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Book: “All Hallows Eve: Stories of Halloween and Other Festivals of the Dead” by Ellen Datlow (Ed.)
Publishing Info: Titan Books, September 2026
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Halloween, Samhain, Día de los Muertos—festivals across the world where we can commune with those we have lost, when spirits can cross over, and when the boundary between the living and the dead is far, far too thin.
A young boy encounters a woman with an ancient and terrifying link to the holiday, a group of college students attend a Halloween party to die for, and a troubled girl exploits a local urban legend to try and turn her life around.
From America to New Zealand via the rural Romanian wilderness, this anthology explores our worldwide obsession with the spookiest season of the year, when the veil is lifted and the spirits come alive. Featuring 19 original stories from bestselling and award-winning masters of the genre, and from Hugo, World Fantasy, Locus, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson award-winning editor and horror legend Ellen Datlow, this anthology invites you to carve a pumpkin, light the lanterns and welcome in trick or treaters from across the world.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!
October always flies by so quickly! It feels like it was just yesterday that we were starting the spooky season, but here we are, two days out from Halloween, and I don’t know if I am ready to say goodbye to the season. But since we do still have those two days, and one more day of my Horrorpalooza reviews, I saved the most festive book for last. “All Hallows Eve: Stories of Halloween and Other Festivals of the Dead” is a new horror short story collection edited by Ellen Datlow, bringing in a number of horror authors to try their hand at Halloween-y (or other weird festival) fiction. How appropriate! I was definitely in the Halloween spirit when I picked it up!
As usual, I will review the three books that stood out to me the most, and then I will review the collection as a whole.
“Treats” by Clay McLeod Chapman: No surprises here that one of my favorites in the collection was by one of my favorite horror authors! A grieving husband and wife have turned their back on Halloween after their only son dies suddenly and tragically, opting to sit the night out as it was his favorite. But someone keeps ringing the doorbell, and every time the door opens, the costume changes but is always familiar. This one was my favorite of the lot, and it had me sobbing by the end of it. Chapman is so good with grief horror, and this one had a creepy building tension that oh so bittersweetly turned from suspenseful to tragic to perhaps a hope for closure. I just loved it.
“The Kuker” by Alma Katsu: Another piece of grief horror? Why not! But in a different way. A widow is still dealing with the loss of her husband, whose interest and knowledge of Eastern European folklore and custom led him to having a kuker suit that he liked to wear on Halloween. As she starts to clean out his office, she finds the suit that had always set her on edge. Katsu’s story is simple, and it is a bit quiet, and I really loved how she weaves such a gentle tale of grief, loss, and letting go.
“The Hungry Grass” by Siobhan Carroll: I love it when horror stories blend with historical fiction, and when that historical fiction gets political. An English man stationed in Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine is watching as many around him starve while food for the English is shipped on out, and ends up sharing a lodging with a strange young woman who was in a carriage accident. As she boards with him, he starts to feel more and more out of sorts. This vampire story is not only about a vampire who is stalking a colonizer, it is also about how colonialism as a whole is just as parasitic as vampires themselves. I really liked it.
As a whole, I had a few others that stood out to me, a few that were okay, and then a few that I just didn’t enjoy. I did like how there were a lot of different takes on Halloween and holidays about death celebrations, and how the authors took different interpretations of that prompt to create a wide array. It was mildly disappointing that we didn’t get a huge number of stories that knocked it out of the park, but my preferences may not line up with those of others.
“All Hallows Eve” is a festive short story collection that is just right for the upcoming holiday this weekend. Seek it out of you want some quick reads that will get you in the mood.
And with that, Horrorpalooza 2026 comes to a close! I hope that everyone out there has a Happy, Safe, and Spooky Halloween!
Rating 7: The strong stories were incredibly strong, and while some of them were middle of the road, it’s a nice batch of festive reading for Halloween!
Reader’s Advisory:
“All Hallows” isn’t included on any relevant Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Books to Get You in the Halloween Mood”.
