I am having such a hard time finishing this anthology. I'm still plugging away at it, but I get stuck on certain stories, and have to force myself to keep reading. It's a shame, because there are some really great ones in here, too, that give you that creeping feeling and stick in your head for days afterwards. A mixed bag, but probably something for every taste. ( )

Mister October – A Review
Posted on February 11, 2014 by mfennvt Edit
Front_Cover_Image_Mister_October_Volume_I-215x300 Front_Cover_Image_Mister_October_Volume_II

LibraryThing gave me free e-copies of Mister October Volumes I and II: An Anthology in Memory of Rick Hautala as part of their Early Reviewer program. I had never heard of Rick Hautala (even though he’s published dozens of novels and short stories), but I had heard of several of the authors included in this anthology. So I was looking forward to checking out this collection.

As some of you may know, there’s a sad reason for the books’ creation. Rick Hautala died of a heart attack in March 2013, leaving his wife and children in a bad way financially; money struggles had forced him to let his life insurance slip. So editor Christopher Golden chose to create this anthology as a way to raise money for the family. Chris Paine at Journalstone agreed to publish the books without taking a profit.

The result is a decent collection of horror stories. I found the second volume to be stronger the first, enjoying more of the stories therein. I really liked Jack Ketchum‘s evilly funny “Hotline,” Peter Straub‘s “Little Red’s Tango” (I once aspired to have an apartment full of records like that, just not the demon), and Nancy Collins‘ “Catfish Gal Blues,” along with Jeff Strand‘s “Hologram Skull Cover” and Nate Kenyon‘s “The Dreamcatcher.” They were the strongest in terms of both the horror itself and the writing. Volume I’s shining moments included Yvonne Navarro‘s “Craving,” Joe Lansdale‘s “Tight Little Stitches,” and Jonathan Maberry‘s “Property Condemned: A Story of Pine Deep.” The latter, a seriously creepy haunted house tale, has me wanting to read Maberry’s Pine Deep Trilogy now.

In fact, this anthology introduced me to a lot of authors I want to read more of: for example, Sarah Langan, John Skipp, the editor Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, José Nieto, and Duane Swierczynski. Their stories made up for the weaker ones, and there are sadly many of those in this collection. Stories that are weak in the telling, dull, or repulsive in a not-good horror way.

Your mileage may vary, of course. Mister October is definitely worth a read and buying it helps folks who need it. Seems like a good thing all around, even thought the reason for it is a sad one. 3.2/5 ( )

It may seem like a collection of stories gathered in tribute to a deceased author is not the best book with which starting out in any literary genre. Not for these two volumes that bring together a good dozen of American writers of horror literature.

For someone who had not read horror literatura these two volumes have proved to be an interesting foray into the genre. The book brings together many different authors, some internationally renowned as Neil Gaiman or Christopher Golden. The stories are also varied, offering a very broad collection of themes and characters, covering topics of the genre (vampires, ghosts, psychopaths, shapeshifters, demons, deformed creatures, characters with supernatural powers ...) in very different situations and also providing perspectives and characters that are not usually associated with the canon of classic horror genre.

One of the most interesting discoveries, in my opinion, is the ability shown by many of the authors to convert any conventional situation or bland character in a disturbing and threatening story introducing dark and creepy plot movements and other surreal elements.

The collection is interesting because of its diversity; After facing a variety of themes, characters and even literary qualities, the reader has seen a complete picture of the genre that allows him or her to choose which path to follow within the broad spectrum of contemporary terror. ( )

Christopher Golden does a wonderful tribute to the memory of Rick Hautala!

Rick Hautala was an award winning prolific writer. People enjoyed his work – from the critics to the one book a year reader. A heart attack took Rick away from us not long after his 64th birthday, leaving fans, collogues, family and friends to grieve. Christopher Golden found a great way to celebrate Rick’s work and help Rick’s family at the same time. Christopher wanted to pay homage to such great author and friend. Christopher reached out to other horror authors and was rewarded so well, that he had to break the anthology of submitted works to two separate volumes. Mister October, Volumes I and II was now born.

Several reviews broke it down by each story, I chose not to. It is a group of horror stories, so very few happy endings are found here, but there is a great deal of originality and talent throughout both volumes. You may not like 1 or 2 of the stories, but when you are done, you will not feel as if you wasted your time with these two volumes. I am not a “horror” fan, but I am very glad that I took the time to read each and every contribution. I support Christopher Golden in his efforts. Rick would be very proud of what he did for him, his family and his fans. I recommend that you take the time and read these two volumes, you will not be disappointed. ( )

Volume I

Yes of course it was a stupid thing to do. We had a monkey jacked full of the most communicable virus known to man in our house. The lab was heavily secured by then, but it was still an insane risk. I think, in retrospect, that we were so caught up in what we were doing, in our own joint mind, that normal considerations has ceased to register.

When horror writer Rick Hautala died suddenly without life insurance, his friend Christopher Golden decided to put out an anthology of stories to raise money for his family. So many stories poured in that he had to split the book into two volumes.

Volume I contains a wide variety of stories, ranging from outright horror to poignant stories of ghosts and timeslips, and the occasional more humorous tale. Although there is no overall theme, quite a lot of the stories were about relationships between parents and children, and conflict between brothers, both alive and dead.

My three favourites were "Figures in Rain" and "The Year the Music Died", and especially "Hell Hath Enlarged Herself", which in some ways reminded me of the Lovecraft story "Herbert West, Reanimator". There was never going to be a happy ending to this story, with its mad scientists locked in their folie à trois, working in their home laboratory without thought to medical ethics or safety protocols.

Volume II

A craze for floppy shirts, ink-stained fingers, and pale faces seizes the surfer kids, and everyone on the strip has a pet raven or a trained ape. Beauty contests for cataleptics are all the rage, and "Miss Universe" is crowned with a wreath in her coffin as she is solemnly bricked up by the judges. The Green Berets adopt a "conqueror worm" cap badge. Housing developments rise up tottering on shaky ground near stagnant ponds, with pre-stressed materials to provide Usher cracks and incendiaries built into the light-fittings for more spectacular conflagrations. The most popular names for girls in 1966-7 are "Lenore," "Annabel," "Ligeia," and "Madeline."
In a kingdom by the sea, we are haunted. In the El Dorado of Los Angeles, white fog lies thick on the boulevards. The mournful "nevermores" of ravens perched on statues is answered by the strangled mewling of black cats immured in basements. And the seagulls chime in with "tekeli-li, tekeli-li" as if that was any help.

To start with, I wasn't enjoying the stories in this collection has much as those in Volume I, but after the half-way point the stories became much more to my taste. The first of the passages I highlighted in my Kindle was on page 175 and my favourite stories were all after page 200. It's not the first time recently that I've preferred the stories toward the end of a book, but I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that the sort of stories I like tend to be clustered together, or whether the editor made a conscious decision to put the best stories at the end so as to leave the reader feeling satisfied.

My favourite story was "Illimitable Dominion", in which the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe is accidentally raised in 1960s Hollywood by Roger Corman and other B-movie directors. The other stories making up my top 3 were "The Light of All Possible Worlds" , and "War Stories" . My least favourite story was probably "Little Red's Tango". I think the reason I didn't like it is that it taps into a very male kind of obsession that just doesn't click with me. ( )