Haunted Nights

A Horror Writers Association Anthology

By: Ellen Datlow - editor, Garth Nix, Kelley Armstrong, Pat Cadigan, John R. Little, Lisa Morton - editor, Eric J. Guignard

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Erin Spencer, James Patrick Cronin, Amy Landon, Luis Moreno, Keith Szarabajka, Hillary Huber

Here are 16 chilling, never-before-published tales that explore every aspect of our darkest holiday, Halloween, coedited by Ellen Datlow, one of the most successful and respected genre editors, and Lisa Morton, a leading authority on Halloween.

In addition to stories about scheming jack-o'-lanterns, vengeful ghosts, otherworldly changelings, disturbingly realistic haunted attractions, masks that cover terrifying faces, murderous urban legends, parties gone bad, cult Halloween movies, and trick-or-treating in the future, Haunted Nights also offers terrifying and mind-bending explorations of related holidays like All Souls' Day, Día de los Muertos, and Devil's Night.

• "With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfbane Seeds" by Seanan McGuire
• "Dirtmouth" by Stephen Graham Jones
• "A Small Taste of the Old Country" by Jonathan Maberry
• "Wick's End" by Joanna Parypinski
• "The 17-Year Itch" by Garth Nix
• "A Flicker of Light on Devil's Night" by Kate Jonez
• "Witch-Hazel" by Jeffrey Ford
• "Nos Galen Gaeaf" by Kelley Armstrong
• "We're Never Inviting Amber Again" by S. P. Miskowski
• "Sisters" by Brian Evenson
• "All through the Night" by Elise Forier Edie
• "A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds" by Eric J. Guignard
• "The Turn" by Paul Kane
• "Jack" by Pat Cadigan
• "Lost in the Dark" by John Langan
• "The First Lunar Halloween" by John R. Little

Narrated by Gabra Zackman, Erin Spencer, James Patrick Cronin, Michael Kramer, Gerard Doyle, Kevin Kenerly, Amy Landon, Carrington MacDuffie, Andrew Eiden, Tom Taylorson, Suzanne Elise Freeman, Alana Kerr Collins, Luis Moreno, Keith Szarabajka, Emily Sutton-Smith, Malcolm Hillgartner, and Hillary Huber.

©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great Halloween read! 🎃

I love the variety of tales from classic folktales to Sci-fi aliens to possessive demons . There's some good trick or treating here for horror fans of any subgenre. And the voice acting was superb. 👏🖤🎃

So many swings, and almost all misses

Grabbed this on sale for Halloween, and of the 16 stories maybe four are worth the listen. Almost all have a strong premise and a great diversity of Halloween themes, but nearly a dozen either lie down with a depressing ending or peter out with an.... "ending?" that requires a rewind or search for a few missing paragraphs. Shorter, more disciplined writing and revised endings would have saved most.

A Moist Sinewy Collection of Tales

Treat yourself to this set of truly eerie stories. I listened to the first 5 without a break. Each one so well written and performed. I decided to space them out; there isn't another Audible recording with such uniformly chilling tales.

For years I've seen words like "chilling" and "eerie" used to describe stories that weren't. But each of these Halloween-themed offerings gave me a quiet chill and a lingering eerie feeling. Those are the very feelings I look for in horror stories. I'll never again hear the phrase, "It's Halloween!"without remembering this collection.

Several stories are great, the others are worth skipping

That’s all. Some are great, the others are not worth the time. Not much else to say.

A delightful collection of Halloween Treats... and 2 Tricks.

All the readers are fantastic. Some of the best in the business.
I thought I would go through and give you a *spoiler free* review of the collection.

1 With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfbane seeds: 6/10
Not a bad "Let's go Wreck Haunted House story, with foreseeable results

2 Dirtmouth: 5/10 Wives, you can't live with them and you can't *live* with them. [Sic] Pretty Gross and sad.

3 A Small Taste of the Old Country: 10/ 10. "We were just following orders" Possibly the best in the book.

4 Week's End : The First of 2 Stories in the book to primarily deal with the "Legend of Jack Of The Lantern" Predictable but fun 7/10

5 The 17 Year Itch. 4/10 What if Fear was a Fungus.... Gross.

6 A Flicker of Light on Devils Night. Parenting can drive you mad. Probably the Worst in the collection. Gross and sad... Yet strangely identifiable. 2/10

7 Witch hazel: A tale of Witchery and madness (and maybe Zombies?) 5/10

8 Nos Colin Gahoff (sp?) I fell OUT of a burning ring of fire!... Based on the Legend of the Cutty Black Sow. 6/10

9 We're Never Inviting Amber Again!!!
Party games on Halloween Night summon others through the Veil. 8/10

10 Sisters: What it's like to be a ghost (or demon) getting ready for Halloween. Odd 6/10

11 All Through the Night: Rumpelstiltskin... Kinda. Sad. 7/10

12 A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds. Regrets on the Day of the Dead in Mexico. CORRECTION: THIS IS THE WORST. R-Rated content the whole way through (and the "scary" stuff is the least of it) Would not read again, and RECOMMEND YOU SKIP... Unless you like stories about Mexican gangs attacking LGBTQ folks... While portrayed as bad, it goes on for quite a while... Though "Saint"does remind me of Skully from the Wizard Game...

13 The Turn. 9/10 One of the best. "The Suspense is Terrible.... I hope it will last." Despite what some may see as a bad ending (which imo is actually very good) this Story is a banger.

14 Jack : Another take on the "Jack Of the Lantern" tale. GHOSTBUSTERS! 8/10

15 Lost in the Dark : The Longest and possibly best story in the collection. Think of it as Before, During, and After the Making of the BLAIR WITCH / AS ABOVE SO BELOW if it (basically) really happened. The only story with "Chapters" and clearly broke the length rules the editors set out with, but who cares?! Great story and I want a movie!! It would kind of need to be a movie within a movie and it would be odd. But it could be great in the right hands. (Mine lol) 12/10

16 The First Lunar Halloween: The only entry not to take place on Earth and (maybe) involve Aliens. Not great but short 6/10...
(Side note *slight spoiler*): This actually reminds me of the last track on the "Disney's Chilling Thrilling sounds of THE HAUNTED HOUSE album from the 1960s "Mmm that was delicious! I wonder what it was!!“
(13:00) Min mark.)
Overall a great collection of Original stories and worth your time and credit.

pretty good stories

Narrators were good and all but one story kept my attention (I admit I ended up skipping that story after about 3 minutes), the next to last story kinda droned on but was still not bad, and a couple were wonderfully spine tingling creepy. All in all well worth the credit.

Not wasted time

I thought every story was worth listening to, and there were some really good stories in this book. Definitely worth the time in the money.
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Great collection of spooky tales!

Some of these are really scary. Deliciously scary. Most of the stories are really good, some common elements of classic spooky stories, some really interesting twists and settings, a few clunkers. The narrations are consistently well done. My only complaint is my constant complaint about Audible anthologies - they need a few more minutes break between stories. Before I'm quite certain a tale is done, the next has begun.

Just Ok

There were a few great stories, some good stories, and some bad stories in this collection. I ended up skipping a couple because I just couldn't get into them. But I guess there was something for everyone.

Really enjoyed it

Good variety of stories, all with the common thread of Halloween. Really, really enjoyed it.