All Hallows is an intriguing mystery thriller that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Along with it being a horror story, there's a lot of family drama in it. Each family has their own problems and the kids just want to escape from them. What's better than a Halloween night to do that?

I truly wish that this would have released in October instead of January. I think I would have been much more in the creepy mindset for it. It is set in 1984 on Halloween. It’s told from alternating characters perspectives, which I normally love. I could not connect with any of the characters and the plot got a little all over the place.

The premise of this sounded very interesting. I love horror books with 80's vibes. This just didn't live up. It was so slow. The women were the typical "written by men" type. This just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the gifted e-book!

I was pretty surprised that I had requested this book since horror is not my genre, but the description and the 80s time period caught my eye. I finished the entire book and it was not for me. My main gripe is the women did not talk or act like real people. They were caricatures.

The premise is that it is Halloween and a local neighbor is setting up his haunted woods for the last time. His family has to move for financial reasons. A couple of very strange kids in costume show up who appear to be lost. Things go awry. Bigots are revealed. Affairs are discovered. Young love blooms. Creepy monsters enter the picture. A heart is pulled out of a chest. The story line was bizarre, but that might have been the point. What I really disliked was the addition of Zach and Ruth who didn’t advance the storyline at all. They were apparently child molesters/kidnappers/killers and I did not enjoy reading anything from either of their points of view.

I received a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was really hoping to like this one because it takes place on Halloween in 1984, and it sounded kind of creepy. Sadly, it just dragged for me, and I found myself skimming parts of it because I was bored. While it did pick up towards the end of the book, it still didn't wow me.

I think I would have liked this better if it had focused less on the characters in the neighborhood (there were many, and they all had issues) and more on the Cunning Man and the four "creepy" kids.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the gifted e-arc of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review!
I really enjoyed this book. I love a spooky horror book, though it did feel a bit odd reading about a halloween horror during January. I would recommend picking this book up in the fall instead, as I feel half the enjoyment of it is the halloween/fall/haunted trail vibes.

The one thing I found a little difficult when reading this book was how many characters perspectives we were getting. I found it tough to keep everyone straight and had to keep going back to see who each person was and how they were or weren't related to each other.

Other than that I found this a great book, with a creepy atmosphere, and it was a story different from anything I have read before.

3.5 stars rounded up

It's been awhile since I've read a horror novel, this is one I would love to see adapted to the big screen!

- multiple POVs
- thrills and chills
- plot twist you won't see coming

All Hallows is filled with the creepy horror of your favorite comfort Halloween movie. It's Halloween night, 1984. The small Massachusetts town of Coventry holds more than just the Barbosa's annual Haunted Woods attraction. Drawing in crowds from all over, it's not unusual to see unfamiliar faces, especially since this is the last year they'll be hosting. There's a lot more drama going on throughout Parmenter Road and we get to dive into all of it through multiple POV's from the Barbosa's and their neighbors. Small children in out-dated clothes slowly mingle into the festivities, appearing frightened but not of the costumes or the Haunted Woods. They all claim they're hiding from the Cunning Man.

The first half of the book felt very slow for me. It's a lot of sub plot building which does come into play later on, but it did feel like it was dragging at some points. The action really picks up in the second half. Overall, a spooky read that would be great for a film adaption. So many events unfold within this story, each one falling into another until we finally meet the Cunning Man and I enjoyed the plot twists along the way!

So I don't think this book was for me. I enjoy thrillers and books in that vein but I just couldn't get into this one. I found the multiple POVs a little frustrating and normally that doesn't bother me. I enjoyed the writing and don't think this was an issue with skill. I can see myself picking up another book from this author but this one just fell flat for me.

All Hallows follows an entire neighborhood on a Halloween night through multiple points of view. There are mysterious, seemingly terrified children scattered throughout the streets and begging the residents of the neighborhood to help them hide from “The Cunning Man.” At the same time that many members of the community are dealing with their own personal holiday dramas, they begin to realize that maybe the frightened children really are running from something terrifying, dangerous, and supernatural. And they will have to come together and put aside their differences to protect themselves and each other from the dark forces threatening their neighborhood.

I love this entire concept and I really wish I’d gotten to read this in October. I feel like I’ve not read enough horrors, thrillers, or mysteries that take place on Halloween. All Hallows contains the perfect balance of creepy, serious, and fun content. I don’t know how Christopher Golden managed to include such serious stories about families, friendships, and romantic relationships alongside a satisfyingly creepy, but not too heavy, horror tale. I found it impressive that he was able to do that without any of those aspects seeming like they were clumsily or lazily handled. I’m really bad at keeping up with characters’ names, so I had a bit of a hard time keeping up with the different points of view and what the relationships between the characters were. In spite of that I was still able to keep up enough to care about all of the characters and stay invested in each of their individual plot lines. There were over 10 points of view in this book and none of them bored me. I cared about each of them. I think that being able to create that many interesting characters in one standalone novel is also quite impressive. The children who were hiding from The Cunning Man were very creepy as was The Cunning Man himself.

My main complaint is that I thought the ending and the big reveals were anticlimactic. That’s not a huge deal to me because I enjoyed the rest of the story, but it still would’ve been nice to have a satisfying conclusion. I will also say that I cared a lot more about the characters and their relationships than I did about the horror plot itself, and in a horror novel I do prefer more of a focus on plot than characters. But that’s not really a big deal because I did still care about and enjoy the plot as well.

I recommend All Hallows if you’re in the mood for a pretty solid horror read.

All Hallows builds a clear picture of Halloween Day, 1984 in Coventry, Massachusetts. In 1984, Halloween was still a day full of "events' that included every family member in every home in town. Costumes were varied and worn to impress and join into the spooky feeling. The book follows several story lines with each character having a voice and telling their own story......sometimes a little confusing but overall it gave this reader an overall feel for the community's back story that would lead to the center story of disappearing children. As the trick or treaters move throughout the community, we see a glimpse into each household's life, a distraction, or a clue? The trick or treaters have now grown into a large group, including children in unusual costumes and makeup that keep asking for help.

This book had chapters that had me sitting up straighter in my chair and jumping when the dog started barking, but the many threads that wove throughout the book failed to pull all together to an "aha" moment. It WAS a good book with many great parts. I'd definitely recommend it to my reading circle.

Set on Halloween night in 1984 (cue the nostalgia), this story is part horror, part suburban drama. A father-daughter duo who run a haunted forest. A family fight. A shared secret that is guaranteed to change lives. And four kids no one knows, joining in on the trick-or-treating, but helplessly scared of The Cunning Man.

This book is told in multiple POV, which might be a bit much for some readers - it can feel like a lot of characters to learn and care about. The creepy factor is there in spades - the four kiddos that no one knows are wearing vintage costumes for crying out loud! - but it's tempered by the suburban drama. The two main families are absolute disasters. I will say, this book can feel like it's having an identity crisis at times - is it horror, is it drama? - but I think that might actually make it a great crossover for folks who typically only read one genre or the other. Either way, it is dang spooky and will make a great October read.

I want to start this by saying I like horror novels but I almost had to dnf this book. However, I am a trooper and pushed through to the end. This book was just not for me. As soon as I started it I knew I didn’t like the writing style. As I continued to read I just never found anything that I was enjoying about it or connecting with. All Hallows is advertised as a spooky 80’s themed Halloween thriller, but what I got was some lame neighborhood drama for the first 70% of the story and then an info and horror dump at the last 30%. There was racist and homophobic language in this book as well as the sexualization of a teenage girl that I guess was meant to be behavior reminiscent of the 80s, but I didn’t think it added anything to the story and could have been left out. I feel that if the author had spent more time giving us the spooky parts of this book I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but for more than half of the book they’re barely sprinkled into the story. There were some interesting snippets of lore given right at the very end, but it was sparse and overshadowed by the violence and bloodshed that the story ends with. Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me but I want to say thank you to Netgalley and St.Martin’s press for the E-ARC of this book.

On Halloween night in 1984 in Coventry, MA, everything changes for two families and the community. Secrets are being revealed leaving two families in ruins while four children dressed in vintage costumes and makeup join the children to trick-or-treat along Parmenter Road. The children beg people to keep them safe and to hide them until midnight from The Cunning Man who is trying to take the kids away.

All Hallows is creepy, spooky, fun and full of drama. Halloween is my favourite Holiday and I celebrate every day in October so when I read the description, I knew I had to read it. Let me just say, I was not disappointed, I loved this book! As a huge fan of all thing's horror, it checked all my boxes and reminded me of a 80s / early 90s horror flick. The multiple POVs between multiple characters was impressive and everything was amplified due to the excellent writing. Talk about drama/secrets, it was juicy! It was so hard having to put the book down, I found myself rushing tasks to get back to it; I even stayed up three hours later then usual to read the last 30%. It certainly delivers creepy vibes; it creeped the hell out of me. Everything was so descriptive that while I imagined everything I was freaked out.
How is this the only book I’ve read by this author?

Thank you to St. Martins and @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a review.

Pub Date: 1/24/2023 (Today!)

Halloween lovers rejoice, All Hallows is the creepy read you need right now. This novel is reminiscent of the Camp Redwood season of FX's ninth season of American Horror Story and Netflix's Stranger Things.

Set in 1984 on Hallows eve, the neighborhood of Coventry, Mass, this suburban street is about to turn deadly as its children become the hunted by The Cunning Man. These middle class families are filled with all sorts of drama, trick or treating kids and haunts that will reveal themselves close to midnight.

Overall its an entertaining, fast paced read. Too bad it wasn't released during October!

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the complimentary copy. Rating 3.5

A Halloween story (check)
A haunted forest (check)
Set in the 1980's (double check)
A few freaky kids petrified of The Cunning Man (check)
I'm ALL in!!!

Along with it being a horror story, there's a lot of family drama in it. Each family has their own problems and the kids just want to escape from them. What's better than a Halloween night to do that?

There's a bunch of characters to keep up with, but the story itself kept my intrigued. Who's The Cunning Man and why are these new kids so scared of him?

It's Halloween day a father/daughter team are setting up their annual haunted forest they they are well know for and anxiously waiting for the crowd they bring in. After the haunted forest people then go over to a neighbors for the annual party.

In the meantime, while some of the kids are trick or treating, a new kid joins the group. Nobody has ever seen him before and he's giving a few of them the creeps. Also during this time, a dramatic family scene takes place and makes one of their children run away from home and to his hiding place. While there, a petrified little girl shows up and starts talking to him for a while. He invites her home, but as somebody approaches the spot she leaves terrified! While cleaning the haunted forest another new unknow little kid pops in on them and while leaving the party after a drunk host speaks his mind, announces a secret to everybody, and bans a person from his property, another scared little kid pops in the picture.

From here it leads to who The Cunning Man, who these children are, where they came from, and why.
Even with the override of family drama and the horror scattered throughout, which does keep you on your toes, it's here where the real horror takes over and it's definitely horrific!

It's a perfect October read, but it worked for me in December since I'm not much of a soppy Christmassy HEA romance reader. Thank you St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read this through NetGalley for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 4
Pace: 3
Plot development: 3
Characters: 3
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of Reading: 4

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

I found it odd that a book centered around Halloween 1984 would be published in January but I went with it anyway. I have to say this was so good! I loved the multiple perspectives of members of this one neighborhood. Usually more than a couple of POVs can get confusing but because each of the characters were talked about or introduced in the chapter beforehand it was easy to follow. The plot takes place over what is essentially just a few hours. The pace starts of calm and the becomes frenzied as the book culminates with a bang. I think this would be great to read at any time but reading it in October would really add to the atmosphere. This was my first horror book by Christopher Golden but it definitely won’t be my last.

Having been in a bit of a slump the last few months I was really hoping that this book would give me spooky nostalgia to jump start my passion for reading again...sadly it did not. I made it 30% in before deciding to dnf. I wish we wouldn't have bounced around quite so fast between characters, only getting a chapter to attempt to get a feel for the person/town/interpersonal connections had me feeling like a ping pong bouncing back and forth an unable to feel any connections with the characters.

Planning on attempted a reread in a few months, as well as picking up a physical copy to annotate, and hopefully I'll have a better sense of the town, story, and really get into the nostalgic spooky vibes I was hoping for.

A New Halloween Classic

All Hallows is forever going to be a book I reach for on cold October nights when I want to be wrapped in the comfort of a scary story. What does it say about me that horror is my go to comfort read? Golden hits all of the right notes for a Halloween classic: a quiet suburban neighborhood on the edge of the woods, kids trick-or-treating without a care in the world, teens on the cusp of adulthood trying to figure life out, and adults that have no more figured out that than the teens do.

Set in the 80’s it hits you with just the perfect amount of nostalgia and if you’re a fan of Stranger Things, IT, Carrie, or My Best Friends Exorcism then you too will want to curl up in the pages of this book. There are some genuinely scary scenes, subject matter that may require a trigger warning check before reading and gruesome deaths… and yet to me this book felt like coming home, it felt like slipping into the pages of a well known and well loved book even though it was my first time reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my thoughts.

If you're someone who likes to plan out their TBR, add this one to your Halloween stack now! This story has all the 80s nostalgia and supernatural horror that fans of Stranger Things will love. There are a lot of characters to keep track of -- which was tricky at times, but also kept it interesting -- and multiple POVs that interjected some drama and helped build the tension leading up to the satisfying (and terrifying) ending. This was the first Christopher Golden book I've read and I'm looking forward to checking out more of his backlist.

Huge thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the arc.