Harvest Tales & Midnight Revels: Stories for the Waning of the Year

by Michael Mayhew (Editor), Michael Mayhew

Harvest Tales & Midnight Revels is both a guide to giving storytelling parties at Halloween, and an anthology of original tales. Editor Michael Mayhew begins by describing how much he used to enjoy Halloween as a kid, especially for its affirmation in the face of death: "You may get me someday, but tonight I am alive!" As an adult, he missed the "magical shivers" of those eerie nights. So he started an annual gathering in which people would feast and tell stories.

The large middle part of the book is an anthology of the best read-aloud pieces that were shared with others at those parties: 16 stories and 3 poems. The only rule they had was that the story had to relate to Halloween in some way. So it's a mixed bag of creepy, quiet, corny, tacky, gory, and just plain silly tales--with such topics as late-night meetings with strangers, adventures in an urban underground, a pagan woman (i.e., witch) of the old times, and even "the gunk in the bottom of the refrigerator." None is longer than 2,500 words--a length that when read aloud comes to about 15 minutes.

The final section is a primer on how to give your own storytelling party, with suggestions for the number of guests, how to solicit stories, and how to plan the evening. Some of the ideas are awkwardly overstated for an adult book--surely everyone knows how to throw a potluck--but most of them, including suggested decor and music, seem well-founded.

"If I could share only one thing about what we did and learned over ten years of story parties," writes Mayhew, "it would be this: the Halloween that shrieked with glee when you were eight is still out there, only now it murmurs to itself in the dead of night..." --Fiona Webster

217 pages, Hardcover

First published August 3, 1998

Reviews

[Debbi Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! A book of Halloween tales marked not for children,it is an older book{1998} but has wonderfully creepy stories.I wish I could find more out there like this. Not your regular Halloween tales.

[Byron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harvest Tales and Midnight Revels: Stories for the Waning of the Year promises a mix of Halloween-themed stories and guidance for hosting storytelling gatherings, but it doesn’t fully deliver on either front. The stories themselves are decent but lack memorable standouts, failing to capture the atmosphere of the Halloween season that one might hope for from such a collection. Though the book is marketed as partly a guide for hosting seasonal gatherings, this aspect is largely confined to a brief afterword, offering little insight for creating a festive storytelling experience.

While there are moments of horror and intrigue, this collection feels more like a standard horror anthology rather than a source of immersive, Halloween-specific tales. One surprising note of interest is a reference on page 110, which may contain one of the first literary mentions of "incels." For readers looking for a light horror anthology, this might be a passable choice, but those hoping to be swept into the magic of Halloween or inspired for seasonal gatherings may find it lacking.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've tried to organize a storytelling evening before with very little interest :-( This shows what happens when it goes right.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a good collection of short stories, some, as always, better than the others. I really liked the reasoning behind it though. The thought of having story parties is a great idea!