Paige Ray's Reviews > Mischief Night Massacre: Ten Tales of Halloween

This collection of stories blew me away! Ten great Halloween frights inside that really delivered the premise of “spooky season.” When it comes to anthologies and collections of short stories you know I can’t leave a single one out, so let’s dive in!

Russian Dollhouse
“To carry on
Your herd must thin
Five to four
But only one can win.
Your chance to leave
Has now departed
The worms must feed
Who’ll be discarded?”

Kit takes her little brother trick r treating and her friends plan to egg the abandoned creepy house in the neighborhood. However, once they get to the house they notice it’s been decorated as if someone lives there and has turned it into a haunted house attraction of sorts. Once inside they quickly realize that this haunted house is very real and their lives are at stake.

The ending holy shit. LOVED this one so much!

Dia De Los Muertos
Russel suffers from PTSD after his time in the military and at war. He’s having a tough time discerning reality from his past. He finds himself in the midst of a Dia De Los Muertos parade in Mexico where things start to get blurry from reality. He only wanted to grab a bite to eat and something to drink but he finds himself lost in an alternate reality of pure chaos and carnage.

Easy Pickings
Trevor repeat 8th grader tall and huge. Takes advantage of his friend Rascal and takes his candy. They’re stealing candy from kids tormenting trick r treaters. Trevor gets Rascal to commit acts of violence towards them to earn his candy back. Trevor gets Rascal to take him to the local weird kids house to terrorize him. Turns out Jack has a friend who is definitely not imaginary and Trevor gets his karma.

Keeping Up Appearances
This was an intense one! A burglary gone wrong where things take a very unexpected turn!!

A Not-So-Scary Halloween
Danielle and her little brother are staying in Florida with their aunt and uncle for Halloween. Florida does Halloween much differently compared to what they’re used to. When they’re out trick r treating their imagination gets the best of them, leading to a dark outcome.

Rain
On Halloween a bad storm comes in and leaves Georgie and his brother inside so they don’t catch cold. Their father tells them a scary story and lets them have some candy while he tells it. However, his story gets interrupted by strange trick r treaters that decide to come back a second time and this is when things start to get really strange…

Black
So satisfying. A cheating husband is in for a rude awakening…

Ride Like the Devil
Are you brave enough to ride The Inferno? This ride is one you’ll never forget…

Pulp
Damn this was one hell of a Halloween party! So many costumes but a killer is lurking inside one of them…

Last Halloween
This was the perfect closing story to this frightful collection of Halloween stories. Two besties go trick r treating and run into some boys from school and they decide to go sneak off drinking instead. Something is lurking in the distance…

Mischief Night Massacre releases on September 24th, 2024. Thank you, Jason, for this ARC! I encourage all my fellow spooky enthusiasts to pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed!