Book Review: One Night in Salem (Various)

As per usual in October, I picked out a scary book to read to get in the mood for Halloween.

This year that book was...My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix.

That book was set in the 80s (lots of references, and the chapter names were song titles - FUN!) in, of all places, Mt. Pleasant South Carolina, where my family converges for the holidays each year! What could go wrong?

Well...it was too scary.

Here's the thing: It might have to do with being born in the mid-70s when The Exorcist was an early horror touchstone, but I am terrified of possession stories. They're just as fake and fantastic as vampires, werewolves (or "wurwolfs" - MST3K shout-out!), or ghouls, but I really find exorcism stories unsettling. I thought I could take the book at first, but then it set up the demonic possession angle and...I had to put it down. After all, I read these before falling asleep - why put myself through that?

So, without a book to read for Halloween, I did what any 21st century digital boy (Bad Religion shout-out!) would do - I did a Google search for "Halloween books for adults". And that's how I ended up with One Night in Salem.

Sidebar: One of the options that came up in the search was Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I would have jumped at the book had I not already read it. I felt it was unfortunate that Bradbury only wrote one horror novel amongst his sci-fi offerings. However, in order to find a picture for this review I repeated my search, and now found SEVERAL Ray Bradbury books within the search. He even had one called The Halloween Tree! F*ck the algorithm.

So anyway, One Night in Salem is a short story collection featuring stories taking place within Salem, Massachusetts from the witch-trial era to the present day. None of the stories are related, and they all feature different horror elements.

When I was buying this book on Amazon I glanced at the reviews and noted that some of the reviews said that a few of the stories read like they were written by high schoolers. "Snobs," I thought. Well, after reading this book...yes, I do think a few were written by high schoolers. My favorite of the bunch features a boat in the present-day that "somehow" (Rise of Skywalker shout-out!) goes back in time to clash with pirates. There's also one with a witch that cuts off before any type of plot has time to develop, and one even features a haunted slide. A HAUNTED SLIDE.

So, there's definitely a few clunkers here. More than a few. But there's some good ones too. There's a compelling story of a man leading his date through a twisted funhouse. There's a good one about a kid using a medium to connect with his deceased father. And there's my favorite, a very unique and unexpected take on werewolves during the colonial era.

Very uneven collection, but I do have to say a fun time was had by all. And if some of these lame pieces can get published, there's still hope for me yet! Can really only give this five out of ten hot dogs, but if it's spooks you're seeking and you're looking for a good time, not a long time, check it out.