Horrorween [Mass Market Paperback]

Al Sarrantonio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2006

For untold ages a dark presence has shrouded the small town of Orangefield. In addition to the plentiful pumpkins that gave the town its name. Orangefield is home to the dreaded Lord of Death himself, Samhain. Despite the rumors of his existance,and rare, brief sightings Samhain has long been content to leave the local inhabitants alone. But that is about to change.... When a boy from the town disappears, detective Bill Grant is convinced Samhain is responsible. But even Grant cannot imagine the horrific extent of the Lord of Death's grand scheme. As what may prove to be the last Halloween approaches, the fate of the world will depend on the survival of a small group of people pawns in a terrifying game of cosmic proportions.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (October 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843956399
• ISBN-13: 978-0843956399
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,578,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chiller from Sarrantonio, December 22, 2006

By 

K. Sozaeva "Obsessive bibliophile" (Athens, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horrorween (Mass Market Paperback)

After I was a ways into this book, I realized that I vaguely remembered Orangefield from the earlier book "Hallows Eve." It seems to me as though this earlier book (released in 2004) was a bit stronger, especially given that my memory is so bad that to have remembered anything about a book two years after reading it is somewhat amazing! However, this was a fairly good book as well. I won't go into plot details - the book focuses around Samhain, The Celtic Lord of the Dead (according to this book) and his attempts on behalf of a shadowy background figure he calls Dark One to destroy the world.

My main gripe is the fact that everyone in the town talks about "Sam" sightings, when anyone who knows anything about Samhain knows it is pronounced "sow-en." Of course, probably the residents of Orangefield are too ignorant to know that . . .

Anyway, if you like Sarrantonio, if you have read his previous books about Orangefield, or if you just feel like a fun, scary Halloween book, give this one a try.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Way too easy to put down and never pick up again . . ., July 16, 2008

By 

BarkLessWagMore (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horrorween (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked this one out my tbr pile back in October because it seemed to be geared towards Halloween. From the back blurb it appeared to be a spooky tale about a town plagued by the "Lord of Death" and creepy pumpkins. What it really was, however, was a hastily slapped together book containing three loosely related novellas (all of which had been printed elsewhere) which would've been fine if I were looking to read a collection of ho-hum poorly researched novellas but I wasn't.

I made it through the first story which I had a nagging feeling I'd read before. It was about a writer suffering through writer's block, a marriage that is falling apart and . . . bees. The ending drove me nuts as I saw it miles away and wondered why the protagonist never realized it. The author throws in his version of Samhain, whom he calls "The Lord of Death" and calls "Sam". Apparently, "Sam" is terrorizing the small town where the nasty bees and the not-so-bright writer live. Anyone with just a passing bit of knowledge about the celtic holiday Samhain will know that it is pronounced "Sow-en" not "Sam hain" so I pretty quickly lost all interest in this book. If you're going to write a book with a twist on a celtic holiday at least do the basic research and get the pronunciation correct, sheesh. But then I guess it would've been quite silly to go around calling your big scary evil villain "Sow". It didn't help that this story was extremely average and the follow up bored me so much that I couldn't get through it.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Return to Orangefield, October 17, 2006

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horrorween (Mass Market Paperback)

Orangefield is the pumpkin capital of the world. It is a town that lives for Halloween. A town that is home to Samhain, Lord of the Dead. This book is sort of a followup to HALLOW'S EVE (2004). Parts of the book were previously released in slightly different forms as "Hornets" (2001), "The Pumpkin" Boy (2005), and ORANGEFIELD (2002). The two short stories make up the first half of the book. First we have an author of children's horror stories who hits a writer's block one warm October until a promise changes everything. Next the hunt for some missing boys ties in to only kidnaping cases and a sophisticated robot.

Finally we get a longer story concerning three individuals who will play a part in leading the way for Samhain and his master. A young girl has become The Wizard. A young man with chemical imbalances does whatever the voices say. Finally, a veteran has become The Pumpkin Keeper to avoid memories of the war and what he did. These three and a town librarian are part of Samhain's plan. If Samhain succeeds, then his master will rule the world. But can even the Lord of the Dead predict just how humans will act? Will he be able to get them to do what is necessary to bring about the reign of his master? Well, you will have to read the book to find out.

The opening story was very good and chilling. The Pumpkin Boy was interesting but seemed to lack just a few paragraphs that could have realized its potential. The novella that makes up the rest of the book was a quick read but a little disappointing. Why is the girl now The Wizard? How is it anything other than just a name? I don't know. How did the young man's actions serve Samhain? We know Samhain told him to do them but not why. Only the veteran seemed clear from his actions. Who is Samhain's master? I expected more but didn't find it. This was a disappointment after the strength of the opening story. I was also disappointed at the way Halloween was portrayed. Here we have a town that practically worships the holiday and yet, on the day, people are distrusting and vandalism runs rampant. Sure didn't seem like a town that loved the holiday. There are good points to this book like the opening story but overall it was rather weak.