Taylor Grant | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Book Review: Halloween Carnival: Volume 3 edited by Brian James Freeman

Halloween Carnival: Volume 3 edited by Brian James Freeman

Random House Publishing Group – Hydra, 2017

ISBN-13: 9780399182051

Available: Kindle ebook

Halloween Carnival: Volume 3 is another installment to Freeman’s anthology collection with five more tales of horror associated with my favorite holiday.

In Kelley Armstrong’s “The Lost Way,” we enter the town of Franklin, where children have a habit of losing their way every Halloween. Dale is determined to find out why his schoolmates keep disappearing. This Halloween, he follows his stepbrother into the forest, where he is forbidden to venture, and finds the reason. The problem is, he finds out the truth much later than he anticipates, and certainly not how he remembers it.

Kate Maruyama’s “La Calavera” focuses on Trish, who is mourning and struggling with the untimely death of her best friend and roommate, Jasmine. They always did everything together: the Día de los Muertos Festival at the Hollywood Cemetery used to be one of their shared rituals. Things changed when Hector came along. The time has come that Trish make her pilgrimage with an unexpected guest, to let her go, and to pay penance.

“The Devil’s Due”, by Michael McBride, takes place in the idyllic town of Pine Springs, Colorado, a thriving small community that has been prosperous for generations. All of this good fortune has not come without a cost, however: the townspeople have practiced special traditions, and, for these, the town goes on. When Thom refuses to take part, the townspeople become angry and demand the ritual continue.

Anne discusses the disturbing events of a picnic she enjoyed with her spouse, Evan, in Taylor Grant’s “A Thousand Rooms of Darkness.” Anne has been diagnosed with samhainophobia, a fear of Halloween, and phasmophobia, a fear of ghosts. She finally builds up the courage to tell Evan after experiencing an episode during a picnic, after she talks with the therapist she’s been avoiding for months. In the weeks leading to Halloween, when things for Anne get particularly bad, she receives a phone call that her therapist has died. Her paranoia increases as she worries about harm coming to Evan. Then there is the matter of the demon she hears as it gets closer to Samhain.

In “The Last Night of October”, by Greg Chapman, we meet Gerald, wheelchair bound and suffering from emphysema. Every Halloween, Gerald waits for the boy in the Frankenstein monster’s mask to come knocking at his front door. This year, it is different. There is his nurse, Kelli, who waits with him, and hears Gerald’s tale of woe. Will they both be able to face the child and remain sane…or alive?

Something unique about this particular anthology is the theme of lies: lies people tell themselves to avoid the truth, lies about relationships, lies that a community propagates to its own end, lies about fear and sanity, and lies people tell so they can sleep at night. While there isn’t anything too graphic in this volume, I would recommend it for adults and teenagers who can handle their horror. Recommended.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Book Review: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel by Taylor Grant

The Dark at the End of the Tunnel by Taylor Grant

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2015

ISBN: 9780994679338

Available: Kindle ebook, trade paperback

I enjoy a good novel, but sometimes a solid collection of short stories is just as good, if not better. The Darkness at the End of the Tunnel by Taylor Grant contains ten short stories, each with unique storytelling elements.

There are a number of standout stories. “The Vood” is about a creature who hides and devours from the shadows. Grady lost his mother to this creature, and he has feared it since childhood. Growing up with it has caused problems for him, but a lifetime of preventing it from devouring him hasn’t protected Grady from himself. “Show and Tell” is the story of a sixth grader who is called into the guidance councilor’s office after his teacher finds disturbing artwork in his desk. The tale he tells of the pictures is equally disturbing…and deadly. In “Whispers in the Trees, Screams in the Dark,” Blake resents his father and his new wife moving them to a new city, where he has a hard time making new friends. He meets two boys who want to show him something remarkable in the woods; a woman with beauty surpassing that of anyone they have seen. But her beauty comes at a price. In “The Intruders”, Mason makes a discovery during his research for his true crime book after speaking with several serial killers. All of them have one thing in common: they hear voices. Now Mason can hear them, too. The last story in the collection, “The Dark at the End of the Tunnel,” concerns a man coming out of a decade in stasis to discover he has no memories. As they gradually come back, he’s haunted by disturbing hallucinations. Desperate for answers, he reaches out to his broker, Mr. Wheeler, and his doctor, Dr. Smythe.

Grant is a screenwriter and filmmaker, but Dark at the End of the Tunnel is his first short story collections, and it is fantastic. The characters are memorable, the gore is fantastic, and Grant’s storytelling skills are polished. There are certainly stories that have their share of monsters, but it’s the stories that make you take a look at the darker side of humanity that make it truly worth it to pick up this book. You won’t be disappointed. Highly recommended

Contains: body horror, gore, sexuality

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker