I went into All Hallows expecting a lot. With a creepy cover that promised a true horror story and a setting I love--New England (this specifically takes place on one street in Massachusetts)--I was eagerly awaiting a smart, well written thriller to add to my recent favorites from authors such as Alex North and Alex Finlay.

Unfortunately, the cover and setting was all this book had going for it.

I know this isn't my book, so I really have no rights as to how it's written, but as the reader, this would have been better served as a short story that was held together by the folklore of the story: the Cunning Man, the witch, the children. This foundation, which was really neat, kind of got lost in an overly long family drama (if that's what it is--half reads as angry spouses spurned by infidelity and the other half reads like YA teen angst). It's not until well after the halfway point that any of this (and indeed any of the spooky stuff associated with it) gets off the ground. And by that point I just didn't care. Honestly, if this was a book I bought or borrowed, and not one I was invited to read though an influencer program, I would have marked it as a DNF around the 10% mark.

The characters are flat--as we're given about 20 POVs (I exaggerate, but still), no one really stands out and I spent more time trying to figure out whose head I was in (Is Rick the kid? The dad? The older brother? Etc.) at the start of each chapter.

Content: the creepiest (and not in a good way) part of this book was the barely veiled discussion of child abuse, which, sorry, did nothing to advance the plot. I've also had it with hyper sexualization of teen girls--we really don't need a discussion of "every male, no matter how young or old creepily ogles me." There's just so much extraneous stuff that bogged down the story. And what the heck is with the random gross slurs Steve's dad throws at Vanessa (someone she describes as being really kind to her previously)? It all seemed really forced to prove a point. Or maybe it was the witch making everyone crazy? Who knows; nothing is fleshed out.

And good grief--ending chapters with things like "And then he died."

I don't know--maybe this is just an ARC and the final copy is going to sparkle, but after this reading, I wouldn't recommend this title and I wouldn't seek out anything else by this author.

Thanks so much to St. Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to read this as part of their influencers program in exchange for a review on NetGalley.

This book totally captures all of the feelings of Halloween night – magic, fear, excitement, mysterious neighbors everyone’s whispering about, the neighbors that always go above and beyond, creepy kids, and all the other facades associated with the holiday. The story takes place over the course of one single night and there is so much drama that unfolds in that short amount of time.

I loved the multiple perspectives, each with their own separate story, and seeing how they were all connected and came together. I struggled a bit keeping some of the character straight, like who was part of which family, but it got easier as the story went on. The book starts off as kind of a suburban family drama then takes a sharp turn halfway through to become straight horror.

I got a lot of Stranger Things vibes from this one so if you’re a fan of this show and dig Halloween, you should definitely add this one to your TBR for next year’s spooky season.

As soon as I saw that Christopher Golden had this coming out ,I was like yes please because he wrote one of my all time favorite series Ben Walker
series , and just like those books this didn't let me down, it was dark, and creepy , as well as a bit strange, and in a way remind me of a horror movie called trick r treat. Plus how it was a slow burning type story which help set up the atmosphere, and made it even more spooky then it already was .

Firstly, I wanted to specifically add a CW for child abuse—it isn’t graphic, but it is pretty heavily alluded to (in a plot that honestly provides almost nothing to the overall story). Other warnings for things like gore, homophobia (lesbophobia specifically), and slur usage also apply.

This was okay. It didn’t really feel cohesive to me, and I think that was partially the book falling victim to the too many POVs trap. There were way too many people I was supposed to keep track of and unfortunately not very many of them were engaging to me.

The plot also felt really silly but not in a fun way? Not to be too spoilery, but there was almost no explanation as to what the Cunning Man was until like 80% in and it felt like an incomplete story, like the lore was forgotten about up until the book’s deadline and then they had to rush to get it figured out. Also, the description makes a point to note that it takes place in the 80s but the setting feels so incredibly vague that it might as well have not been stated. The only thing that was relevant was the types of phones accessible to the characters? It just felt like a weird thing to distinctly point out and then do almost nothing with.

The teen characters were more interesting to me (the adults felt very one-dimensional and were just kind of boring despite there being a ton of drama surrounding them), so it’s possible that this might have worked better as a YA title.

I really enjoyed Golden’s earlier title Ararat, but this has been the second of his titles that’s missed the mark for me since then. It had some decently creepy moments and imagery, but overall I didn’t find it super memorable, which is a bummer.

This started out SO strong but then as it went on, I couldn't get into it. I think maybe if I read it before/on Halloween, I would have been much more in the mood for this horror read, but I was not really in the mood for it.

I really loved how spooky it was and the horror elements. I felt like I was actually in the 80's during Halloween and it gave me the heebie jeebies! And the diverse representation was everything!! I feel like we don't always see diverse rep in horror novels, so I really appreciated it here.

I think I got lost in this one a little too much because of the changing POVs. It didn't keep me as captivated because once something would be hinted at happening, it would take several chapters to uncover it. There was also some storylines and POVs I thought were unnecessary and took me out of the spooky mood. If these storylines were cut and I didn't have to skim through them, this would've been a 4 star I think!

I do think the story was well thought out though and I did NOT see the twist coming at all! Christopher Golden has a really creative mind and a way to trick the reader in the best way possible

Being a child of the 80"s this checked all my nostalgia boxes! It was a reminder of how great Halloween used to be.

**3.5-stars rounded up**

All Hallows, Christopher Golden's upcoming Horror release, is set in Coventry, Massachusetts. More specifically, all the events contained within this story surround Halloween Night, 1984, in the solitary neighborhood of Parmenter Road.

The energy in the neighborhood that day is electric, as everyone puts the last-minute touches on the night's events, decor and costumes. The Barbosa Family will be hosting their annual and this year, their final, Haunted Woods event. Tony and his daughter, Chloe, have been pouring their hearts and souls into this event for years; setting up just the right props and scares for neighbors and strangers alike to enjoy.

Also that evening will be the typical door-to-door trick-or-treating by neighborhood kids, as well as a block party hosted by the Koenig Family. There's a lot happening.

The Reader follows the unfolding events via multiple perspectives of individuals living in the neighborhood, including both children and adults. As the night begins to build, more and more drama is exposed on what one might suppose is a quiet little street. Parmenter Road, like many small town streets, contains a lot of people harboring a lot of secrets. A few of which are about to be brought to light in a big way.

On this night in particular, there are outsiders added to the mix as well. Children dressed in old-fashioned costumes, a Clown, a Scarecrow and a Raggedy Ann, begin to insert themselves into the activities, pleading with the local children for help. They need to hide, just until midnight, from The Cunning Man. Will anyone help them?

I had a lot of fun with this. I love neighborhood-focused stories and this one night on Parmenter Road gave me all the spectacle and intrigue that I could want in that regard. There was just the right amount of family drama, 80s-references, kills, gore and creepy imagery to keep me 100% invested all the way through.

There are a lot of perspectives, which I feel like not everyone will be crazy about, but for me it made perfect sense. Considering how the story plays out, I actually can't imagine it being told any other way.

I also loved the atmosphere. Golden brought me back to the Halloween Nights of my youth. Traipsing around with the other neighborhood kids under our claustrophobic masks, carrying plastic orange pumpkins, hitting up as many houses as we could, walking a little faster through the dark spaces between homes. The strange children and the idea of The Cunning Man definitely brought the chills as well. Nostalgic and scary, I definitely enjoyed the unsettling vibes.

Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for providing me a copy to read and review. I always enjoy checking out Golden's new work, sure to be full of creativity and frightening imagery.

I didn’t like this unfortunately. I wanted to love this and truly enjoy it, but it was difficult to get into. I think part of the issue is that I got approved for it after Halloween. I think coming out when it does wasn’t the best choice.

The last 30% really is amazing, but the prior 70% was hard to get through.

Thank you to SMP, Netgalley, and Christopher Golden for this ARC!

So I got this just in time for Halloween and started it a few days beforehand. I loved that there were multiple POVs—different adults/parents in the neighborhood, different kids/teenagers in the neighborhood. But because of this I felt like it took me forever to get into the story, and there were a LOT of characters to remember. It got really interesting once I hit the 30-40% mark.

Sadly because there were SO many characters and POVs, it took forever to get through the end. I was bored from about 70% through to the end. I wish some characters could have been cut to shorten the book, but we needed them to tie up loose ends for the conclusion.

So overall I liked the story (the cunning man, the creepy “children”) but wish the ending didn’t feel like it dragged on.

Halloween night, 1984, small town Massachusetts, and it’s a night of drama… and scares. As the neighbor trick or treats, strange children in vintage costumes show up talking about hiding from the Cunning Man.

This was a creepy read, perfect to save for a Halloween read. The entire story takes place on one day: Halloween. It can be challenging writing an entire story in one day, but the author really shows how it’s done; constant action, many people. There are tons of characters, but it’s never confusing. It got seriously wild at the end. I loved the crazy costumes and the vivid descriptions.

“There’s something here already. Like this shadow’s come ahead of him, sniffing around like a … like a hunting dog.”

All Hallows comes out 1/24.

If this had been a short story, it may have been paced enough to be awarded 4 stars. The premise, albeit unoriginal, has some substance. I also didn't mind most characters in the band of misfits Christopher Golden created-- although I would've been happy with less sexualization of all the female teens we encounter.

The entirety of this 330-some page novel is set within a span of 12 hours (mostly). Jumping from one dysfunctional home to the next, all of them dirty laundries are about to get aired out on this fateful Halloween night in Massachusetts.

But by page 125, I was over the repetitive descriptions and familial drama, and skipped a hundred pages... only to find myself pretty much exactly where I left off in the actual plot.

Again, Golden's ideas would be far better off in a short story format, and I'd love to dive more into those should he release them. Description has no place if it's just filler.

Big thanks to St. Martin's Press for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This one was definitely creepy. I read this a few chapters at a time every night before bed until I finished it and it definitely gave me the creeps. Something about children in old, drab, scary costumes giggling in the woods is enough to scare anyone, I’d think.

In a small town in New England, on a suburban street called Parmenter Road, All Hallows focuses on a handful of families in the neighborhood on a deadly Halloween night in ‘84.

It’s a Halloween like any other but there are children in tattered old costumes and creepy makeup walking around and begging people to help them; to save them from The Cunning Man who is after them.

This was a pretty slow burn and I really enjoyed it. You don’t really get into the traditional horror until a little later in the book. Instead, we are given a plethora of narratives throughout the first half, demonstrating the crumbling of some family dynamics. The dysfunction in these peoples lives is the perfect set up for the horror that is to come, establishing that people and the supernatural alike can both be monsters.

This book is delightfully creepy! The atmosphere itself is pretty on point, it really felt like this neighborhood was the place to be on Halloween night! Well....until it wasn't.

First you get some domestic disputes that kind of taint the night, but it is no big deal. I kept waiting for something bigger, something worse, to come along. I thought there was no way we are 20% in and the domestic dispute would be the core issue of the story.

And oh man, did it only escalate from there. Enter the ghost children. These kids started popping up early in the story, and they are very vague about their origins and why they are scared of "the Cunning Man." I was so interested in these kids, and I knew there was something nefarious going on here. Then the book escalates pretty quickly, and there is a lot of action and suspense in the last chunk of this book.

Beware though, this is not a story with a happy ending. This book has a lot of death in it, and not everyone makes it out alive. Still, the story is pretty good and I was definitely unsettled at many parts throughout. This is a good book for the Halloween season, and the atmosphere alone makes it worth the read.
Content warnings: child death, child abuse, death, graphic depictions, infidelity, homophobia, pedophilia, racism, toxic relationships

Thank you so much to @stmartinspress for allowing me to read this awesome thriller in exchange for my honest review!

This horror story is told from multiple POVs and takes place on Halloween in 1984, Coventry, Massachusetts. It’s about some creepy-looking kids dressed in faded, old costumes from a different generation and they’re just popping up around the neighborhood, tagging along with the town’s trick-or-treaters, and looking terrified as they constantly check their surroundings.

This main storyline is woven between the multiple storylines being told from the different POVs of neighborhood kids, teens, and parents. The true horror of this book was the raw realities the characters were going through and how the same circumstances can affect those involved differently, but just as devastatingly and traumatic all the same.

All around GREAT story, I loved the folklore involved, and I felt an attachment to the characters which is always a plus for me as a reader. I do wish Barb having a faint memory of the Cunning Man came full circle though - I thought there’d be a curveball toward the end.

Unfortunately, this felt more like domestic drama than an eerie horror. I am not especially fond of books involving everyone’s quarrels unless it’s deeply emotional or done as social commentary. This was neither, so it lost me long before the horror arose. Plus, that horror stayed in the backseat while the neighborhood’s arguments took the wheel for almost 75% of the story. Hints of what might be up ahead were not enough to make the rest more intriguing.

I also found the simplistic writing style in All Hallows to be quite annoying. Had so many other aspects of the story not been lacking, I might have been able to overlook this component a bit more.

The novel did not have the maturity level of an adult novel. Some of the family dynamics may have been a bit heavy and some of the horror did get graphic, but the book still felt incredibly childish to me. That’s not to say I think it better suits young adults nor do I think young adult books are immature. They suit their target audience well. I don’t know who it suits, to be honest, but I found it overwhelmingly disappointing as an adult novel.

I will give credit to the surprising turn of events toward the end. This did draw me in a bit more, but it was not enough to alter my overall opinion of the book. I wanted an immersive creepy read and this just did not fit the bill.

I am immensely grateful to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to like this story - the writing was good and the characters were fine, I just found that I had to keep making myself pick it up. Unfortunately, something was missing for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for this advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

I received an advanced copy of this one on a Friday and finished it up the next day. Let me just say that if you like a creepy tale that’s spooky and dramatic but not too scary, you’ll want to add this one to your list.

The entire book takes place on Halloween in small town Massachusetts in 1984 and has major Stranger Things vibes.

Available January 24 from author @christopher_golden and @stmartinspress.

Thank you @netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

All Hallows was the perfect spooky read! Intense, gory, full of action, I could not put this book down. It’s Halloween night, 1984, and everyone in the neighborhood is preparing for trick or treat. Through multiple character POVs we watch the horror unfold. Drama and terror weave their way through this creepy book-with legends of The Cunning Man roaming around. Golden gave a perfect “Stranger Things” vibe when he wrote All Hallows, a perfect Halloween read!

Welllll, I had to DNF not because it wasn’t good, but because it absolutely creeped me out.

All Hallows is set on Halloween, and follows a neighborhood, both adults and children, on Halloween night. Families are unraveling, all while kids are out trick or treating. This neighborhood is surrounded by woods, and “The Cunning Man” is haunting or terrorizing a group of “children.” These children assimilate as much as they can but something is off and these children attempt to convince the neighborhood to protect them.

The beginning is a little slow in setting the scene, but once the creep starts, it was completely creepy! If you like eerie feels or horror in general, you may like this. I am too much of a chicken to handle it.

Definitely would recommend adding this to your spooky season reading list.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending me an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've struggled writing a review with this one because even though I enjoyed it, I'm afraid that I'll give too much away.

All Hallows is set on Halloween night in 1984 on Parementer Road in Coventry, Massachusetts. The story unfolds as various bizarre and even sinister things begin to unfold to the residents of Parementer Road. The story alternates from various points of view of kids, teens, and adults of those living in the neighborhood.

The book contains:
▪️Very creepy kids
▪️A haunted woods
▪️A killer on the loose called the Cunning Man
▪️Stranger things vibes

I loved the fact that this book was set in the 80s it gave me so much childhood nostalgia.
The book begins as a slow climb and introduces us to the various characters as well as the neighborhood setting. Then when you least expect it, BAM! Action and unexpected occurrences begin to unfold until it snowballs into a spectacular ending.

There is a lot of various points of view which can be sometimes confusing when keeping up with who's who but the author wrote each of their perspectives so distinct that I didn't have this issue at all. I also loved the fact that this book contains a diverse cast of characters that represent so many. This is my first read by the author and it will not be my last. All Hallows will be a story that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

All Hallows by Christopher Golden will be available on January 24, 2023! Many thanks to Netgalley and St Martins Press for the copy in exchange for an honest review!