Fall just isn’t quite fall without getting some Al Sarrantonio in your diet. The horror master specializes in two areas: short stories and autumnal settings. His new collection from Cemetery Dance, HALLOWEEN AND OTHER SEASONS, delivers both. Because of that, most of the book is good, and some of it even really good. He excels in penning wicked little tales that disturb and delight, often with a cruel twist at the end.
“Eels” finds him at his bleakest, introducing us to a young boy unwanted by his abusive father, yet forced to spend the day fishing with him. Kids continue to have it rough in “Letters from Camp,” in which a series of letters home to mom and dad warn of dinosaur sightings, and “The New Kid,” in which a bullied student suddenly gets some relief. But how long will that last?
For more frightening fare, turn to “The Man in the Other Car,” in which a family vacation hits the highest threshold of stress. “The Dancing Foot” is like an update of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” only with a different body part, and “Dust” conjures up a biblical prophecy for a group of travelers.
Sarrantonio also plays in the sci-fi side of the pool, as witnessed by “The Silly Stuff,” in which a reporter obsessively follows a string of Fortean events; the near-future hunt of “Trail of the Chromium Bandits”; and the war between technology-minded neighbors in “Ahead of the Joneses.”
Several stories showcase Sarrantonio’s sly sense of humor, such as “The Return of Mad Santa,” in which ol’ Saint Nick threatens his elves with a bullwhip and takes aim at Rudolph with a rifle. But nowhere is it more apparent than “Roger in the Womb,” about a fetus that refuses to exit his poor mother … even years later.
Of the 18 stories here, I’d read a handful in other anthologies recently: “Summer” appeared in RETRO PULP TALES, “Sleepover” was in the Sarrantonio-edited FLIGHTS and “Baby Boss and the Underground Hamsters” debuted in MIDNIGHT PREMIERE. The last story, “The Pumpkin Boy,” was incorporated into the novel HORRORWEEN. All but one are worth repeat visits. —Rod Lott
Buy it at Cemetery Dance or Amazon.
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• FLIGHTS: EXTREME VISIONS OF FANTASY edited by Al Sarrantonio
• HALLOWEENLAND by Al Sarrantonio
• HALLOWS EVE by Al Sarrantonio
• HORRORWEEN by Al Sarrantonio
• 999: TWENTY-NINE ORIGINAL TALES OF HORROR AND SUPSENSE edited by Al Sarrantonio
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I have one Al S. story in an 1983 Asimov-edited anthology, 13 Horrors of Halloween (I’m reviewing it next week on my blog). I also have 999 which I loved for some of the millennial themes as it was published in September 1999.
sounds fun for the season.