The Ultimate Halloween

Rating:
Summary: Overall a good book for halloween
Review: This is a pretty good book of halloween-themed stories. Overall, it's a good book with effective stories, but the stories themselves differ very much in themes. Some are humoristic, some are like fairy tales and others are more "classical" horror stories, including one of Lovecraft's hand. If you want an anthology of stories that have similar styles and atmospheres, don't try it, you will be disappointed, but if your objective is to remind yourselves about all of Halloween multi-facetted meanings, then indulge yourself with this wonderful book. Just don't expect the story you're starting to read to be like the one you've just finished. You will have your favorites, and you will have your not-so-favorites, but all the stories achieve what their authors sought to do with them.

As for me, I believe it's going to become an annual tradition for October.

Rating:
Summary: DEFINITELY NOT THE ULTIMATE
Review: While this is mostly a good collection of Halloween themed stories, it is definitely not "The Ultimate Halloween" book. You'd be better off finding a copy of Halloween Horror (edited by Alan Ryan). The good news is that this book contains Al Sarrantonio's "Pumpkin Head" (which I've enjoyed elsewhere), R.J. Lewis' "Into The Abyss" (which could almost fit into one of the Hot Blood books), Parke Godwin's "A Matter Of Taste" (bon appetit), Ron Goulart's "The Phantom Highwayman" (the game is afoot), and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Unnamable" (a nice blast from the past). The bad news? The last story here is Herminie T. Templeton's (author of Darby O'Gill and the Good People) "The Banshee's Comb" which is 78 pages long (almost a 1/4 of the book) and "told in dialect". I couldn't wait for the story/book to end. Not the brightest move to draw this anthology to a close. Marvin Kaye should stopped after choosing Lovecraft and Edith Wharton to represent authors from the past. This could have easily been a 3 star affair if he'd only quit while he was ahead.

Rating:
Summary: DEFINITELY NOT THE ULTIMATE
Review: While this is mostly a good collection of Halloween themed stories, it is definitely not "The Ultimate Halloween" book. You'd be better off finding a copy of Halloween Horror (edited by Alan Ryan). The good news is that this book contains Al Sarrantonio's "Pumpkin Head" (which I've enjoyed elsewhere), R.J. Lewis' "Into The Abyss" (which could almost fit into one of the Hot Blood books), Parke Godwin's "A Matter Of Taste" (bon appetit), Ron Goulart's "The Phantom Highwayman" (the game is afoot), and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Unnamable" (a nice blast from the past). The bad news? The last story here is Herminie T. Templeton's (author of Darby O'Gill and the Good People) "The Banshee's Comb" which is 78 pages long (almost a 1/4 of the book) and "told in dialect". I couldn't wait for the story/book to end. Not the brightest move to draw this anthology to a close. Marvin Kaye should stopped after choosing Lovecraft and Edith Wharton to represent authors from the past. This could have easily been a 3 star affair if he'd only quit while he was ahead.