HALLOWEEN SEASON
Lucy A. Snyder
October 5, 2020
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Reviewed by Brian James Lewis

Halloween is nearly here! And you can’t have a happy one without some great reads from Raw Dog Screaming Press. Couple that with one of the greatest horror writers of our time, and you’ve got a 5 Star celebration of a very special season! Hot off the presses, Lucy A. Snyder’s great new short story collection Halloween Season-not your kids’ Halloween is bad to the bone. As always, she’s mixed some humor and warmth in with the chills to make her characters easy to relate to. For a full spectrum experience, Snyder has even included a couple of adult stories to give us that mix of scary and sexy we crave. Ready to take peek inside? Let’s go!

We’re always reading or watching heart rending stories about far flung families reuniting. How wonderful! They never thought they’d get to see a long-lost daughter or brother again! Hooray! In The Family mines that territory with a few twists. The found person is a son from a previous marriage of the narrator’s sister. He arrives at his mother’s house only to find out that she’s not there. But his aunt is and it seems that she has a lot to tell him…Creepy with very believable details!

Hazelnuts and Yummy Mummies is cool story that starts with the accidental ingestion of the “wrong cookies” during a horror convention. We’re not talking hash brownies here, more like serious hallucinogen overload. The initial results are pretty damn funny. But soon Victoria is swept up into a spiritual journey that helps her understand things in her past that left some major scars. Kind of like all those Christmas movies and of course the very near Day of the Dead, anything can happen during the magical night that is Halloween. Enjoy the ride!

Remember all those tough guy detectives that guys like Humphrey Bogart played in old movies? Unflappable dudes who always saved the dame and took care of hard cases without batting an eye. It was rare for them to be referred to as The Kind Detective. But the detective in Lucy A. Snyder’s story is a good guy who cares about the people he’s trying to help during a city-wide crisis. Trees are disappearing out of people’s yards in a strange way. The impact upon the tree owners is severe, but The Kind Detective figures out a plan to end their troubles. Is there such a thing as being too helpful?

The House That Couldn’t Clean Itself is part love story and part science fiction. When Marsha’s girlfriend points out that she’s been taken advantage of in a sublease, she tries to downplay it. But you can only ignore a situation for so long. The big issue is a vast lack of cleanliness to the point of requiring robotic intervention. But, just like everything else in life, you get what you pay for. You know, kind of like fast food. So when Marsha’s housemates decide to repurpose a robot to save money, things don’t exactly go to plan. Make sure to read this one!

Halloween Season is a great collection that earned a hearty 5 STARS! What makes Snyder’s work so fun to read is that she’s a shapeshifting chameleon. Each story is different, so that we are constantly travelling over new ground. No flat spots in here! Also dig the poems tucked inside. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Want more information about the great writer Lucy A. Snyder? Then visit her at: www.lucysnyder.com or say hello to her on Twitter @LucyASnyder. Raw Dog Screaming Press publishes a diverse range of truly delightful books! Be sure to visit them at: www.RawDogScreaming.com