I had high hopes for this one because of the Stranger Things/80’s vibes and while it delivered that pretty well, I wouldn’t say this book blew me away. There were way too many characters and POV to keep up with easily and their storylines were just meh. The real fun began toward the end but at that point I was ready for the book to be over.

3.5 rounded up
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my ARC copy.
What a wicked wild ride.
I'm reminded of that same feeling I got when I first watched Stranger Things. You know, that feeling of-these kids are in way over their heads, where are the parents?! But loved it just the same.
This is Halloween, 1984 and we're following neighborhood kids as they begin trick or treating for the night. Things feel simple and fun, but this isn't a normal night and not all of these kids belong.
There's something in the woods hunting the strange kids, the kids whose costumes are faded and who seem more terrified than the rest, for completely different reasons.
This book flew by for me because I'm such a fan of the-kids-against-evil trope that I just couldn't wait to see what happened next. Readers get a glimpse into the lives of the characters, their families, and friends thought the plot moves quickly and I never felt too invested in any one character, which I don't know that I really needed in this story.
Overall, it's the perfect spooky/horror read if you're craving some Stranger Things vibes. But be warned, this is not just a spooky story, things do get very horror-story very quickly so look up trigger warnings if you need them.

Let's just dive on in.... This book could have been a so much better. The amount of characters was too much. This book jumps between so many characters, I couldn't keep track of who was who and what was going on for most of the book. Every time I figured out who was who and what was what in each chapter, the chapter would change.

The whole who was good and who was bad had me wondering who I was rooting for. When I was able to follow some of the characters, I was fully invested with their storyline.

This book took me back to the good ole days of growing up in the late 80'/early 90s. I felt very nostalgic of the days when kids could go out in the dark and play in their neighborhoods without much worry. (Maybe except for the boogeyman, but I digress.)

Overall, this was a good book. It was slow moving because it had too much going on. It could've been told all the same minus the amount of characters.

I have loved Christopher Golden since I was a teenager and "All Hallows" proves why he's one of the best horror authors out there.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Christopher Golden for the advanced copy of All Hallows in exchange for my honest review.

I unfortunately decided to DNF this one around 30%. The story just wasn't progressing enough for my liking and it felt more like a series of family dramas than the creepy read I was expecting.

As always, I will not rate this book on any platform aside from Goodreads since I did not finish it.

This is a great Halloween spooky read. It definitely has a Stranger Things feel and 80’s nostalgia. I really enjoyed the haunted woods set up and Halloween night as a setting. It made the book feel even creepier, especially with the mysterious children wearing vintage costumes and makeup.

This wasn’t just a spooky slasher read. It has a small town feel with family drama and coming of age side plots. I did find that these side parts made the story a bit slower and the switching multiple POV’s sometimes made things a bit confusing.

The ending wrapped up decently scary and the last 30% really picked up. It felt like the Halloween and Friday the 13th kind of movies but in a book. Overall it was a good scary book full of creepy kids and a sinister entity. I definitely recommend reading this around Halloween or fall.

Thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

What a deliciously creepy book! I really enjoyed almost all of it. The ending kind of went a little sideways for me but only because of one minor detail which of course I can't say because it would spoil so much.

This book is a great option for a Halloween read or even just something to tie you over until Halloween comes back around.

Just a warning, if you have an issue with gory books involving children don't even bother with this one. On the flip side, if you like horror involving family (especially children), drama and a pretty good amount of gore then read this one!

I do enjoy a good horror novel, so I was looking forward to reading All Hallows by Christopher Golden. This is the first of his books I've read, but he's a prolific writer! In the end, this was a quick and easy read, and I had some fun with this Halloween scare-fest.

It’s a horror that takes place on Halloween night 1984, and it did deliver on some of the 1980s aesthetic. I was picturing the Halloween scenes from E.T., which came out in 1982. No cell phones anywhere! And one teen dresses up as Siouxsie Sioux, which is cool. Then, weird kids show up dressed in old fashioned costumes for trick or treating, all asking for help to escape the evil they call the Cunning Man.

This is an ensemble piece. The characters are easy to get to know, and they grew on me. It took about half the novel for the horror to really start, but believe me, there were plenty of shenanigans afoot in this neighbourhood to keep me entertained. The adults in this subdivision all seemed to be more poorly behaved than their kids. One of the teens, Vanessa, is at a party thrown by her friend’s parents, and observes:

“Neighbours she had known all her life behaved like high school kids, and the high school kids observed them with the brand of horror usually reserved for girls overhearing the private conversations of boys for the first time…Seeing these people, in this state, felt like one long ongoing car accident.”

Yes, that made me chuckle.

It was fun and light (and a bit gory to be sure!), and the writing was seamless and skilled for the genre. Honestly, I have trouble rating books these days because different genres should really be compared to their “peers'' in class. I’d tend to rate All Hallows on the higher side because the plot took a direction that I didn’t see coming, and I really came to like some of the characters, which is always a huge plus for me. It kept me invested in the action as the book progressed.

I'd recommend All Hallows, but it does have an unseasonal January 2023 pub date. Maybe pick it up and keep it on your shelf for next Spooky Season!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own.

I was so excited to be approved for All Hallows mainly because everyone has been talking about it. The description didn't really reel me in, but because of the hype, I wanted to read it.

This was my first Christopher Golden read and I have to say that I will not be running out to grab more. This book was just a bit much. I'm not a huge fan of multiple POVs, but as long is it is not overboard, I am game. This was overboard. Way too many characters and trying to keep up with everything from everyone's POV.

This read more like a YA than an adult thriller. It was too all over the place, didn't have any great twists or reveals and was entirely forgettable.

Sadly, I will not be recommending this one.

Golden’s newest takes place on Halloween in a small New England town that embraces the day with haunted forest tours, parties, and trick or treating. However, among the trick or treaters this year, four spooky children appear out of nowhere to signal something worse is coming. I loved the premise but I felt that there were too many characters with the same backstories/sidelines that really didn’t contribute to the overall plot but just seemed more like gossipy filler. On more than one occasion I was confused on who was who, and to flip back through for clarification. Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book!

I expected a lot more scares out of this read based on reading Road of Bones and it being one of the scariest horror books I've ever read. All Hallows is not that - - HOWEVER. While it's basically a completely different style aside from the genre, this was an interesting and captivating read that brought a folklore/mythology element into that I hadn't expected. CG is great at taking a folklore/historical element that not many people know about and is not written about much and turning it into a really good story.
This time it was the story of 4 children wandering around looking for shelter from The Cunning Man on Halloween 1984. They are terrified for their lives, so they are asking for help. What they don't know is that Parmenter Road, where they are lost, is falling apart. Multiple families' dramas are being aired, every secret coming to the surface.
There were A LOT of characters narrating which got very confusing but ultimately worked because of all the drama that was occurring amongst the neighbors. This also sort of helped the story because it's not your traditional novel and was more like a reality show in that everyone was freaking out about their own stuff and now there are little kids running around in terror that they will be caught by The Cunning Man.
Nothing is what it seems this Halloween on Parmenter Road.

Picture it. Coventry, Massachusetts. Halloween night, 1984. One family prepares it’s legendary Haunted Woods for the final time, and the children and teens of Coventry prepare for a night of trick or treating and creepy fun, but something’s off. 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. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. But nothing is ever as it seems and the children are hiding something about themselves and about The Cunning Man, and the residents of Coventry will have to figure out the mystery before Halloween’s end.

I really enjoyed this one. There was a lot going on, and the story shifted between all of the characters on the block, which was great for building tension and getting me to read “just one more chapter,” when I thought I’d take a break. I enjoyed the twists and turns, and I read the majority of this one while my power was out, so it was a nice way to spend the time disconnected from all my normal distractions. Definitely a solid addition to my Spooktober reads.

This wasn't my favorite, but I am a picky reader. I think other readers will enjoy it, and this is an obvious addition to the collection.

I don’t really understand why this one will be published in January,, it would have so much more potential to be released closer to Halloween. It made me excited for fall… in 10 months. It’s great, just the timing to read it wasn’t.

☠️ 📖 BOOK REVIEW 📖☠️

ALL HALLOWS by Christopher Golden
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Coming out January 24, 2023

Disclaimer: I would like to thank @NetGalley and @StMartinsPress for a copy of this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

☠️☠️☠️

Wwwoooohh!! That was intense!

I must admit, I requestes this books weeks ago and remembered vaguely the synopsis. So, I went in maybe half-blindly. The first 2/3 of the book felt like ambiance horror. The setting is creepy, weird things are happening, strange characters appear, etc. You're not sure what it is but you get this overwhelming feeling that something is not right and will happen at the next turn of the page. Then, all of a sudden, the book turns into vivid horror and becomes nightmarish. Watch out for the body count! 😱

Told in multiple point of views, the story focuses on the Parmenter's street families. It's the night of Halloween but they are all going through some intense drama and trying to put on a mask to hide what's going on. They are dysfunctional and the neighbours are not all nice. It makes you think the neighbours could actually be the real monsters.

Gradually, we are introduced to strange kids tagging along and asking for help. They want to come in until midnight and seem afraid of The Cunning Man. It's not clear who they are, where they are from, what era they are from! But it's clear they are not from this street.

At the 70% mark, fastened your seat belt! The story increase speed and the book becomes unputdownable! It's full on horror. Nobody's safe. I almost screamed a huge "Wtf!" in the middle of my subway commute. 😂

I would have loved that part to come up a little earlier and to extend certain part of the story and explanations but it was overall an excellent novel! Even though it's an Halloween setting, the books comes out in January. So, mark your calendar and add it to your list!

Please check TW before reading!

#horrorbookrec #arcreview #bookreview #bookreviewer #allhallows #christophergolden #netgalley #stmartinspress

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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.

As soon as I saw this compared to Stranger Things, I knew I immediately wanted to read it. I have read one Christopher Golden book before, Road Of Bones, and I really enjoyed it. I’m so glad I read this one too because it was just as enjoyable as the other.

Halloween night - 1984 - we follow two unraveling families in Massachusetts. Mixed in with the other trick-or-treaters, four children are walking around terrified and begging others to keep them safe from The Cunning Man.

I don’t want to say too much because I really think this one is best to go into without knowing too much. It was super creepy and I’m glad I managed to read it in October. It is the perfect Halloween read!

I loved that the story alternated between kids, teens, and adults in the neighborhood. The atmosphere in this one was phenomenal - those woods were super creepy! Also, some terrifying children gave me absolute chills. I was super invested in this “killer on the loose” named The Cunning Man. And of course, I was a big fan of the Stranger Things vibes.

There was so much going on in this book that at times it was a bit confusing, however, everything added to the story. I also got major 80s nostalgia, which is one of my favorite eras. The only reason why it’s a four-star and not a five is because it had a super slow beginning. I struggled at first, but as soon as I began reading more - action started happening.

The diverse set of characters, 80s nostalgia, The Cunning Man, creepy children, Halloween night, and eerie setting - all added to the overall enjoyment of the story. I don’t hear many readers talk about this author, but I have enjoyed his books. They always have shocking twists and creepy settings. This one was so good and I definitely will be picking up more from Christopher Golden. I would highly recommend this book and this author!

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy - all thoughts are my own!

I really wanted to love this one, but I just couldn't. The idea was cool, but there were way too many characters introduced, and it became a little confusing. There were a lot of side plots that were only introduced for one chapter and then never touched upon again, and I felt like I needed a map to remind me how all the characters fit together.

A Halloween themed, set in the 80s horror book? Yes, please! Why in the world this on is slated for a January release is beyond me.

On Halloween night in Coventry, Massachusetts, two families are coming apart. Secrets are being exposed in an underlying family drama while mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man.

The folklore/horror vibe of this book was strong, and I could have done without the family drama as many of those details seemed to weight down the main storyline. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this early read. ALL HALLOWS publishes January 24, 2023.

Hearing that this was a horror book set on Halloween night, 1984 in Coventry Massachusetts… I was stoked when I was offered the ARC. Taking place in a single neighborhood. All the kids, and families are excited for the happenings going on in the neighborhood. A block party, trick-or-treating, and a haunted forest. On this particular Halloween night though…. outsiders join in. They are dressed up in vintage Halloween masks and telling the kids of this neighborhood that they need to hide from The Cunning Man who is on the hunt for these local children.

I liked the Halloween atmosphere in the neighborhood. It felt nostalgic for me…reminded me of the fun times I had during Halloween when I was a kid. I just can't say that this made me feel scared or was scary enough because there was so much going on. So many characters POV's, and it definitely distracted me from the story, trying to figure out who was who. At the end we get the slasher movie vibe. Lots of dead bodies and killing.

Overall, a pretty fun read if you like the slasher movies like Scream and Halloween.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. Out Jan 24.

It’s Halloween in 1984 on Parmenter Road. Kids are getting ready for Halloween festivities as night falls. Strange children come to town trying to get away from Broghan, The Cunning Man. Secrets and lies come to light and terror and tragedy begin for the children of Parmenter Road.
This was a creepy read that kept me flipping through pages. Thanks NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC!