"Although he's much younger, Billy Hanson writes in the grand tradition of the horror stylists who made their bones in the 1970s—and not just because he's from Maine (although that certainly helps). That is, all of the stories in Spider Season are stark, unflinching, and, most importantly, fun. I'll be forever kept up by the sleep-themed tales that bookend the collection, and "Music from the Gun Room" is frightening for reasons that go well beyond the supernatural.

But my personal favorite in this just-in-time-for-Halloween anthology is "The Clearing," a nasty little homespun yarn that suggests male entitlement is far scarier than any haunted house (or forest). If the Southerner talks music, then the Mainer talks horror, and I can't wait to see what Billy comes up with next." 

The prose within is infectious, alluring for all readers. Hanson has a very special gift of becoming intimate with his audience, inviting him or her deeper into the cerebral landscape, embedding deep into the subconscious.

The delivery is flawless as an addiction unfolds to the audience, ravenously tearing through the pages to see what happens next.

I read Light Sleeper after the sun had gone down and I was settling into bed. I decided it would be my sample chapter and I'd read the rest the next day. After I read it, man oh man, did I feel paranoid. Hanson has a knack for writing suspense that will string you along till the bloody end.

Of course, this isn't all that Spider Season has to offer; it isn't just horror, it's prime storytelling. Music in the Gun Room was tragic and heartfelt; short stories rarely bring emotions out in me, but I suppose that says a lot about Hanson's writing.

In such a short span of time, he was able to draw out this coming-of-age story that began promisingly and ended in a cold, but satisfying way. All in all, I took pleasure in reading Spider Season and I believe most anyone who picks it up will enjoy it as much as I have.

Relentlessly paced and brilliantly crafted, this unsettling collection of stories is compulsively readable…

A roller-coaster ride with a tension-filled narrative, the collection is propelled by forbidding air of menace that is both abrupt and devastating. Hanson is as skilled in sketching characters’ emotional entanglements as he is in drawing out scenes of cold-blooded carnage.

With its diverse range of stories which includes some extreme chillers and a couple of thrilling action drama, the book will equally please the readers of dark fiction and horror aficionados. Hanson is surely a writer to watch for in the future. Please note, this unsettling collection is not for the fainthearted reader.