the mix.

It was my first book by this author and definitely will not be my last.

[ania | hellishreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is honestly such a perfect read for Halloween - or the whole of October - especially for anyone who is part of the indie horror community and knows almost all the authors (there's a ton of references to the different authors, so you'll chuckle to yourself whenever any misdeeds happen). Every story in this collection all connects to each other around the ghost of Otis Bateman, an evil creature that feeds on innocent victims every Halloween, and it ties up into a nice little meta bowtie at the end.

This is by far the most accessible of Judith Sonnet's horror novellas as it's far less extreme than most of her other work - there IS still gore and grossness, but, at a level every can be a part of.