 If you are after some eighties nostalgia and want something significantly more ambitious than another film featuring Michael Myers then All Hallows does not disappoint and ensures you can enjoy Halloween more than once a year and well out of season. Thrilling Halloween set chiller which will put you off trick or treaters for life….. Since appearing on the scene in the mid-nineties Christopher Golden has been incredible prolific with a wide range of fiction which confidently crosses the genres. Although I have read a relatively small selection of these, I was a fan of his Ben Walker trilogy, in particular Ararat (2017) and Red Hands (2020) and also thoroughly enjoyed his previous novel, Road of Bones (2022). If you have never read Golden these recent releases are terrific places to start, with All Hallows being another absolute beauty which had me on the hook from page one to the last. I do not know how many horror novels take place entirely on Halloween night (probably hundreds), and that is exactly what occurs in All Hallows, with the terrifying events playing out deliciously over a twelve-hour period. However, I was surprised by the lack of concrete examples my brief session of brainstorming uncovered, Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury is set in the runup, Scott Thomas’s Kill Creek takes place on the big night and two cool examples, and there are hundreds of short stories which use the spooky season as inspiration. Coming from the UK, I always enjoy the extravagant manner in which the USA goes so far over the top for 31st October, and All Hallows captures this exuberant mood beautifully. It really comes across as a huge deal and perhaps I should put ‘celebrating Halloween in the States’ on my horror bucket list! Considering events play out over a single evening Golden goes to town with a substantial cast of characters, some of which have more considerably page time than others who are little more than bit players. In the mix, we have: Tony Barbosa, Vanessa Montez, Barb Sweeney, Charlie Sweeney, Rick Barbosa, Alice Barbosa, Julia Sweeney, Zack Burgess, Ruth Burgess, Donnie Sweeney, Billie Suarez, Sarah Jane, Chloe Barbosa, Brian Sweeney and Steve Koenig. Fifteen is a hefty number of points of view, but it never feels cumbersome and helps present a panoramic view of how things go down on this special 1984 night, in the small Massachusetts town of Coventry. Even before we get to the supernatural element of the story, a couple of complex family dramas convincingly playout, giving an authentic slice of behind-the-curtains small-town life. The supernatural spin concerning ‘The Cunning Man’ is kept on the backburner until the second half of the story and this pacing is balanced nicely with the family drama and atmosphere of the big night. The fifteen different characters and their plots (which overlap in both small and large ways) are wide ranging and include a LGBTQIA+ teen story, marriage infidelity, marriage breakups, small-town gossip, possible child abduction, local feuds, trick-or-treaters, teen partying, underage drinking, and at the centre of it all, the local Halloween attraction ‘The Haunted Wood.’ This is gleefully staged every year by one of the families, but due to various problems they intend to make 1984 their last blast and go out in style. As they prepare their attractions there is a certain level of melancholy that change is in the air and that things will never be the same again. How right they were, but not in the manner they were expecting. Like Richard Chizmar and his Chasing the Boogieman, Christopher Golden beautifully recreates an authentic eighties smalltown and his Halloween descriptions are so rich they can almost be touched and smelled. Things start out as you might expect with the trick or treaters having fun knocking on doors before things begin to go down south. Even though this happens, the manner in which the breakdown occurs over a single evening was a gripping read, as it takes an age for anybody to join the dots due to the fragmented nature of Halloween and the fact that nobody sees the big picture until it was much too late made it all the more convincing. I do not want to say much about The Cunning Man part of the plot which is barely hinted at in the first half of the book, expect that when it begins to motor is terrific fun. Mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who nobody recognises as locals are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup and strange mannerisms. They seem terrified, and beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, but they have their own hidden motives. As things moved on Christopher Golden brings everything together nicely and the mythology he creates for The Cunning Man was very well thought out and cleverly tied to Halloween. Neither would I call this a feel-good Halloween novel as he is brutal to several of the major characters and pulls no punches. It is too bad All Hallows is being released in January as it is seriously out of season! However, it is such an entertaining page-turner it will be enjoyed at any time of the year. If you are after some eighties nostalgia and want something significantly more ambitious than another film featuring Michael Myers then All Hallows does not disappoint and ensures you can enjoy Halloween more than once a year and well out of season. Tony Jones All Hallows by Christopher Golden Perfect for fans of Stephen King and the 1980s nostalgia of Stranger Things. A gripping suburban nightmare from the New York Times-bestselling, Bram-Stoker Award-winning master of horror fiction. It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unravelling. The Barbosas have opened their annual Haunted Woods attraction in the forest behind their house―the house they’re about to lose. The Sweeneys are fighting about alcoholism and infidelity on their front lawn. Up the street, high-school senior Vanessa Montez is about to have her secrets exposed during the violent end to the neighbourhood’s block party, while down the street, the truth about Ruth and Zack Burgess turns out to be even more horrifying than the rumours ever were. And all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. Children who seem terrified, and who beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the community splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road? New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home. the heart and soul of horror fiction review websitesComments are closed.
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