Horrorween collects three novellas by Al Sarrantonio, all based in the town of Orangefield, NY, the pumpkin capital of the world. Aside from the town's reputation for pumpkins, Orangefield is also known for "Sam sightings", appearances by Samhain, the Celtic Lord of the Dead.

The first story, Hornets, deals with Phillip Kerlan, a popular author of children’s horror stories. He is having trouble writing a Halloween-themed short story dealing with Samhain, the Lord of the Dead that doesn’t come off as too scary for his young readers.

The stress of this writers block is causing strife in his marriage. He hits a bit of luck and completes the story in a single night only to wake up and find his wife has left him (or did she?)… All this during a particularly warm October.

A pleasant story, but a slightly different presentation would have made it much better. The problem is that the story is so simple that it telegraphs its twists (though the ending really was a surprise). Overall, Hornets is a good story with a strong ending, but at almost a hundred pages was a little too long.

The second story The Pumpkin Boy starts with a wallop as a young boy spies a mechanical man with a pumpkin for a head tramping through his back yard. He trails this 'pumpkin boy' through various pumpkin patches and into the woods until he is lost.

A strange and spooky story with a very, very well done atmosphere. It's unfortunately hamstrung by a terrible ending that felt like it was lifted from Scooby Doo.

The final section of the book is the novella Orangefield, which is also the best story of the book. We follow four separate characters through the month of October. They are all (to varying degrees) being influenced by Samhain, but to what purpose?

Each character's story was intriguing and the characters had enough depth to make me care about them.

Unlike Hornets, I was wishing Orangefield was a little longer. It could have easily been expanded into a novel. I would have liked a little more detail on what Samhain's plans were and maybe to spend a little more time expanding the characters.

I liked Mr. Sarrantonio’s writing. He did a very good job of evoking autumn and the feeling of Halloween. The atmosphere he evoked reminded me a little of something Ray Bradbury would have done but didn't feel in any way like a swipe.

Each story had enough troubles to keep this from being a book I would really push, but it is a nice, not too deep read if you are looking for something suitably spooky in the days leading up to Halloween. (

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