by Austin Crawley

I've read this author before so I was expecting something pretty creepy, but I think he's outdone himself this time. It's a haunted house story that goes beyond the usual ghosts and demons into some very creative supernatural entities from a variety of cultures.

It takes place in an unnamed small town, but I got the impression of somewhere in the Midwest. The main character, Tesha, is an American girl of Asian descent (she mentions a Bengali grandmother) who is still in high school. Some of her friends get an idea to try to get into the local 'haunted house' on Halloween, something that someone tries every year, so the County, who technically own the abandoned property, post security guards every year. She doesn't want to go and is worried about getting into trouble.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the town knows the house presents a problem and has called in an exorcist. One of his employees used to work for the security guard company and has stories to tell about the house.

Beyond that gets into spoilers, but everyone who goes to the house has weird and terrifying experiences, often related to their cultural experience. There are some very original ideas and the whole thing is well-written, perhaps even better than his previous books.

You don't really want to finish the story alone at night. I can see this one becoming an annual read.

Ten years ago, a boy named Tommy disappeared in a pumpkin patch next to the old haunted house at the edge of town. Every year after that, Tommy waits for someone to come into the pumpkin patch at Halloween to be his companion. Is this the year that someone dares to enter the old patch filled with rotten pumpkins and the decaying remains of Tommy?

Your typical urban legend type of story aimed at a teenage audience. Not bad, but nothing great either.

3 rotted pumpkins out of 5

You can also follow my reviews at the following links:

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5919799-ken-mckinley

http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1JOKW56F2YT

I'm glad I saved this one to read in December. I've enjoyed several movie versions of A Christmas Carol and loved the original book, so the idea of someone having a seance to raise the spirits of Christmas was really appealing.

This has been done extremely well. The three female characters don't seem all that likeable at first, but like Scrooge, they experience flashbacks to their pasts that make it possible to understand them better and see their development into what are actually typical examples of a lot of young women today. But it's the changes that happen as a result of the ghostly visitations that really make the story.

I love how the progression mirrors that of Scrooge, yet is specific to each of these characters. I was drawn deeper and deeper into their lives and the terrible things they've seen or experienced. Naturally the third ghost brings it all to a frightening and even surreal crescendo before the end. I think I'll remember this story for a long time to come. I might even make it an annual Horror Christmas read.