THE HALLOWEEN IN ME

A collection of spooky short stories centered on classic Halloween themes.

In Bills’ newest book of short fiction, the prolific author and expert on all things Texas returns with 13 tales that frighten and entertain. The subjects range from the ghosts of Vietnam vets killed in action to half-nude fortune cookie prognosticators and murderous, insane former judges. In the title story, an otherwise normal suburban father, Bryan Nichols, finds himself despondent at his neighborhood’s lack of enthusiasm for Halloween, especially considering his neighbor—who also happens to be the father of his childhood best friend who was killed in Operation Desert Storm—used to be well-known for his life-size (and lifelike) spooky lawn figures. Soon, Bryan discovers these statues are actually the ghosts of former townspeople. The reader wonders if Bryan will soon join them in the afterlife. Next, Bills switches gears to the tale of a woman with a second sight who dispenses prescient wisdom through fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant. When a reporter comes knocking, the two fall into a brief love affair spurred by her insistence that the world will end any moment. The stories shine most brightly in their shorter form, such as “The Judge,” a well-crafted tale in which a young police officer begins interrogating a man who murdered his own wife, only to quickly realize that he has seen this man before, and he holds a dark secret from the officer’s childhood.

Paths cross and recross over time in this collection, and Bills does well to amplify the inherent friction between competing lives in a small (or even large) town. While certain pieces verge on the saccharine—a common pitfall in any work dealing with love and loss, as horror fiction often does—the general sense while reading is that Bills is a confident, competent storyteller with tales to spin and the requisite command of language to keep readers turning pages. The author does well, too, to capture the essence and nostalgia of Halloween from the outset: “As I walked, I felt like a kid again, fourteen, ten—eight. I smiled and laughed. Halloween had always been our night.” While some pieces drag a bit and could have used a lighter hand (“Nature Calls” slows the pace, for example) readers will garner enough thrills and chills to keep moving through the entirety of Bills’ collection. The blurbs at the beginning of each story are an odd touch that probably could have been eschewed, but otherwise, Bills displays an innate sense for the reader’s experience, in particular by dropping in just enough backstory for each cast member to give the necessary context for the emotional freight to be delivered without bogging down plot with extraneous personal history. Readers looking for a spooky Halloween ride without gore overflowing from its pages will find a lot to enjoy here.

A fun, imaginative story collection with solid horror and writing.