I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Crossroad Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really fun short story collection that is perfect to read around Halloween time! There's a lot of traditional Halloweeny stuff to be found here, although a few stories get more creative with the concept which I appreciated. I was a particular fan of the second short story Blood Suede Shoes as I wasn't fully sure where it was going to go. I also really liked Pretty Little Lanterns as, though a little outlandish, it had fantastic execution and spooky imagery.

Overall, this is a short but sweet collection that is perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit. I recommend checking it out if you want a fun seasonal read

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

I received an advance copy of this ebook from the publisher for a honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. This book has short stories that are well written. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. This book is about 3.5 stars but I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. This book is in stores for $12.99 (USD).

A really enjoyable set of short stories set around the most wonderful time of year. They were all varied and had different levels of scares, but each was perfect for spooky season. I particularly liked the human jack o lantern story, that one had me gripped. I also really enjoyed the authors notes about his own childhood Halloweens and the things that have come and gone out of fashion with sweets, Tv shows, toys etc over the years. An excellent homage to Halloween.

*thank you to Netgalley, Crossroad Press, Macabre Ink and Ronald Kelly for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*



3.5 stars

I found this to be, for the most part, quite entertaining and enjoyable. Yeah there were a few of the stories that I wasn't keen on. But about 60% of the book I did like.

While I didn't find them scary or creepy, they were still rather fun to read. The Trick or Treat ones and the last story were my favourites. The first was probably the best of them all and the second and third I didn't care for.

I have to comment on the cover though and say I reckon it's pretty darn good! It's what originally caught my eye and made me want to see what it was about.

A good variation of stories and well written. While I don't highly recommend this, it wasn't bad. If it sounds like something you would enjoy, I say to give it a go. You may not like all the stories but I'm sure you will find a few that you do at least.

The Halloween Store hits all the marks for a fun Halloween treat. Unfortunately, the literary market is saturated with Halloween short story collections like this one, some aim for gruesome splatter-punk adjacent horror, some are more along the lines of traditional "spooky fun" of the season. The Halloween Store manages to dabble in various aspects of Halloween, at times warm and fuzzy with nostalgia, and at times downright scary. Each story in this collection feels individual and has its own personality which makes this collection really stand out from its contemporaries.

Downloaded the ARC of this from Netgalley on New Year's Day, then left to one side, because obviously I wasn't reading Hallowe'en stories in January – and then ended up taking my first dip in late August, because the weather was feeling sufficiently autumnal for that to make sense. Time, between the Event and climate collapse, being thoroughly out of joint - a problem for the old hinges of the year like Hallowe'en. The introduction makes clear that this collection was intended by way of a consolation prize for Hallowe'en 2020, though in amongst some fairly feeble observational material (masks under masks LOL!) it neglects to mention the true enormity of what was taken from us – the only full Moon Saturday Hallowe'en of a lifetime. And as alternatives go, these stories are very much 'We've got Hallowe'en at home'. The title tale sees four kids saving up to buy supercool old costumes from the town's new Halloween store, which – well, what's the most obvious thing that could happen in a story about kids buying Hallowe'en costumes from a strange new shop? Yep, exactly. About the only surprise was that the kid who gets the mummy costume lies down and crumbles to dust. Which...by that approach, surely the kid who got the vampire costume should have disappeared in a puff of logic, rather than going on a bloodsucking rampage? And so it goes, with each story throwing ordinary people from small-town America into the path of things that crawl from the darkness. The threats, in fairness, often having an ingenious nastiness to them* – but the people up against them, and the prose, serve mainly as a reminder that while Stephen King made this stuff look easy, Ray Bradbury made it feel that it came as natural as a leaf being whirled away on the October wind, it really, really isn't.

*Although another exception is the story that supplies the cover image. I have many quibbles with the villain of this piece, but chief is that even after one wrecked my country, I cannot take seriously a villain called Nigel.

I am a horror fan. I love all things scary, creepy, bloody. It is no surprise, I'm sure, that I love Halloween. But I don't want Halloween to be truly scary. Halloween should be spooky-fun. Halloween should make you feel giddy, like a kid again, half-scared and half-laughing.

This book captures that feeling perfectly.

Ronald Kelly gives us seven short stories that center mainly around Halloween. Six of the seven are set at Halloween time and the other certainly still has that old-time monster feel. These stories are gruesome in fairly clean ways, vaguely shocking, funny at the same time they're scaring you. They are full of small town nostalgic Halloween goodness, coming-of-age vibes, festivals and trick-or-treating, pumpkins and leaves and bags full of candy. They're like Goosebumps for adults.

But don't let that make you think these aren't worthy of adult reading. They certainly are. There's darkness and evil here, but its the kind you watch through a gap in your fingers with your hand over your face, cringing from it but giggling at it all at once.

The titular story shows us what happens when four friends get their hands on some very special, one-of-a-kind, entirely evil costumes.

'Mister Mack is Back in Town' is a bizarre tale of child abductions and human organ rearranging. Yep, you read that right.

'Blood Suede Shoes' gives us a new play on the trope of the devil at the crossroads at midnight.

'Clown Treats' is a delightfully disgusting little story of some Halloween treats you definitely don't want.

'The Cistern' is a story about returning home longing for nostalgic holiday feelings and getting something much, much worse.

'Pretty Little Lanterns' is by far the most actually horrific tale in the bunch, and it doesn't even lean on any supernatural elements to achieve its horror. Good old human depravity lights this story up.

'The Amazing and Totally Awesome Fright Creature' is a completely-unbelievable-in-a-fun-way tale of two friends and a truly remarkable (and diabolical) pet. In the end it throws out some references to a couple of stories in Kelly's collection 'The Essential Sick Stuff' which I just read last month so I was glad to be able to pick up on those little tidbits.

The book ends with two essays, one describing Kelly's own childhood Halloweens and how things have changed over the years, and one listing all the nostalgic Halloween goodies he loved in the 1960s and 70s. These gave me all the goosebumpy-in-a-good-way feels.

So, to summarize, this collection is everything that Halloween should be: creepy, spooky, and just plain fun.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Stories are okay. They all just seem so rushed.

A wonderfully imaginative, yet familiar, collection of spooky Halloween shorts. The author has passion, voice, and creativity; a bit more finesse and "body" to his writing is desired but can be achieved with more (and more and more) writing and successful publications. Fun, alluring cover art and a variety of settings that can appeal to any Halloween lover.

This is a very short book with a few short stories that are all very well written. I enjoyed this very much.

I do recommend this

This book was delicious it was a brilliant book
All the stories were scary and funny sometimes
I loved the Clown Treats
I had an ARC

Listen, I would have been into these stories anyway, because they're all good stories about the spooky magic of the Best Holiday. But add in the fact that they're set in the beautiful South, and I'm hitting both the hootin' AND the hollerin' buttons.

Book Review for The Halloween Store by Ronald Kelly
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

This is one of the few book of short stories where I truly enjoyed each story in it! Each one was well written, engaging and creepy. I also really enjoyed the author's personal essay at the end of the book as well. All of us who grew up in a time where it was ok to trick or treat by ourselves, well it was just a different time. I hold those memories very dear. I think my favorite story in this was actually The Halloween Store!

Now this is what I've been waiting for! I know it's not Halloween or even close, but as a lover of all Horror books...well it's always Halloween isn't it?
This book did not disappoint. It reminded me of the anthologies I used to read as a teen when October came. I would buy all I could find, preparing for my favorite holiday season and sit every night and read my ghost and ghoulie books.
Every one of these stories was like old horror books. When the intent was to scare the pants off of you. Ghost, ghouls, witches, and werewolves. Demon's and un-named unease is ride through the pages of this book.
This is my first te reading this author but I plan to search out everything he has done. You should too.
Highly recommended.
I received this free from Netgalley in exchange for my honest unbiased opinion.

Thank you net galley for a free ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This book made me feel like It was already fall again. I enjoyed every short scary story in this book. The variety of scary stories really made me enjoy this book. One story was about a Dr. Serial killer who made his victims into jack-I’-lanterns and another was about four kids who were tricked into wearing costumes that would turn them into to monsters. The variation of stories kept me on my toes and made me want to keep on reading. Also there were a few stories that genuinely did scare me which also made this such a fun read for me. Even thought I read this book in January it made me ready for Halloween to come. Overall I really enjoyed this read and might even read it again come this Fall!

This might interests pre-teen or teenagers. It's not horrible just a little boring for an adult. I love Halloween stories but usually not short stories.

The stories were fun and gruesome. Some even had me chuckle out loud at the perfect endings. The essays reminded me so much of my Halloweens as a kid.

The Halloween Store and Other Tales of All Hallows’ Eve by Ronald Kelly is a collection of 8 horror. short stories. Typically when there is a compilation of short stories, there are usually a few duds mixed into the collection. Surprisingly, all of these stories were a solid 3 or 4 star rating with an overall rating of 3.25. My favorite stories were Mister Mack Is Back in Town and Clown Treats. This was a fun collection of short stories perfect for the spooky season. None of these stories would be classified as scary. . . mostly along the lines of coming of age “horror.” It was less than a 90 minute read, but I enjoyed this quick book of bite sized tales.

I am a huge fan of horror and especially of horror anthologies and "The Halloween Store" did NOT disappoint! In fact, I will be looking into more from the author, Ronald Kelly. The stories in this anthology are all written from the same author but at the same time very different. I can't really pick a favorite because they were just all that good! Some were long, some were rather short, none disappointed. I found this book hard to put down and I relished every story while at the same time looking forward to what the next one would offer me. I read this book in January and loved it just as much as if I would have read it for Halloween. So I say, if you are a fan of horror, don't hesitate, grab this one up!