Jeff’s Reviews > All Hallows' Eve > Status Update

"On the Night of the Welcome Stranger" by Nathan Ballingrud: 3/5 - undeniably gripping and creative, this dark fantasy is more what I expected from Ford. But despite the totally compelling premise of a subterranean ghoul world and the satisfaction of a surprisingly original romance, the plot itself doesn't make a lot of sense. Still, consummately entertaining and SO Halloween.

"Dare Me" by Richard Kadrey: 4/5 - so glad this didn't turn out to be a sadistic kid story, but it had me going for a minute. This relatively longer tale of a group of malevolent little boys escalating their pranks on Halloween is convincing, ominous, heartbreaking, and then pretty scary. A meditation on the special brand of social pressure boys exert over each other, very original.

"The Thinning of the Veil" by Jeffrey Ford: 3/5 - clearly a rushed effort from the master himself, this story of a group of friends trading stories on Halloween that ends in a mafia hit has Ford's signature style, but none of his humor or conceptual development.

"Her Mother's Business" by Garth Nix: 2/5 - not sure what that business is, exactly, but it's somethin' dark. And boring.

"Give Me Something Good to Eat" by Theresa DeLucci: 5/5 - the star of the show with the best title, best concept, more halloweeny and scariest story of all. Splatterpunk and body horror fans should be thoroughly satisfied with what would have been a hideous, primitive concept in the hands of a less elegant author. This story is of a Hartford tradition surrounding a particular witch on Halloween night.

Quite a display of mediocrity from this crew so far, with just six stories to go, but three of these authors are bona fide superstars. Hopefully, they'll bring the average for the class up a few notches. Datlow and her decree against traditional monsters has not done this anthology any favors.

"Saturday" by Chikodili Emelumadu: 2/5 - a very interesting, colorful and disturbing story, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm sure it has its basis in a tradition that would provide meaning and context, but a bad kid is taken to a sort of purgatory Saturday school and is forced to dance with (not in) "a masquerade," which has no legs and whips kids' skin off. Okay, sure. Nothing about Halloween, though.

"The Hungry Grass" by Siobhan Carroll: 3/5 - certainly a complex and faithful adaptation of Dracula. The backdrop of the Irish Famine is well used, but not very original or compelling. A little on the nose, too. Gee, she sure has sharp teeth. He's on a hallucinatory carriage ride through the mountains. She has plans to meet his daughter in England. Get it?? And yet the drained bodies still come out of nowhere.

Lucy and Mina, Millara and Lizzie, sharp teeth, stoker--we get it. Lot of buildup here.

I've read Siobhan Carroll before but this story is levels above the ones preceding it.