New Arrival: Hark the Herald Angels Scream

We are told that the holidays are a festive time of year, one full of joyful celebrations with friends and family while also being offered a taste of childhood nostalgia. Many people have fond memories of getting up on Christmas morning, not really sleeping due to being so wired, the anticipation building until your parents finally allowed you to get up and you bolted downstairs to open what Santa brought you. But Christmas isn’t always happy and horror, as a genre, has been all about peeling back the shiny wrapping paper, the glittery veneer, to see the darkness churning underneath. That darkness and more is revealed in Hark theHerald Angels Scream, an anthology edited by Christopher Golden, which features some well-known horror writers and some fun explorations of very familiar horror tropes set against the backdrop of the holidays.

With anthologies to which many authors contributed, the quality can feel inconsistent, but there are also a lot of hidden gems that are sure to chill you, even as you roast chestnuts on an open fire. This collection has a Joe Lansdale ghost story, “The Second Floor of the Christmas Hotel,” that’s almost unrecognizable as vintage Lansdale. Rather than throwing a tidal wave of insane action and fast-talking protagonists, he offers a quiet ghost story that should remind readers of The Ring, of Mama, of basically any of the ghosts they might have seen on a movie screen. Whatever your horror preferences are, this anthology has even more solid stories to read while the wind howls outside and the snow keeps falling (or rain, if you live in the Southeast). If you like Jacobs’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” try James A. Moore’s “Mistletoe and Holly,” a tale about a grieving wife and mother whose dead husband wants to see his family and no distance or grave can hold him. If you prefer your horror less supernatural and more psychotic, there’s John McIlveen’s “Yankee Swap.” Like your horror by way of fairy tales, give “Fresh as the New-Fallen Snow” by Seanan McGuire a go. Want something cuddly? Snuggle up with Thomas E Sniegoski’s “Love Me.”

This anthology is a holiday horror buffet without the bloat afterward. Within these pages full of tinsel-strewn tales may just be your next favorite author, one that’s bound to have a bibliography that may contain your next great read. Maybe even your next favorite book. And that is a better Christmas gift than any sweater, ugly or otherwise.

Fearsome Five: Five Bite-Sized Halloween Treats

For many horror fans, including myself, Halloween is their Christmas. But like Christmas, people are busy doing so many things that they forget the reason for the season. And for Halloween, it’s reading scary stories. That’s why I’m devoting this Fearsome Five list to some bite-sized Halloween horror that you can digest while dressing up your little monsters or carving up . . . pumpkins.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell. Sure, it’s in your library’s children’s collection, but this is a one-way ticket to nostalgia village for anyone who’s ever told a scary story by the light of a campfire or a single flashlight. And let’s not forget the simple black and white illustrations that are way scarier than anything with a J for Juvenile on its spine has a right to be.

October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween edited by Richard Chizmar, et al. This anthology gets that Halloween isn’t simply about being the scariest, grossest, most vile monster out there. Sometimes, the horror of the season requires a little whimsy, but not too much. Otherwise, you have stories like this.

*shudders*

What also makes this a fun anthology is that it not only has Halloween tales from esteemed writers ranging from Dean Koontz to Richard Laymon to F. Paul Wilson, it also has memories from horror writers on what makes this holiday so special. An overall good chance to see and read what lodges Halloween deep in these authors’ hearts more firmly than any wooded stake.

Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton. For those that like a little more bite in their Halloween, though, Haunted Nights has amassed a collection that skews less Nightmare Before Christmas and more Nightmare on Elm Street. Stephen Graham Jones’s “Dirtmouth” is a particularly dark nugget of terror while S. P. Mikowski’s “We’re Never Inviting Amber Again” offers some bittersweet humor that shows the dangers of inviting family to anything.

A Halloween Reader: Poems, Stories, and Plays from Halloweens Past edited by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne. There’s always time for the classics and this reader has plenty of classic tales in a variety of formats that can put you in mind of such literary fright giants as Poe and Hawthorne. Looking for some spooky poetry by Poe? How about Sir Walter Scott or H. P. Lovecraft? What about a scary story to tell your guests over cider? Maybe a play for you all to perform is what you’re looking for. This book has all of that. As far as Halloween anthologies, this book is like a Swiss Army knife with a snippet of text for every occasion.

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge. Not an anthology but it’s a very quick read and one that roars right out of the gate. In a small Nebraska town, on Halloween night, the young men are released into the streets to try and bring down the October Boy, a scarecrow-like creature with a jack o’ lantern head, a candy heart, and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to make it through the throngs of teenagers looking to claim the ultimate prize of a chance to leave their small town existence behind. It’s a fun, eerie romp of a tale that brings to mind Joe Lansdale but it also has a lot to say about the power of ritual and the kind of hells that supposedly bucolic small town can become.