Sixteen never-before-published chilling tales that explore every aspect of our darkest holiday, Halloween, co-edited by Ellen Datlow, one of the most successful and respected genre editors, and Lisa Morton, a leading authority on Halloween.
In addition to stories about scheming jack-o’-lanterns, vengeful ghosts, otherworldly changelings, disturbingly realistic haunted attractions, masks that cover terrifying faces, murderous urban legends, parties gone bad, cult Halloween movies, and trick or treating in the future, Haunted Nights also offers terrifying and mind-bending explorations of related holidays like All Souls’ Day, Dia de los Muertos, and Devil’s Night.
Horror Book Review: Haunted Nights
Ever since I was a kid, I delighted myself in horror anthology books. Whether it be at the elementary school book fair or the famed Troll Book Club Order forms, I was always perusing the “shelves” for scary books. It really didn’t matter what the book was about because it was the cover that sold me. From Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Tales for the Midnight Hour to The Scariest Stories You’ve Ever Heard, I had them all – well, a lot, at least. The tales in these books were simple, yet effective, and kept me up at night on many occasions. I must say that I miss the feeling of being scared while reading a book or watching a movie. Now, as an adult, I am jaded by most “scary” things, and I have to admit that I hate that feeling. I find myself rolling my eyes when watching a horror movie or reading a scary book. This is not to say that there aren’t any books that frighten me, because there are. It’s just that I feel like those books are a dime a dozen. Or maybe I don’t read enough.
I wanted to get into the October/Halloween spirit, so I looked at the to-be-read pile on one of my bookshelves and came upon Haunted Nights. I purchased this book years ago, but I was never in the mood to read it, and so I thought, what the hell. It’s been a while since I’ve read an anthology, about two years, to be exact, when I read Autumn Nights and Stephen King’s Fright or Flight. As is usually the case with most anthology books, you are going to get a good mix of good and bad stories. Haunted Nights is no different.
Haunted Nights features sixteen never-before-published stories. Other anthologies sometimes feature previously published stories as well as new ones, so to shine a light on unknown works and new (at least to me) authors is a plus. The only recognizable names were Stephen Graham Jones and Jonathan Maberry, so I was pretty excited to read stories from other authors I am not familiar with.
Overall, Haunted Nights was a pleasant read. I can’t say that any of them really scared me, but “We’re Never Inviting Amber Again” by S. P. Miskowski got pretty close. The other standouts that were well-written and engaging were “A Small Taste of the Old Country” by Jonathan Maberry, “A Flicker of Light on Devil’s Night” by Kate Jonez (this one was pretty depressing), “All Through the Night” by Elise Forier Edie, “A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds” by Eric J. Guignard and “The Turn” by Paul Kane. However, the stories were very well written by all the authors. Haunted Nights is a great book to read by a fire, but don’t go in expecting scares; rather, nicely woven tales that center around the beloved Halloween season.