A really haunting and chilling story, which could have been way longer for my taste. Sadly, the writing style felt sometimes repetitive. Otherwise a thrilling read!

Pumpkin Man 2: Origins by Penny Moonz is a fun horror treat perfect for the Halloween season. This sequel delves deeper into the origins of its titular character, blending chilling moments with a playful sense of dark humor. Moonz’s storytelling captures the essence of spooky tales, making it an enjoyable read for adult fans of horror. With its intriguing plot and engaging characters, it offers a fresh twist on classic Halloween themes. If you're in the mood for some light horror this October, this book is definitely worth a look!

I know this wasn't suppose to be a cute and quirky story, but as a huge Halloween fan.... I did. It's a great idea of a different type of pumpkin headed Halloween Monster that is a quick read for the season.

This is pretty similar to the Goosebumps series but more gory. It's a super quick Novella, and great for Halloween.

Essentially a child becomes influenced but a evil pumpkin then he kills, gets killed, and rises from the dead and terrorizes the town.

The only thing I was annoyed about was the amount of background information. I get that there was a need to paint the picture and setting for the reader but there is a thing as TMI

Thank you, Penny Moonz and NetGalley, for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

It's definitely another favorite. There's plenty of gore, death, and twisted humor throughout this book. As for it being an origin story, it was a little hard for me to understand. I still have questions here and there, but I still enjoyed this book to the very end. There are moments when you feel so bad for the main character and others you could just roll your eyes at her. In full, I did really enjoy myself reading this book. It's a really good book to read during the spooky season, for sure.

Have you read the first book? Don't worry, you don't have to. All you need to know is there is something out there on the loose. It's killing people. It's Halloween, and it's not going to stop till it's had its fill of carnage. What will make it stop? Can it be stopped? Read to find out all your can about the Pumpkin Man!

This book definitely had me raising my eyebrow here and there. I still have questions, but I think that's normal when it comes to books like this. I truly enjoyed the carnage, gore, and just the Demented way that is the pumpkin man. I have enjoyed every book I've picked up from this author so far and will continue to read from them.

Definitely add this book to your TBR if you're looking for a quick and gory slasher read for Halloween! It is also a sort of dark comedy which is really fun to read, especially when you add in a bunch of pumpkin goo.

─ 𝟒★ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 🕷️🎃 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞-𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫

“𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔓𝔲𝔪𝔭𝔨𝔦𝔫 𝔐𝔞𝔫 𝔤𝔩𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔡 𝔞𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔪 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔴𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔟𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔨 𝔩𝔦𝔭𝔰 𝔱𝔬 𝔞 𝔟𝔦𝔤, 𝔠𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔰𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔢.”

I suggest reading the trigger warnings before diving into the book, they are as follows:

🕷️Gore
🕷️ Slasher
🕷️ Lots of pumpkin goo
🕷️ Twisted child representation (this kid is really creepy lol)
🕷️ Trauma

Main tropes are: 𝐒𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧

For me this book was fast-paced, ooky spooky, enthralling and also a very goofy experience. It depicts the 1950s in the start of the book and the 1970s at around the 20% mark I think, so those timelines we visited gave me such a feeling of nostalgia through the descriptions of scenery and also of the characters, at the beginning showing us a character babysitting a little boy for one of her neighbors, and then it starts getting dark and going downhill from there, and it started scaling up and up and up, and it got so unhinged that I really needed to just sit and continue, I needed to know what was going to happen in this silly small town that made Halloween the biggest event it could ever be.

“𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒽𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓅𝓅𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝑜𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓎. ℋ𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓇𝑔𝑒 𝓀𝒾𝓉𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓀𝓃𝒾𝒻𝑒. “𝒜𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝓊𝓂𝓅𝓀𝒾𝓃, 𝓂𝒶𝓂𝓂𝒶?”

You know the feeling that those trashy horror movies give you? Where it’s so spooky, gory but also silly at the same time? That you just gag at the way the events start ramping up with all the gore, and then you laugh at how silly, for example, the character of the Pumpkin Man is!!!

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒫𝓊𝓂𝓅𝓀𝒾𝓃 ℳ𝒶𝓃 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀𝑒𝒹 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒹𝑜𝓌 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇. ℋ𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝒸𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓌 𝒻𝓁𝓊𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝒾𝓂, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝒷 𝒾𝓉.”

See how silly he is? LOL, then moves on to do this next:

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒫𝓊𝓂𝓅𝓀𝒾𝓃 ℳ𝒶𝓃 𝓌𝒶𝒾𝓉𝑒𝒹, 𝑔𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒾𝒸𝓀𝓁𝑒. 𝒜𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝒸𝓀 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹, 𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝑜𝓊𝓉, 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓅𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝓌𝑜 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝓊𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹.”

So, yeah, these feelings I mentioned are exactly what the book gives, a laugh and a shock at the same time. Overall, all those elements are really balanced in the book, which made for a very funny and spooky experience. I as a big time horror fan enjoyed the whole book, if I didn’t have chores to do when I started, I’d have finished it in one sitting, so yeah it’s a big page turner.

Thanks to Netgalley, Victory Editing and Penny Moonz for providing me with this funny, spooky and gory arc!

Pumpkin Man 2 by Penny Moonz is definitely a fun horror for adults! Just a mad story that perfectly fits on a Halloween shelf! You do not need to read the first one, everything is just there!

This one is a fast-paced horror story that most of the time made me laugh instead of being scared :D The storyline, oh my, oh my! A perfect Halloween slasher story.

No one would like to swap places with Betty, even she would like to not be a Betty anymore!
20 years ago horrible things happened and now she must deal with this horrific pumpkin man who will not stop for anything, he is out for blood!

Thank you, NetGalley, publisher and author for this book! It's not my usual read but I enjoyed it!

This was a strong sequel in the Creeperslandia series, it had what I enjoyed from the first book and was glad everything flowed well perfectly. The characters worked with a horror sequel and was wanting to figure out what was going on in this. Penny Moonz was able to create a great story and am excited for more.

This is a prequel to Pumpkin Man: Jane, a book I had never heard of until I discovered this one. The author/publisher is correct, you don't need to have read the other book to understand this one. Beginning in 1950 and then jumping to 1970 it tells how an evil pumpkin entity turns a little boy into a killer, leading to his mother making terrible decisions, which lead to the formation of an even worse pumpkin-headed creature.
For the most part it was decently written and fairly enjoyable. The longer the story went, the more uneven it became. At times it's a throw-back, almost cozy horror tale, though the violence in it ramps up to splatterpunk levels at times. The closer to the finale it got, the weaker and sillier it became until a very sudden, abrupt ending. In reading the author's synopsis of the previous book, she purposely wrote it to be kinda silly and a send up of slasher horror, and I guess that pretty much continues here, although the first 2/3 or so of this book were pretty solid. All in all, it's a reasonably fun and quick Halloween read.

"The Pumpkin Man wiped his blade on his slacks. He gazed up the giant, orange fizzy moon. From his cracked stem, a thin vine twirled up, sprouting more pumpkin leaves, stretching into the darkness."

An enjoyable read when you are looking for a quick campy, goofy/quirky slasher to palette cleanse with. There are a lot of fun and crazy kills in this one. You get B-movie vibes and sort of upgraded version of Fear Street and Point Horror books.

3.5 🎃

Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing / Penny Moonz for the arc 🖤