Review coming soon! ( )

Dead Leaves: 9 Tales from the Witching Season is the perfect book to read when the first stirrings of anticipation for fall and Halloween arrive mid-August. The 9 tales are more creepy than outright scary, leaving the reader with soft chills at the end of each story. While each one was uniquely good, my favorite story in the collection was “Someone to Carve the Pumpkins”, a reminder that reality is relative and not always what we think we see and know. Perspective is everything. If you want to ease into the Halloween spirit as the summer gathers its last reserves of heat before the cool respite of fall ascends, bringing with it the cornucopia of colors from the warm side of the color wheel, then this is the perfect book for you. ( )

Loved this book. The stories in it are well written and super creepy. Perfect short-read book for the Halloween season! 🎃 ( )

Buddy Read with Horror Aficionados Group

Currently free e-book on Amazon for the Halloween Season

Halloween is the perfect time of the year to whip out horror books, snuggle on the couch and watch horror flicks, turn on cheesy horror music, and eat too much candy. Kealan Patrick Burke indulges readers with an anthology featuring eight different short stories that may not all cater around Halloween, but which all fit a spooky October mood.

Some of the stories are a little similar but they mainly stand on their own.

Someone to Carve the Pumpkins is a good opener, although somewhat sad. Great opening for Halloween and that supernatural feel. Haven was twisted and odd, think half the surreal thing flew over my head...How The Night Receives Them spends its time mystifying the reader until it tosses out the twist answer in the end. Tonight The Moon Is Ours is my favorite story - surreal and twisted stuff, I dug the dark fairy tale feel. The Toll, one of the longer offerings, shows what happens to a demented man in a demented situation. In-depth characterization feel.

Will You Tell Them I Died Quietly was also lengthy and witch-touched. A lot of people loved this one with it's Lovecraftian tone, but I didn't get into it as much. Not While I'm Around is the weakest stint - not really a story but a cheesy scene that doesn't offer much reading hope. Finally The Tradition ends the anthology with a semi-bang - there's irony and the supernatural involved.

Overall some winners mixed in with lukewarm, but still good, supernatural tales. The anthology is clever and imaginatively achieved, so if you're looking for a Halloween themed anthology, this one is worth checking out.

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