October Nights: Kevin Lucia
Reviewed By Simon Paul Wilson
Halloween is coming, and I have found the perfect read for the spooky season!
Oh yes, October Nights by Kevin Lucia is definitely a book you need to grab a copy of. Trust me on this.
When the ARC came up for review, I snapped it up. Mostly because the cover is awesome. Happily, the blurb also caught my interest and sealed the deal.
Halloween is a night when anything seems possible. This is true everywhere, but nowhere more so than in the strange town of Clifton Heights, New York. October nights here are long and strange, filled with both dread and transformation, and in these four tales, you will encounter things both wondrous and terrifying, in equal measure.
I’d not read anything by Mr. Lucia before, and was unfamiliar with Clifton Heights, so decided it was time I visited said town.
I am so glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will be sure to read more of this author’s work.
October Nights starts with a leatherbound book found at a used book store. Inside the book are four Halloween stories, and it’s these tales that will have you glued to the pages.
Each story ticked all the boxes for me. The writing was brilliant from start to finish, the characters were utterly believable, and the frights and horrors encountered certainly gave me the chills.
What really impressed me was the cinematic quality of the book. I truly believe this would make an excellent movie or mini-series. These four stories of ghostly goings-on, and the search for redemption, revenge, or the truth were written so vividly, I could picture each character and location perfectly. That’s the sign of some bloody good writing!
As I said, all four of these Halloween tales hit the spot. The third story, The Last Will and Testament of the Not-So-Good Reverend Ford, boasts my favourite line from the whole book:
‘…at the end of the day, we were all skeletons-in-waiting.’
Wonderful stuff.
However, One Last Pitch was easily my favourite. It was a great way to close the book, and I thought the Lovecraftian vibe it had was just brilliant.
So, October Nights gets two thumbs-up from me. This is a book I heartily recommend you check out while sipping your pumpkin spiced latte or after you’ve carved your jack-o-lantern.
Right, so that’s your Halloween read sorted. My work here is done.
October Nights
Halloween is a night when anything seems possible. This is true everywhere, but nowhere more so than in the strange town of Clifton Heights, New York. October nights here are long and strange, filled with both dread and transformation, and in these four tales, you will encounter things both wondrous and terrifying, in equal measure.
Simon Paul Wilson
Simon Paul Wilson is a U.K. based writer of horror and science fiction.
He is currently writing a cyberpunk horror trilogy, the first of which is GhostCityGirl and was published by Not A Pipe publishing in 2020.
Click this link for more info: Ghost City Girl
There now follows a list of writers who have influenced his reading tastes and writing style:
James Herbert. Stephen King, Shaun Hutson, Clive Barker, China Mieville, Haruki Murakami, Carlton Mellick III, Brian Keene, and Adam Nevill.
Simon lives somewhere in the middle of England with his wonderful family. He likes to listen to post-rock and progressive rock at loud volumes. He also plays a mean air bass.
Follow him on Twitter: @spwzen
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