Probably no better example of Arkham House in its death throes, Dragonfly starts out well but then jettisons its own Halloween premise to try to tell some other holy message that doesn't work. Somewhere between Bradbury and Gaiman but without the magic and certainly no nod to Halloween fun.

The fact that Arkham House would be forced to accept and publish a book this amateur, or just have the lack of judgement to see how out of line it was with the press's entire legacy, shows how far things had fallen since [a:August Derleth|20598|August Derleth|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1263314065p2/20598.jpg]'s untimely demise. ( )

Starts out as a nice, atmospheric Halloween tale but gradually turns into a thinly veiled screed against the holiday and everything associated with it. Not a celebration of the season.

Also, a complete swipe of [b:Something Wicked This Way Comes|248596|Something Wicked This Way Comes|Ray Bradbury|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255682215s/248596.jpg|1183550]. ( )

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Frederic S. Durbin at a local library and traded books with him. I have just finished reading his book, Dragonfly, and it turned out to be an excellent book to read in the weeks leading up to Halloween. It tells the adventures of Dragonfly, a young girl who discovers a phantasmagorical underground realm beneath the basement of her Uncle's funeral home. Sam Hain (as in Samhain, the Celtic Halloween), its evil leader, sends monsters up to steal children and poison the dreams of humanity. It is one of the most original tales I have read in ages, and it stands out from the other fantasy books I have read during the past decade in terms of the author's descriptions of this subterranean world. While the author's vision is highly creative and fascinating, it is his descriptions that stand out. He is as much an artist as he is an author; he paints with words, and I find myself somewhat grateful that I read the book in paperback rather than on my usual tablet because I would otherwise have found myself constantly highlighting beautifully crafted phrases, sentences, and paragraphs for future contemplation and enjoyment rather than simply enjoying being immersed in such a wonderful world. Although the heroine of the book is an adolescent girl, readers of all ages should find this a wonderfully fantastic, if frighteningly evil, world in which to while away one's autumn evenings. This book is a rare Halloween treat best savored wrapped in a warm blanket when the moon is full, the naked branches of trees tap upon the windows, and the crackle of the fire competes with the creaks of aging joists and settling staircases. Grab a mug of hot chocolate, settle back in your chair, and enjoy your trip to the dark world of Harvest Moon. ( )

This is a book I picked up cheaply, on a whim, several years ago. How very serendipitous - this has turned out to be one of my favourite reads so far this year. It starts with a girl being drawn into the creepy underworld in the basement of her uncle's funeral parlour, and becomes a gripping journey through the land of Harvest Moon, which is a combination of Carnivale and Industrial Revolution-flavoured nightmares (I wasn't surprised to find out that the author lived in Japan while writing this; there's a definite fusion of Western and Japanese modes of horror going on here - Tim Burton meets Silent Hill!). Durbin employs striking imagery (such as the great boiling, fuming malevolent moon that turns out to be a mighty, jack-o-'lantern-faced airship) and lush, beautiful prose, and has a real knack for naming things (e.g. Eagerly Meagerly, the child-herder; sparsely, the food the captive children are fed upon; the Tenebrificium, the great dark fortress). While it has some of the flavour of a fairy tale, it's not a pretty one; there's some very dark material here - most particularly in the pervasive misery that the overlord of the Harvest Moon delights in manufacturing (literally) and perpetuating.
I'm finding it very difficult to decide if this should be considered children's, young adult or adult fiction. It seems far too dark for children's fiction, despite the fact it's told from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl (or rather, it's told by the girl in retrospect, from her adult's perspective), and it doesn't have the coming-of-age and finding-one's-place-in-the-world feel that I associate with young adult stories. At any rate, I'll be making this book one of my All Hallow's Read recs this year, for sure. ( )

This one is a bit difficult to rate. The world that Durbin creates is truly amazing. His writing allows one to re-create his alternate reality in their own mind down to the very last detail. The story itself, though, did not hold my interest all that well. I can't put my finger on why, perhaps it was the characterization, which often seemed flat, or perhaps it was the writing, which tended to be a bit dry. ( )