These stories do revolve around Halloween but they are more than just horror. They are tales of grief, of love and loss, spirits with unfinished business, all surrounding the most otherworldly night of the year. They can be savored slowly to help you get into the spirit of Halloween or devoured quickly for a rush of spooky fun any time. I read them over a particularly hot week in July while I was away from my home and my air conditioner. I was almost able to convince myself that I could hear rustling leaves and a cool October wind. All were good, but for me the most notable in the bunch were...

Strange Candy- A story about a grieving man who finds peace after consuming an odd confection brought home in his child's trick or treat bag.

#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain -in which a writer who wishes to draw some interest and attention to his work stirs up a serial killer with his simple hashtag.

The Rage Of Achilles - A priest hears a haunting confession on Halloween from a man who has suffered a tragedy.

Highly recommended to all lovers of horror and Halloween.

Another great collection of horror and mayhem. A fun easy read. Already looking forward to volume 2.
A short collection I recommend to all horror fans.

A great anthology of Halloween-themed stories. The five short stories are a blend of classic and modern style horror, guaranteeing a favorite for everyone.
#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain had to be my favorite, great writing.

Halloween Carnival Volume 1 is a tasty treat for horror lovers everywhere!

First off, I have to mention the opening story, Robert McCammon's Strange Candy. I'm a huge McCammon fan and this story was originally found in the FANTASTIC collection Blue World. Poignant and sweet this tale will always remain one of my favorites.

With that out of the way, the story that impressed me the most here was Kevin Lucia's The Rage of Achilles, or When Mockingbirds Sing. At first, what started out to be a story of the difficulties of parenting a special needs child turned into a story of such bittersweet pain and love, I thought I heard my heart crack. Beautifully written with prose that cuts straight through your chest, this was the star of Volume 1.

La Hacienda de los Muertos by Lisa Morton was a neatly wrapped up tale about shooting a movie in Mexico. And maybe a ghost?

John Little can always be counted on to deliver and that he does with Demon Air.

Lastly, Mark Allen Gunnells' #Makehalloweenscaryagain was my first read of this author's work. While I generally don't care for hashtag anything, and even though I partially guessed how this story would end, I still enjoyed the journey and I look forward to reading more from Gunnells in the future.

Other than Strange Candy, I am not sure if these other stories have been published elsewhere previously. If so, I haven't come across them. I enjoyed the fact that these tales were mostly gore free, quiet horror since that's the type I prefer these days.

If quiet but powerful horror is your thing, I highly recommend this collection-especially for your Halloween reading pleasure!

You can pre-order your copy here: Halloween Carnival Volume 1

*Thanks so much to Hydra and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. This is it!*
Halloween hydra dark fiction Net Galley Chars Horror Corner

This is one helluva way to kick off a new anthology series! This anthology is great!

Strange Candy by Robert McCammon is excellent! A man bites into a ghostly candy hand and he is taken on a journey that will change his Halloween forever. He is tasked with delivering messages from beyond the grave.
5/5 stars!

The Rage of Achilles or When Mockingbirds Sing by Kevin Lucia is great! A man walks into a church to confess on Halloween night. The man's son was hit by a truck. The man seeks his revenge. The new priest is freaked out and asks about the man. That ending got me!
5/5 stars!

Demon Air by John R. Little is so good! Halle Berry is on a flight from hell. She is flying to Sydney, Australia, but there is something sinister about the flight crew.
5/5 stars!

La Hacienda de los Muertos by Lisa Morton is awesome! A former cowboy star of the silver screen named Trick McGrew doesn't believe in urban legends or tall tales. All that changes when he visits Mexico, the land of La Llorona. Trick McGrew finds out just how real urban legends can be.
5/5 stars!

#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain by Mark Allan Gunnells is one of the best stories in this anthology! A scarecrow is wreaking havoc on the small town of Greer. Everyone is warned about the consequences of not having your house decorated for Halloween. From start to finish, this story was kick-ass!
5/5 stars!

This anthology is amazing! Each author brought something different to the table, which made it that much stronger. The stories are well balanced and I liked the way they are ordered in the book. I love a good Halloween themed anthology, and this one didn't disappoint. The cover is cool as well! I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this anthology series!

I highly recommend this anthology to fans of horror and Halloween!

5/5 stars!

Halloween Carnival Volume 1 edited by Brian James Freeman was received direct from the publisher. Halloween, short horror stories and fall all came early with this read. With some big horror genre names we can hope for the best. The best? Maybe not. While these Halloween stories are not boring and did not cause much skimming, I was disappointed in that much like Hollywood "horror" movies nowadays, there was not much horror going on. I guess what I am trying to say is #makehalloweennscary again, which is my favorite story from this book. If you are buying a Halloween book for the 'tween crowd, give this rated PG tome a shot. If you are looking for gore filled Halloween horror, this is not it.

4 Stars

This book includes 5 stories centered around that wonderful story at is Halloween. While I found all the stories enjoyable, my 2 favorites were Robert McCammon's Strange Candy and Mark Allan Gunnells' #MakeHalloweenScaryAgain.

Strange Candy was FANTASTIC. It takes a lot to give me chills, but the end did.

#MakeHalloweenScaryAgain is a well-told murder mystery type story. I had a feeling I knew how it was going to end, but it was still intriguing.

Overall, it's light and festive entertainment.

Kevin Lucia's contribution is elevated, beautifully written fiction.

My full review should appear online this summer. I will update when it has been posted.

Good short horror stories are in this book. All of them held my interest and I was sorry when the stories were done. Scary but not too scary. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Are you as big a fan of Halloween as I am? I'm constantly on the lookout for new stories about my favorite holiday. Well, now we have a new reason to look forward to this upcoming October. Brian James Freeman and Hydra Books have a new anthology series coming out every week in Oct 2017. It doesn't get much better than that!

Book One starts us off with Robert McCammon's short but sweet story from 2012 entitled STRANGE CANDY. This is a perfectly written story for Halloween and will have you sobbing into your Snickers bars,

Kevin Lucia brings us another Clifton Heights story called THE RAGE OF ACHILLES or WHEN MOCKINGBIRDS SING. Kevin is also one of the editors at Cemetery Dance; I wish he wasn't so busy there. He needs more time to write. I love Clifton Heights and want to visit everyone. In this story, we learn about a young boy who is different from others. I actually don't recall if he used the word, but I think the child was autistic. It was one heck of a Halloween story.

DEMON AIR by John Little had to have it's roots while the author was in flight. There are so many bad stories about airlines now, why not enjoy another about a girl who is traveling to her ancestral homeland to learn about her roots.

Lisa Morton provided LA HACIENDA DE LOS MUERTOS: a story about cowboy movie being filmed south of the border at Halloween. This has a fine twist of an ending. I would expect no less from Ms. Morton.

Finally, the piece de resistance. The novella length #MakeHalloweenScaryAgain by Mark Allan Gunnells. This was a wonderfully twisted tale by an author I'll need to check out. A serial killer is on the loose apparently because of a Facebook post.

This is a solid 5 star anthology and I'm very grateful to Hydra Books for letting me have an advance copy to review. I highly recommend HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL VOLUME 1 and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

Review: HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL VOL. 1

The 3 short stories and 2 novellas in this anthology, which promises to be first of a series, are all excellent. Authors Robert McCammon, Kevin Lucia, John R. Little, Lisa Morton, and Mark Allan Gunnells, all "bring the holiday home" and vivify small town Halloween--some with hope, some with sadness and grief, some with insular bigotry and terror. All of the stories will leave readers thinking ("Could this happen in my community? Could such events happen to me?") because really, everything here is realistically plausible. HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL VOL. 1 is definitely on my reread-at-Halloween shelf.

Halloween Carnival Volume 1 is a short collection of spooky stories all based around Halloween. As with most collections you get to read short stories from your favourite authors like Robert McCammon but the best part is being introduced to authors you've not read before. The standout story for me is by Kevin Lucia which reads like an old Stephen King Castle Rock story. An excellent new collection that I would love to read more of.

Five creepy novellas about the spookiest day of the year, with a classic by Robert McCammon and four original stories by Kevin Lucia, Lisa Morton, John Little and Mark Alan Gunnells, will have readers checking under the bed before going to sleep