What's better than an anthology of horror stories? That's right - an anthology of Halloween themed horror stories in October. Oh, yessss - thank you NetGalley!

They range in styles and length, and I would suggest less appealing to splatterpunk readers and more to the chills and thrills horror readers.

Some are description heave (one of which feel like nonfiction) and some are just gellfully funny (the 90 year old halloweener!).

Like any anthology, you'll like some more than others, but if you're looking for a spooky smorgasbord of scary tales that isn't too lengthy, get your creeping eyes around this book.

I have given Blame it On the Pumpkin by various authors two out of five stars ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read Blame it On the Pumpkin. This book is a collection of fiction and non-fiction stories based upon Halloween and spooky beings created by various authors which I thought would be really interesting to read, however I was disappointed by the stories I had read.

I was eager and ready for a big scare from this book but I think my expectations were a little too high as most of the short stories that I came across were underwhelming and even lost me at some points due to the authors narrative. The writing of some authors I found to be quite cringeworthy and childlike.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Blame it on the Pumpkin by Various Writers in exchange for an honest review. This was a great weekend read the week before Halloween. The eight short stories got me in the mood for my favorite holiday.

I think it is important to point out that this is an anthology (so it has multiple authors) and is targeted toward a YOUNGER audience. Also, I read an advanced reader copy, so although the stories need editing, that is likely to be fixed before publication.

Overall, Blame it on the Pumpkin is a fun Halloween read that I recommend to teens looking for quick Halloween reads. I did enjoy a few of the stories more than others, but that’s usual for an anthology.

Thank you to Netgalley & Publishers for access to an arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Some stories was better than an another BUT the fact that this is short story made my reading so cool ? I could read one story everywhere and finished it immediately.
I really like that so thank you net galley for the arc, I really enjoy it.

I love books that have short stories in them. Every story kept me interested from beginning to end. The writing was great, the story telling was so good. All the authors did a amazing job.. This book was just so much fun to read. I would definitely love a part 2! And it's the perfect time to read this book,. Thank you for the amazing writing and storytelling.

While the synopsis and cover grabbed my attention, I didn't find this title as enjoyable as I'd hoped. None of the stories kept me engaged, and I didn't find the writing to be very polished. I love to support independent publishers and book presses, so I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to read this one. I think someone else may appreciate these tales, and I'm always glad to have more interest in the great Halloween season.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book for review. I really enjoy reading short stories in between or alongside other books. They’re easy to pick up and put down as needed and I loved that this anthology had a Halloween theme. It was a great idea, but unfortunately not executed very well in my opinion. The first two “stories” didn’t fit with the others at all. My favorite stories were Pumpkin Hollow and Alone on Halloween. I thought those showed a lot of promise and I would have liked to seen them developed more. I liked the authors’ writing styles and the overall storylines in those two. Two of the other stories were written by the same author and I was confused as to why it was split into two stories. The second just seemed to be a continuation of the first.
I had high hopes for this collection of short stories, but feel like it missed the mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and DreamPunk Press for an advance copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Blame it on the Pumpkin is tagged as a horror anthology containing eight Halloween-related stories. It is geared towards Teens & YAs.

Overall, I didn’t like it, but I also didn’t hate it. It had some horror elements, but it wasn’t scary. Some of the stories were interesting, and the others fell flat. Because I don’t have strong feelings either way, I’m giving this collection an average, neutral rating of three stars.

- From Pumpkin to Jack-o’-lantern: 1/5 stars
This was a non-fiction piece that walked the reader through the lifecycle of a pumpkin. It literally described growing, carving, and recycling pumpkins. In and of itself, it’s not bad, but it was an odd choice to add to a horror anthology. It was even more odd to make it the first story. I think a lot of people will read this one and stop.

- Moonlit Hunt: 3/5 stars
This piece is about werewolves and reads like a short poem. I think it would have made more sense for the anthology to start with this story.

- Pumpkin Hollow: 3/5 stars
This piece was about a woman who received a mysterious invitation to celebrate Halloween in a town called Pumpkin Hollow. It was an interesting story and an overall easy read.

- Vampire Gourd: 4/5 stars
This piece was about a man who competitively grew vampire gourds. This was one of my favorite stories. It was weird, interesting, and well-paced. It gave off “Little Shop of Horrors” vibes.

- Nasty Old B!tch: 2/5 stars
*Trigger Warning: self-harm, suicide
This piece was about an old, terminally ill woman who wanted to play a trick on the kids who came to her house for homemade treats on Halloween. It was clearly satire, and the woman was a politically incorrect nightmare. It read like stream of consciousness.

- Flock of Badb: 4/5 stars
This piece was about a girl (and her family) cursed to become ravens on their 21st birthdays. This was my other favorite story, and it’s also somewhat satirical. I’m not sure how else to describe it other than as weird and interesting.

- Alone on Halloween: 3/5 stars
*Trigger Warning: self-harm
This piece was about a teenage boy cautiously celebrating Halloween in a new town after causing a raucous the year before. It was well-paced and built tension. I would have liked to know more about what happened the year prior.

- Dance of Masks and Fire: The Witchfinder’s Shadow: 1/5 stars
- Trick or Treat: Once Upon a Hunter’s Moon: 1/5 stars
These pieces were difficult to read. The overall style and word choices distracted from the stories.

- The Halloween Seances: 1/5 stars
This piece was about a group of friends who held annual Halloween seances to guide their lives after their first husbands died. It took an odd turn and morphed into a story with FBI agents, criminal organizations, and hitmen. It seemed out-of-place in a horror anthology.

This collection was pretty bad. A few of the stories had author's that clearly have a lot of potential but most of the stories were just plain bad. Definitely needs editing done as well. Some of the stories didn't even make sense. This was almost the first book I ever DNF'd.

𝐃𝐍𝐅 𝐚𝐭 𝟔𝟕%

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for the honest review!

Blame it on the Pumpkin is an anthology of Halloweeny stories with themes ranging from creepy and plain bizarre. I thought it was all alright, although most of them aren't really that scary and I couldn't help but subconsciously edit down the stories I read. Overall, it's a quick read, perfect for Halloween.

Here are my ratings for each story:

𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑷𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒌𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑱𝒂𝒄𝒌-𝒐'-𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝑴𝒂𝒋𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝑬. 𝑳𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒌𝒚: 1/5
It's non-fiction, so it's informative,,, but this story feels so out of place in this book.

𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒕 𝑯𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝑱. 𝑴. 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒇: 2/5
Short and interesting, it sets the mood for the rest of the book.

𝑷𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒌𝒊𝒏 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒃𝒚 𝑷𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒂 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒚: 2/5
I'm sorry, I'm just- Okay, the plot is interesting enough: a woman brings her friends along to a Halloween festival at Pumkin Hollow, a town she's never heard of in Nelson County. B-movie type plot but it wasn't executed properly, which was a huge letdown for me. The writing is very simple and many sentences are redundant.

𝑽𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝑱𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝑲𝒚𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏: 5/5
My absolute favourite in this anthology. It's about a gardener and his prized 'vampire gourds' that always pricks him and also drains animals dry as extra nourishment. It's weird, but well-written, and even if I saw the ending coming, the buildup towards that is well-executed.

𝑵𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒚 𝑶𝒍𝒅 𝑩!𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒚 𝑺.𝑷. 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕: 𝑫𝑵𝑭
I don't know whether to be confused or offended, so I decide to be both. I forgot what the plot was about, but I think it's about an old woman getting ready for trick or treating? I stopped reading after she went to the costume store (?) because of how confusing the writing was. The obscene amount of slang and long dialogues made it hard for me to keep up (coming from a TEEN), and in the beginning, the old woman was being outright transphobic, so that brought the whole mood down.

𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝑩𝒂𝒅𝒃 𝒃𝒚 𝑺. 𝑷. 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕: 3.5/5
Other than the 'OMG!' moments (literally, it's written like that), I think this is a fairly decent story. It's about a woman whose family line is cursed to turn into a raven after their 21st birthday. The writing is alright, except for the godawful 'OMG!' parts, and some parts were funny, I admit. Overall, it's a bizarre but fun read.

This book veers from the history of the pumpkin to a variety of stories that are in no way interesting or compelling. Give it a pass.

The content warnings for this book include... a lot of stuff, like self harm, suicide attempt, homophobia and transphobia, and the works. Sort of expected it from a horror book though, so not too shocked.

This book was a roller coatser ride, and not in a good way. Since it's a collection of short stories, all by different authors, it'll be unfair to say the entire book was bad. Some of the stories, I really, really enjoyed, but there were some that just... didn't do it for me. They didn't have a hook at the start, and things only made sense several pages into the story and that was pretty off putting. The formatting, especially dialogues and punctuation, was pretty awful in some of the stories as well, but since it's an ARC, that's not something I take huge issue with. The good stories did hook me, right from the start, made sense, also were sufficiently creepy, and ended on a, well. Not a good note, since it's horror, but a note I liked, befitting a horror story. Others... well, I had to force myself into skimming through some of them. Maybe the real horror was the horrible storytelling all along. Some stories also felt a little insensitive, and I couldn't tell how much of it came from a place of actual satire, and how much from malicious intent.

I'd love to read more from the authors I actually did end up liking. I think the ratio of good to bad stories was skewed towards more bad stories than good though.

A book of short stories, essays, verses all centred around an integral Autumn tradition; a pumpkin or Jack O’ Lantern.

I wouldn’t classify this as horror (maybe cozy horror if that), more Spooky Season and Pumpkin Spicey fiction than torn out guts horror. It would cater to a young adult, or adult reader who doesn’t want too scary of a collection.

The stories were ok, but just not what I was looking for (as a desensitized, avid horror reader).

Thank you to NetGalley, the authors, the editor, and DreamPunk Press for a copy.

I love a good spooky short story collection so I was excited to read this one from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. And honestly, I loved it!
This book is perfect for spooky season! And the cover is 🔥🔥🔥 Blame it on the Pumpkin is a small anthology of 8 eerie tales revolving around Halloween. With curses, haunted towns and witches, there is something for everyone. I tried to pick a favourite but they’re all so good! I was left feeling unsettled, grossed out, and thrilled with these short stories. I can picture any/all of these as an episode on Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow. Highly recommend this dark collection of short stories!
Thanks to #NetGalley for this Arc.
Stories and contributors:
Pumpkin Hollow by Pamela Kinney
Vampire Gourd by Jennifer Kyrnin
Nasty Old B!tch by S.P. Mount
Flock of BadB by S.P. Mount
Alone on Halloween by Michael Gore
Dance of Masks and Fire:The Witchfinder’s Shadow by Greg Patrick
Trick or Treat: Once Upon a Hunter’s Moon by Greg Patrick
The Halloween Seances by E.W. Farmsworth

Blame It on the Pumpkin is a collection of fiction, nonfiction and verse centered around pumpkins and Halloween. Mostly scares. I downloaded this book off Netgalley as an avid Halloween lover, who gets their kicks from doing every Autumn and Halloween activities as much as possible. I was looking forward to this collection due to its cover and summary.

However, this left me feeling underwhelmed. The first piece was a non-fiction essay about how pumpkins a grown and the work that goes into taking the seeds and eventually turning them into jack-o-lanterns! It was a very interesting essay to read and im sure it's knowledge that not many people care to know about.

Unfortunately, the rest of the collection went downhill from there. The next piece was a small poem about a man being hunted by a werewolf. It was short and to the point but that did not do the work any favors. It read very middle grade in terms of how unsubtle the narrative was, it almost felt like reading a comic book but not in a good way.

Onwards I started and got half way through a story about Penny and her friends, a girl who takes her friends and Halloween spirit to a maze and festival in an unknown mysterious town. On the way, they encounter strange happenings but trudge forward in hopes of having a good scare.

This story had its roots. I was interested in the story because it was more original and had enough mystery to it to continue reading. But the writing isn't great. The writing style is very choppy and doesn't feel distinct despite the idea being innovative. The beginning was fun however as they were driving to this town and encountered some horrible things, the quality of the story faltered in favor. It was all very dramatic in terms of drama and intrigue, but the non-flowery writing was a letdown. I stopped reading this piece because I couldn't stand to read on, despite wanting to know what happened next. The story had no heart or narrative and for that it was left as choppy and unenjoyable.

Very unfortunate.

More gallows humour than horror but a fun easy read of pumpkin based short stories.
Vampire Gourd was my favourite but I do enjoy a bit of gore. A good spooky season book for those who prefer creepy rather than horror.

I received an advanced readers copy through Netgalley for an honest review.

Trigger warning; self harm
Overall, the book was more or less a let down. Riddled with pacing issues and grammar and spelling mistakes, the book fell very short. I was expecting ghoulish tales with some fright. But, most of the stories were out of touch or not interesting in the slightest. One of the stories (Alone on Halloween) used multiple instances of self harm as its shock factor where the character felt like he was going to do something else so he tied himself down. Another story that was sold as a séance on Halloween night turned into a the characters being in the center of the FBI (or what ever they were) and a criminal organization (i don’t know why this was included. Other stories, like Nasty Old B!tch had a good premise but the execution fell very flat. This story also included self harm as she was planning on killing her self.

With all this said, two stories stood out, Pumpkin Hollow and Trick or Treat: Once Upon a Hunter's Moon. Both of these stories were able to create a good atmosphere in such a sort time. I do hope to see more from the authors that wrote these two stories and they are the reason that this book the raising it did. With better stories surrounding them, the book could have honestly been a 3-4 star read.

This is an anthology of horror short stories revolving around the theme of Halloween. Some are about events that happen on Halloween, pumpkins and other plants that are celebrated on Halloween, or certain traditions that are related to or occur on Halloween. The horror types are diverse. There are supernatural stories, slasher tales, witches, monsters, and human evil. It is an interesting and scary mix.

My favourites are “Flock of Badb,” “Alone on Halloween,” and “Vampire Gourd.”

Blame it on the Pumpkin

By Tara Moeller (editor)



Netgalley give me a copy in exchange for my honest review.



🎃 What’s it about 🎃

What it the best and worst part of Halloween?

The Pumpkins of course!



Blame it on the pumpkin contains 8 scary stories cantered on Halloween, from a pumpkin patch festival, to a horrifying sèance.



Some of the authors include Pamela K. Kinney, Jennifer Kyrnin, Greg Patrick, S.P Mount and more.



🎃 My Thoughts 🎃

For the most part it was fine and I enjoyed it but I felt it was lacking the horror I was looking for. Also as it is an anthology there are going to be a few hit or miss stories, in this case more misses then hits for me. But I would still recommend it for someone looking for short, easy stories with a touch of spooky but just to keeping in mind it wont be for everyone.



My favourite story was:

Alone on Halloween by Michael Gore

This was about a young man named Nick a teen with a troubled past that comes back to haunt him on the anniversary of the incident.



My Least favourite was:

From Pumpkin to Jack-o’-Lantern by Marjory E. Leposky

Not really a story but a nonfiction story about how to grow pumpkins, and being the first story in the book does not really help. Probably would of being better as a prologue not the Hook to get you to start reading.



Rating

3 Jack-o’-Lanterns 🎃🎃🎃